SOTC 321/365

#IAmGrateful 20

Challenge

(c) Photos by Gina

Challenge is when I can't see the end of the road, the top of the mountain, or anything more than the next step in front of me--yet I know I must keep going.

Challenge is a call to perseverance and daring; awakening my inner strength, just when we were getting comfortable.

Challenge tests my my boundaries, my integrity, and my stick-with-it-ness.

It reminds me to trust the One who is really in control.

Challenge is air in my lungs, power in my stride, and fire in my eyes.

#IAmGrateful.

"You can't fall if you don't climb. But there's no joy

in living your whole life on the ground."

- Unknown

Create for 2012 AND 154/365

So, if spontaneity was my guiding word (not to ever be confused with my Guiding Word) for 2011, what have I chosen for 2012? Again, I didn't have to think hard, but it isn't a word I necessarily chose as intentionally as last year--this one more just sorta came to me.

Cre·ate (kr-t): (v) to cause to exist; to bring into being. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.

This one has somewhat of a broader scope to it. While I think it will definitely focus around my photography, I do not want to limit it to just that. I want to take advantage of opportunities to create in any activity.

• To create relationships--with people at work, with people in my community, short-term or long.
• God calls us to be in relationship with others. I have purposely paid attention to this calling for a few years now, and continue to seek growth in the way I connect and interact with others.
• To create my own -- my own space, my own food, my own comfort.
• I am moving swiftly through Year Two in my house. I filled rooms with my colours, the garden with my vegetables, and the whole house with my essence. I look forward to taking the best parts of last year and continue to create in my home.
• To create for the eye -- ah, the photography.
• I am very excited about finally purchasing a Macbook Pro. It should arrive in the mail sometime next week. In short turn, I will load Photoshop and Aperture onto its hard drive to work in conjunction with the great graphics hardware that the laptop will have on its own. After recently looking back on some older photographs, I was surprised to see just how much skill I really have gained since expanding my photography beyond just snapshots. Both in pure images, and in my ability to artistically and/or aesthetically enhance images. I can't even start to imagine the new things I will learn how to do with my images through new programs (and continued practice in the field, of course).

Because the word "create" implies something that currently does not exist, there may very well be other areas in which I create--for myself, or for others. As with every new year--every new day--2012 is an unknown. I feel like the words 'create' and 'discover' may end up going hand-in-hand.