Running toward or away?

Quote of the day: “The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.” – Bono

Twlight sky

Last night I caught a glimmer of pink in the sky out of the corner of my eye while I was preparing supper.  I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my camera and headed out on the deck to capture the amazing color that remained after sunset.  The “Twilight Sky” photo above is one of the photos I took.  More important than the photos I took was the few minutes I took to pause and soak in the ordinary beauty at the end of an ordinary day.  My love of photography comes from the joy I get noticing the beauty that surrounds us all the time but rarely notice.

November is my least favorite month of the year.  After the leaves have fallen, the world always looks a little forlorn to me. Gray days before the long cold winter.  As I look out my window I see the last leaves of a tree across the street falling like rain.  I feel sad contemplating the coming winter.

I found an old building in Minneapolis a couple of days ago that looked like it had seen better days.  Still, I found it beautiful in a wistful sort of way.  The photo below is one of the photos I took of that building.

Abandoned Building in Minneapolis

It has been a challenging fall for me, with a lot of physical stuff making the doing of photography difficult for me.  Tuesday, I hung my second coffee shop exhibt at Dunn Bros Coffee at 66th and York in Edina.  I find myself being very critical of my work and wishing I had better work to exhibit.  It reminded me of a great quote a friend shared with me recently that rings very true for me right now (at least I hope it’s true).  Here it is:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. Bet there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You just gotta fight your way through.”   — Ira Glass

So, as I sit here wondering what I am running toward or away from, I think maybe I’m not running anywhere.  I’m walking through the years of knowing that my work doesn’t have the “special thing” that I want it to have, pausing and soaking in moments of grace I experience just noticing the beauty of this world.

Here are photos of my exhibit at Dunn Bros:

Risk to Bloom Canvas Wrap

Gooseberry Falls Photos

Wide View of Small Photos

Butterflies and Bee

Rain-splashed Peony Canvas Wrap

Light and color

Contemplative Photos

Zen