Abundance

When is enough, enough?

When is too much, too much?

When is a little all you need to take your heart all the way home?

I asked a woman on the roadside in Kigali if I could take a picture of all this bounty.  She agreed, but only if I was willing to pay a small price.  I would have given it I suppose, but my friend Goreth intervened convincing the woman that she wouldn't lose a thing by letting me get the shot.  Some things in life it seems are meant to be free.

Where is abundance revealing herself to you these days?  Where is the too much, too little, never enough showing up in your camera lens?   Show us the shots that reveal what's full and what's empty in the viewfinder of your world.

A Thousand Words

Defiance.  Sadness.  The tiniest smile.  Hope. 

I have no idea what this girl was thinking when I snapped this picture, but I recognize the contours of my own soul in those oceans of eyes, in the way she sees into me with boldness and calm.  I have thought of her a hundred times since then, wondering what she wanted to tell me, wondering why the headmistress would not translate for her, when so many other girls were given their say.

Sometimes our pictures capture a moment, other times an emotion.  This picture captures the proverbial thousand words.  I am waiting for the day when that look can become an honest exchange between two human beings who share so many things.   I am waiting for the day when my own thousand words convey in her own language how much she stays with me, how much my heart is changed every day by the things she could not say.

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What photo this Friday focuses on the eyes, the window to some dear one's soul?  Let us see your shots and sit in the beauty of everything left unsaid.

The Happiness of Now

Hope is the mask of fear; trust is the face of courage, her friend had said.  Now she could see it was true. 

She decided to stop hoping for things to go well in the future and to begin trusting instead.  Wasn’t she herself the one who had said, Everything was unfolding exactly as it should?  You can rest now and wait?  Another friend had said it would be hard, but today she decided it would be easy.  Why not?  Who could hold her back from this knowing except for her own self?

She took a deep breath and tried to imagine now.  The now that was happening while she held in the breath and then let it go again.  The now that was holding her and keeping her in perfect love and care.  The now that she had first discovered in Africa, but that was here, too, right here in the kindness of her very own breath.  She would not have to go anywhere else to find it ever again.  It could not be contained in a person or a place or an experience or a moment.  It would remain right here, right now, in her very own soul, the place where she had been reborn, the place where she could rest and wait for the very next breath to take her into the happiness of now, her truest, kindest home.

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Sweet traveling mercies to you as you find your way to the happiness of now, the kindness of home.  This space this morning is for you to say whatever you'd like about what's hard, what's sweet, what's easy, what's deep about that amazing journey.  Your images from your soul travels are as always, most welcome. 

Perfect Recipe for Something New

As anyone with a long term love of photography knows, it's easy to find yourself taking the same kinds of pictures over and over again.   Glance over your last 1000 pictures and you might see what I mean.  Overrun in flowers?  Same style portraits?  Bricks and mortar?   While there's no harm in going on a kick now and then to master your craft, you'll know it's time for a change when your images start to look the same and you can no longer recognize the gem in that one picture that represents a departure from your tried and true subjects.  May I shyly submit the photo above as a case in point.

What subjects do you tend towards when you pick up the camera?   Ready to cook up something fresh and unexpected by widening your repertoire?  Comments are open for your confessions and links to the images where you strayed from the same ole, same ole with delicious results.

The Things We Hold

 She had just turned forty, her seventh baby tied to her back.  Her hands were worn from tilling fields in her husband's absence.  I saw weariness in her eyes, but also an unexpected kind of peace.  For every hardship, every year she felt overwhelmed or forgotten, the kindness of simple things remained--like the way a baby's foot feels in the deep hollow of your hand.

 What kind of goodness have you discovered lately in somebody's hands?  Or better yet, show us what you are holding in awe and wonder these days.   Leave us links to your hands or another's in the comments below.