No Room For Timidity

There is so much to learn in life. But I am learning an important lesson lately. There is no room for timidity!

In photography, if you are timid you risk missing a great capture. I have always been afraid to shoot at different times and always regretted missing the shot and especially if I viewed another photographer that got it. Things like candids of people on streets or events, or an accident or house fire type of tragedies. I always wondered how anyone could shoot them during someone's most painful moments. Recently, I learned how.

It is actually something I am learning from God through his Word. Spiritually, he doesn't want you to be timid. He said to come BOLDLY to the throne! He wants us to be fearless and walk in faith. Not to cower, so that we can succeed. When we are bold, we see how we are trusting in Him because we know He has our back. He is our protector, deliverer, guide, comfort and teacher among many other things.

So from now on I strive to put my fears aside, trust that God has my back, and step out and try to accomplish whatever task He has set before me. Whether it be spiritually, or simply using the gifts he has given by taking photographs so that others can hopefully see His grace, power and love through a great capture.

Have a Blessed Easter

Flower God, God Of The Spring by Robert Louis Stevenson

FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
She still smiles on their innocence,
She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:
Thus one cunning in music
Wakes old chords in the memory:
Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal
Green - one more, and my bosom
Feels new life with an ecstasy.

Spring Forth

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Isaiah 61:10-11

Everything around us has been changing with spring edging it's way into our days. Slowly it is taking over the cold days and turning them into warmth and changing the dull winter into an array of colorful shapes and patterns. This year I have been noticing all of springs wonders unlike ever before. From the beginning buds to the current business of blooms, insects and birds appearing to feast on the bounty bursting before them. It leaves me in awe of all of God's creation!

There is something about photography that pushes me to explore the world HE created and see it in different ways than ever before. I would NEVER stand in two feet of weeds loaded with bumblebees, spiders, and snakes if it weren't for the passion I have in seeing and producing my own view through a lens of the world He has created. It has really allowed me to see things closer that I wouldn't normally notice and some things I would probably even be running from!

I don't know how it happened, but this year I went out to take a picture of a grouping of flowers that just appeared in one day. They are thorny, red and produce a hard pear shape of fruit but I didn't know what it was. It has been here since we moved here. But this year, after seven years of living here, something new sprang forth! One...just one grouping of white flowers right in the middle of the bush! I was told it was a flowering quince. I looked it up in the dictionary on my Mac. These come in either white or red. I can't explain why after seven years the one single branch with one grouping of white appeared, but it got my attention. It was beautiful surrounded by all of the red. For me it was as if God wanted me to stop and take notice. That just as these white flowers appeared in the center that I should remember that He is the center of my life. And just as these have sprung forth, so will I in spring forth with joy and praise for the One who created them!