Some thoughts...

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WARNING: This post is longer and deeper than normal... :)
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Recently I have been amazed upon amazed at the levels of excellence in people in their lives. I hope I never stop being amazed. When I've seen that excellence, I truly believe that these people are doing what they were created to do.

I saw a guy sitting at a computer, his fingers moving over the keyboard SO fast I could barely see them while the screen in front of him filled SO quickly with page upon page of html code. I had to stop and watch. I did not understand a SINGLE thing he was writing, but he knew what he was doing, and it was all in his head. He wasn't reading anything anywhere, he wasn't even looking at the keyboard. It was CRAZY!

A recent obsession with pomegranates led me to Winged Lion on etsy.

Can you believe someone had the creativity to dream this, and the talent to actually make it!? I can't even imagine that process!

My absolute favourite music is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Creator Paul O'Neill said, "I've always believe that music has the power to transport and transform. The original concept of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was how to make music have the most emotional impact. We always try to write melodies that are so infectious they don't need lyrics and lyrics so poetic that they don't need a melody, but when you combine the two together they create an alloy where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Once those songs are woven together into a tapestry they create a story which gives each song a third dimension." Everything he said is SO true.

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In a book I read a little while ago, Wild at Heart by John Eldredge, he talked about the scripture John 12:25: Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in the world will keep it to life eternal. (Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.)

I've always struggled a little bit to really understand that. It kind of made me think that I wasn't allowed to enjoy my life, and that only if I suffered all the time could I prove that I was living for God and not myself. I knew that it couldn't be true, but it still haunted me sometimes.

In Wild at Heart, one story, one sentence, one word changed my point of view completely. Self-preservation.

"Life is not a problem to be solved; it is an adventure to be lived. That's the nature of it and has been since the beginning when God set the dangerous stage for this high-stakes drama and called the whole wild enterprise good. He rigged the world in such a way that it only works when we embrace risk as the theme of our lives, which is to say, only when we live by faith." --pg 200

What I now understand is those that play it safe really miss out on living life to the full. If you "love" your life you will want to protect it, preserve it. You won't risk it in any way - not by sky-diving, not by public speaking, not by telling your friends that you believe in Jesus, not by writing a book, not by painting a picture. These things risk your life, your reputation, you might get embarrassed, rejected, people might not like you or what you do.

To "hate" your life to me means that you are willing to put it - not your biological life, but your soul, your heart, who you really are - on the line for what you want and what you believe in. You will risk being embarrassed and go audition for a play. You will climb mountains, build skyscrapers, and write poems, not because it is safe and easy, but because you know it's worth it to live and dream big.

And living by faith in God is a risk just like those. We risk losing our friends, and in some countries even our lives. But eternal LIFE is our gift.

I don't know if I'm making much, or any, sense, but this is just something I've been thinking about for a while and wanted to write down.

I found this video on youtube and I think it's the best picture of what I am now understanding. These people are insane. They clearly "hate" their lives, but I don't think anyone has tasted life the way that they have.

I think that I can compare this to the guy typing the html code, the people that designed and made that pendant, and Paul O'Neill. Just like those base-jumpers decided that simply jumping off a cliff was too boring, that guy wasn't simply typing in code. Winged Lion did not simply make any old pendant. Paul didn't simply write regular, "normal" songs.

I want to be able to say the same about my photography (and one day about my jewellery). I don't want to simply take photos. I don't want to play it safe, I don't want to just do what everyone else is doing because I know that it acceptable and "right". I want to risk. And yes, I will, and HAVE, made terrible mistakes. I get embarrassed about some of my work and wish I would have done it differently. But I learned so much more from those mistakes then I would have if I had just done what was "normal". And next time I try I will get a little bit better.

I know this is a long-winded post, but if you've read it... thanks :) And since no post is complete without a photo of mine, here is one from Scarborough where I had my last wedding of 2010.

The year is almost over, so don't forget to visit my facebook page and enter your names in to win a portrait session with me. I am giving away one every month!

:)