I've been clearing out the archives here and I found some drafted posts that never got published for one reason or another. Here is an entry that was started on January 1, 2012. A lot has changed in the last year, but these thoughts still ring true.
When I read that quote, it really resonated in my heart. I've been thinking a lot about blogging, photographing and chronicling life lately. It takes a lot of time, but the truth is that it really feeds my soul.
I've always loved the image of Kirsten Dunst "clicking" an imaginary camera in the movie Elizabethtown. I do that often myself, internally processing and storing a moment in my memory. But real photos do so much more for me than just having a memory.
Shots of every day life are my favorite. (That must be why I love Instagram). Simple memories of life as it lived.
I was listening to a podcast between my friend Tsh and another blogger, Emily Freeman. Emily was talking about how she uses photographs to inspire her blog posts and her writing instead of the other way around.
Listening to her clarified what I unknowingly was also feeling. She put it this way-- using her camera she said, "forces me to see."
That's how I feel about blogging (and photography). It helps me to process, helps me to really see my life. Maybe in another era I would have had to find another medium for this, but now, in this digital era, blogging is what does it for me. When I see my own photos on the screen, see my own words in digital "print," I get a fresh perspective on my kids, my mothering, my marriage, my life.
I get to visually re-live the good times, and that sure helps when times aren't so good.
I've noticed that when I make a point to capture life with my camera I slow down. Life starts to move at a different pace because I'm watching what's around me. I begin to live more in the present instead of the what-needs-to-be-done-next reality that I so wish to avoid. With that in mind, I've decided to challenge myself to finding God and capturing Him through my lens.
Quote by Heather, of Life Made Lovely
Here's to 2014 being a year where I take out my big girl camera more and play around with the art of photography, in addition to snapping as many shots of life with my iPhone.
I'm sure there are other ways people do this... so I'd love to know, what gets you to really see?
{top quote from SouleMama}
{Kirsten Dunst image source}