Reflection

Week 32

Reflection
August 8, 2011

Funny thing about a reflection. It is what it is. Your reflection is a representation of what you are. Assuming the reflective surface is smooth and highly... well, reflective...  (such as a mirror or undisturbed water as shown above), what you see is what you get. We can't really control our reflection in such an environment. In order to change it, we have to distort that means for reflecting by disturbing, covering, or otherwise altering the surface or the light coming to it.

I think we do this in our lives. We spend considerable time and energy trying to manipulate the image that is cast out about ourselves. While there certainly can be value in choosing your proximity to reflectors (people, places or activities), it seems energy would be best used changing our form... who we are... so that reflection follows. Perhaps a subtle change, but one that can make a significant difference in how we go about our lives.



Image taken with Canon 5DMII, 70-200 2.8L lens, 1/400sec @f2.8, ISO 200

Celebration

Week 31

Celebration

August 5, 2011

Over the last year I've witnessed and photographed quite a few celebrations. Beautiful weddings (like the one this last week where the image above was created), touching anniversaries, landmark birthdays... even a circus-like tribute to commercial success.

I've heard it said that the primary reason for people coming together for celebration is a social one. Pick an occasion and use it as a reason to party. Others would say that remembering an important event together or marking an achievement is worthy of collective public acknowledgement that these are and were good things, and is more socially conscious than social.  While these motivations differ widely, I'd say a mixture of both is closer to true, and sometimes for the same people. I believe we are built with an attraction to joy, both to the joy inside of us and that which is seen in and expressed by others. Celebrations are one big joy-engine, with the fuel of earnest participation stoking the fires, and that is compelling to us.

Celebration can happen with the birth of a new life or in honoring one that has ended. Reasons for celebration are as varied as our life experiences, and I would urge you: don't let them pass. Celebrate people. Celebrate their landmarks and successes, share in their joy, and share your own joy when others are willing to celebrate with you. Celebrate because the occasion or achievement is worth it, and celebrate because it's just plain fun. Celebrate safely... but with abandon and as often as you can.


Image taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-70 2.8L lens,  1/2000 sec @f2.8, ISO 800

Relax

Week 30

Relax.

July 24 - July 30

There is a highly undervalued and grossly underutilized principle out there. I'd be first in the confessional line to air my transgressions in this area, and my commentary is not from perfection of the principle in my own life. Rather, by my own acknowlegement and to my detriment, I have failed to incorporate REST properly into my life. Not free time. Not vacation. Not time off work necessarily, these things are great... but they are not the same as rest.

Someone I respect recently spoke about the idea of rest. His angle was a spiritual one, one of sabbath, and much of what he said resonated with me. He spoke in far reaching terms, where the concept of rest applies to the entire natural world (and I would say even by extention to our man-made world as well). Examples of the need for rest are all around us and have always been. Soil needs rest from producing in order to replenish is nutrients and better enrich the future crops to be planted there. Bodies of water need rest from our lures and nets in order to replenish it's life-sustaining fish populations. Even the mechanical things we've made need rest from our use of them to recharge, cool down and be maintained. Indeed, we need sleep for our bodies to repair and restore themselves and be ready for the next day's challenges. And yet while we need rest in the form of sleep, I believe it reaches much further that that.  To me rest involves letting go for a time. Letting go of the responsibilities we have taken on, maybe for a week or more, maybe even for an hour or two. Simply being in one's own presence and the presence of one's creator. Recharging. Input not Output. Many people take "vacations" where they jam in as much entertainment, fun and sometimes neglected personal affairs before returning to work as or more exhausted than when they started their holiday. Nothing against taking these times, they can have value and are necessary in and of themselves, but they aren't rest. To me, rest is being in a place, not doing, but just being.

True rest is pretty rare. Some have found a balance in their lives where rest is a regular if not habitual part of their day or week. I applaud that achievement, and wish it on everyone. For most of us, though, I think we need to work at it. To remember that the world will go on if we take a few moments to ourselves... it might even be better off. We certainly will be. And we'll be better equipped, rejuvinated and ready to serve in whatever capacity we've found ourselves serving.

So take some time this week to rest. Turn off the TV, put down the iPhone and shut down the laptop. Walk out to your local park, hill, or rooftop and sit. Sit and enjoy the sun coming down on you and the sounds of life going on around you. Schedule time to travel to a peaceful place and be transported for a few days. Maybe it's on the other side of the world, maybe it's the other side of town. Somewhere like the river house pictured above where pretty much everything moves at a slower pace. Enable your loved ones to rest. Practice sabbath. Take a real vacation and see what it does for you. I think you and the people around you will be thankful.


Image taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-70 2.8L lens, 15 sec @f22, ISO 100

Sacrifice

Week 29

Sacrifice

July 17 - 23

The idea of sacrifice seems to many a vague idea, a noble, even romantic notion read in a book or seen in a movie. An often misunderstood concept, sacrificing to many here in the U.S. means no Starbucks so they can give $20 a week to a charity. Please don't misunderstand me, I believe that type of offering to be a positive endeavor, and perhaps the only introduction of sacrifice to someone, by circumstance or fortune, otherwise sheltered from a direct personal experience of such. This is not to say there are those in this country that don't know real strife. In light of the last few years' recession, there are people that are fighting to feed or give shelter to their children or themselves, burdened with oppressive debt, and struggling with countless other things as a result, (directly or indirectly) of these economic times. But struggle or strife and sacrifice are different things. Sacrifice is a choice. A difficult, and sometimes painful one, but a choice nonetheless.

The dictionary defines the verb to sacrifice; "to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else." The willing foregoing of something necessary or important for the sole benefit of others. Freedom. Time. Life or limb. Acknowledgement, praise, comfort, health... all can be sacrificed for the benefit of others, and most of us do not know true sacrifice.

No doubt most everyone in this country knows a soldier, or a soldier's family. I believe whether you agree with the current conflicts or not is irrelevant. It's difficult not to acknowledge the sacrifices that these people are making. Traveling on business recently in Washington DC, I met two women that were both in town for their mutual friend's funeral, being held at Arlington cemetery. One a soldier as well, the other a close friend, both had known the man being honored for years. They had seen him injured in combat, and despite the opportunity to retire knowing he had sacrificed more than enough already, signed up to return and continue to serve. I was touched by the story these women told of their friend they had just buried, and impressed by their choice to celebrate his life and honor his decisions rather than despair or question his sacrificial choices.

On a daily basis, soldiers are killed under the U.S flag believing they are doing it for the sake of freedom, be it current or future, and I conclude that this, while not the only example, truly is a sacrifice. In this season between national celebrations and a holiday season where our soldiers are more readily remembered, I offer up a thanks to their collective and individual sacrifices.


image taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-105 4L lens, 1/3200 sec @f11, ISO 400

New

Week 28

New

July 10 - 16

It's difficult to describe the tangible connection you feel when in the room with a parent and their new child. I don't have children of my own, but having many close friends and now a brother that have been blessed with children, it's fascinating to watch. The range of thoughts and feelings is broad, and indeed intense, even as a spectator. There is something about an infant child that sweeps away all of the superfluous noise that we deal with on a day to day basis. Jobs and careers, finances and minor health issues, pesky neighbors and countless other concerns and inconveniences seem to become very small when compared to the little life that is completely and utterly dependent on you.

Perhaps it's good to think about the fact that every action, every word, and every attitude a parent takes has a tremendous impact, short and long term, on their child. I'd like to think that as people, it would adjust our attitudes towards how we treat others, the respect we have for ourselves, and drive thoughtful awareness of our day to day choices and the environments we choose to place ourselves in and expose ourselves to.

Perhaps that's one of the many purposes of how us as people were created to multiply. Bound up in the inherent need for relationship, search for meaning and purpose, and instinct to protect and care for what we view as our own, a new baby seems to streamline our lives... not in the volume of things to do, certainly, but rather in the shuffling and very clear re-organization of our priorities.


Image taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-70 2.8L lens, 1/160 sec @f2.8, ISO 400

Signals

Week 27

Signals

July 8, 2011

You and me, we look for signals to tell us what to do. We were taught that growing up. From crossing guards and then traffic lights telling us to go or stop, to toasters and coffee makers signaling our pop tarts and wake-up juice are ready, we have all kinds of systems in place to tell us what decision to make and when. We look for these in the larger context of living our life as well, and although there may be no blinking notification or alarm that it is ok or not ok to take that new job, continue in that challenging relationship, or make some other life-impacting decision, we nonetheless use and want a signal to make it "ok".

So what happens when we get mixed signals? What if the indications say go AND stop? well, I suppose in this case we use common sense. If you ran across the situation above at a stoplight, you would stop, use caution, and if clear, then go. Simple, right? Well, I think we have to do the same in bigger decisions. When we are getting mixed signals, we can't be afraid of what might happen. We can only make the best decision with the information we have, and trust in that decision. Anxiety doesn't help, and we can't know what we don't know. If we go through life stalling because we don't want to make a decision until we are sure about the results, we miss out on a lot of living.

Consequences? Sure. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But repercussions will be what they are, not because you didn't try to make the best decision with what you were given, but because despite our best efforts, we're just not in control. :).



Image above taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-70 2.8L lens, 6 sec. @f11, ISO 100

Out of Focus

Week 26

Out of Focus

June 26, 2011

If you look at it for more than a glance, your eyes want to continually scan the image trying to bring it into focus. No matter how much you stare at this.. I promise it won't be sharp. It's not supposed to be. :)

Our minds seem to be built to want to make sense of things. To put things into categories that fit the perspectives we hold, knowledge we have and context we live in. I believe that sometimes things just don't make sense, and maybe they're not supposed to. Or perhaps they do make some sort of cosmic sense that we're not privy too. That sounds more likely to me....

See, while I believe we are built to discern and seek out the answers to things, I also believe we are built to not understand some things. Not that we should cease to try, but rather that just as much as clarity and truth should always be a part of our lives, so should mystery. It's harder to accept sometimes but I think it's an important and very real part of our existence. If we embrace this just as we do understanding... if we allow for the unknown, I believe it leads to more peace in our hearts, and a more forgiving and gracious existence among those that are outside of the perspectives and context we use to categorize our lives.