There is a great deal that I do not understand. It is for this reason that I write here.
When people come to me with their pain, sometimes pain that goes beyond my imagining, there is nothing I can say to relieve it. I want to - but such words do not exist...
Psychotherapy falls short when someone is sobbing over the death of someone they love.
It makes little sense to try to teach someone to change their thoughts when their house has burned down and suddenly they have only the clothes on their back.
What can I offer someone who tells me that their father molested them or their mother abandoned them or their best friend had an affair with their spouse?
{If you think that I am writing about you, you are both right and wrong, for I have heard each of these things and more, from more than one person...}
I do not understand how or why these things happen. I wish I could give you the explanation that would make it all make sense and assure you that you will never be hurt again. But I cannot.
But I will invite you on a journey with me, a journey of words and images.
Let us see if together we can find hope...
Let us begin by looking more closely at the ordinary, at those simple things right in front of us.
Sometimes we may have to look very closely to see what is there.
What we see may only hint at possibility - a seed, something that may or may not become more.
It may be hard to trust.
(Does it look to you like she is looking at the grass and at the person holding the camera? It does to me.)
Sometimes there will be tears - we see the beauty but pain overrides; it just hurts too much.
We may feel alone at times, like we are standing on a slippery slope that has no bottom.
But neither you nor I are not alone. We are each unique and yet not. There are others like us.
We are meant to travel together, sometimes leading, sometimes following.
If we keep swimming, there is light up ahead.
(If you do not see it, follow me. Someone let me follow them a long time ago.)
There is One who has brought me healing (over and over) and who teaches me to offer healing as well. Let me show you one of His many, many faces. If you do not know Him or feel comfortable with that sort of belief, do not stress yourself over it. Just gaze at the beauty - see what I saw one day not long ago. The light was truly that bright and the shadow that dark (only a tiny edit of the photo was needed to make the poster below). I was standing across the street and something made me look...
"We love because He first loved us." (1 John: 4:19)
I have been blessed in this way - and so I love. I write and show you these images that you too may be so blessed. It may not happen all at once - in fact, it probably won't. But come - let us journey together - for we are not meant to journey alone...
(Click below to see the full web album of my spring photos, including these. I decided to narrow it down to my 50 favorites - a hard task! If you would like to watch them as a slide show, click on the button in the upper left; hit the escape button on your keyboard to stop the slide show. As always, you may download any photos for your own personal/nonprofit use.)
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| Spring, 2012 |
