July 2007

Day four of our photo journey begins …

Leaving the house with no particular destination in mind, I am not surprised to find myself in the country, wandering near the fields, and then into the woods, to special hideaways that bring me comfort.

There is something about barbed wire that fascinates me. I think it is the thought that I can wrap my heart in barbed wire to keep me safe.

Just a few steps beyond there though, I begin to understand that even with the barbed wire fence, life continues to grow right over the top of it, and actually flourish.

And, if I choose to step out into the sunshine, I find nature handing me a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers.

If you have been following our quest to take at least one picture a day for 30 days, you already know that today is day three of our photo journey. However, what you might not know is that today a special twist was added to the challenge.

For one day, I wasn’t to take pictures of Haley. Instead I needed to take pictures of what she told me to. The mission was to make a beautiful picture. Her job was to tell me what she thinks might make a beautiful picture My job was to make the beautiful picture. Haley was to be “in charge” for the day.

Just in case there was someone who wasn’t sure, Haley felt that we definitely needed a picture to make things very clear. Yes, that is her thumb in the picture but we were too chicken to ask someone to hold the notebook for us, and the wind kept blowing the pages!

We were barely out of the house when Haley knew exactly what picture she wanted. She wanted me to take a picture of the castle! You want a picture of what? The castle mom. Ummm… Can you show me where this castle is? Yup! Okay Haley, you’re in charge, but please tell me that I don’t have to trespass to take the picture!

In the tiny town of Coffeeville (population 947) there has to be at least 50 of these signs, but Haley had to have a pictures of this particular one because of the flowers nearby. Of course this required slamming on the brakes in front of a full cement truck while trying to find a place to pull over, but we got the picture. 🙂

It took us all of about 15 seconds to discover that Haley’s idea of beauty and mine were several worlds apart, but I don’t think we have ever had quite as much fun as we did today, especially when I tried to explain that there was no way in heck that I was going to take a picture of the totally hot guy in wranglers that was working in his yard, no matter who was in charge.

Shhhhh…. Don’t tell anyone that Haley was the model for this picture! We have no idea why we like this picture so much, except maybe there is just something comforting about a girl hanging out in the bleachers in her scuffed up boots and favorite old jeans.

Last on her list of pictures that she wanted to get was an old tractor in the middle of a field. You have no idea how long we looked for this particular scene or how many mosquito bites I ended up with getting this shot.

At one point it was very tempting to find a new tractor and age it later in an image editor. There was something gratifying about sticking it out until we found what she was looking for though.

As we headed home, Gary Allen started singing Life Aint Always Beautiful on the radio. Listening to the words telling us that struggles make you stronger, and the changes make you wise, life aint always beautiful but it’s a beautiful ride, we couldn’t help but smile.

Spending a day looking at beauty through the eyes of someone else, I learned some stuff that I wasn’t expecting. By not being able to take pictures of Haley, I realized that I was still struggling to find beauty in the world around me. I realized that all of the pictures I had taken this week were of Haley, with the world blurred out in the background.

And, just maybe Haley was sometimes having as hard of a time explaining exactly what she wanted as I was having understanding.

We figured this out when she was trying to explain the angle she wanted me to use for a picture of a stalk of corn. Sorry folks, this one was a lost cause no matter how hard we tried to make it beautiful!

Sometimes maybe you have to lean on each other and work together as a team. Working together towards a common goal, we found a special bond, and laughed more than we have in ages.

Remind me to tell you the story sometime about getting caught sneaking into the country club to get a picture of the 10th hole that Haley wanted!

Thanks For Being A Part Of Our Lives!

We weren’t positive the weather was going to cooperate with us, but we woke up on a mission to keep our promise.

We were off in search of a place to take at least one picture.

Although we had a brief moment of hesitation when we noticed that someone had been using this sign for target practice, this seemed as good a place as any to start day two of our journey through 30 days of at least one picture a day.

Okay, so it isn’t exactly ocean front property but we had found our perfect little hideaway, and at least there’s some water, right?

Haley seems to be rethinking this whole photo journal idea. Or maybe she isn’t confident yet about the location we selected. We remind each other that we already have two pictures and we only promised one.

Haley decides that maybe she needs just one more minute to think this whole thing through.

Well as long as we are already here maybe we should go ahead and have a look around and maybe even take a few more pictures.

We have some important writing in the sand we need to do though.

We have to show everyone that is it day two of our journey.

I waited all day for that magic moment when Haley would give into the temptation to play in the water and start having some fun. More than anything I wanted to see her smile, but above all, I wanted to hear her laughter. I wasn’t disappointed.

A quick peek at the stormy sky tells us it is time to call an end to day two of our photo expedition! We had a blast and created a new memory. What more could we ask for?

Thanks for sharing our day with us!

Perhaps sometimes it is not enough to just wait for time to pass in order to begin to heal the pain in our lives.

Maybe sometimes we have to kick, scratch and fight our way back out of the depths of depression. And maybe, we just have to decide that we have had enough and start living life again.

For me, it was a combination of things, but everything started with a simple promise to renew my passion for photography by finding a way to take one photo a day.

Funny how going back to doing the things we love can help us start to feel normal again, isn’t it?

What a difference one day can make in our lives.

I feel like I have been away, or maybe even asleep, for a very long time and suddenly there is a brand new world out there just waiting for me to explore it.

Listening to some folks chat tonight I realized that never again will I be satisfied with just floating down the peaceful stream of life.

I want to find the rapids.

A quotation by Peter Sage really says it all for me. “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow – what a Ride!”