Looking out my office window this morning was a bit depressing. The skies were gray and everything was covered with moisture from rain that fell overnight. After several days of sunshine I was sorry to see that our predicted 50 degree plus day was cloudy and gray.

But then I noticed my camera on my work table with my 100-400 mm lens and 1.4 extender attached. I began playing around with photographing what I saw outside my window. And before long I was deeply engaged with photographing the birds visiting my bird feeders.

The Power of Proximity

I keep my watercolor paint, paper, and brushes out on the table to remind me to take the time to paint regularly. But I’d never thought about the fact that simply having my camera with long lens attached and ready to use would also motivate me to create.

The task now is to slow down enough and be present enough to enter each moment that calls. For each enlivened instant—the sudden light on a crow’s beak as it pecks the ground, or the shadow that covers the sad girl’s face as she stares into her half-eaten sandwich—each is a thread in the fabric of the Universe, each imbued and teeming with Spirit and wisdom. The task now is to be humble enough and attentive enough to pull the threads. When I do, without fail the threads unravel the cocoon of my own making that shrouds me from the Mystery that is always present.

   — Mark Nepo, Drinking from the River of Light

I’ve spent the entire morning watching the birds, photographing them and working on the photos. This was not in my plans for the day, but it was such a joy surrendering to my desire to simply watch and photograph the birds.

Power of proximity – camera at the ready on my work table

Creating a Vessel to Carry Us to Joy

I hear from many of my artist friends that they just cannot seem to work on the things they want to work on. And I wonder whether it would be helpful to use the power of proximity to nudge you towards activities that you know bring you joy? What are the tools that you use? Can you find a space where you will regularly see them?

Think about a time when you were regularly writing/painting/photographing/making art. What got you started? And what stops you in your tracks and keeps you from creating? I know that I keep saying this my friends, but our lives are finite. And time is precious. We don’t get to know how many days we have left to walk on this earth. So why not find ways to choose joy every day?

And just as moving through water keeps fish alive, moving through life brings our indwelling presence into the world. Moving through life allows meaning to accumulate through relationship. As some fish swim with no destination, we arrive with a yearning that has no destination, a search that keeps us alive, despite the thousand places we think we need to go.

But we are not fish. And as no one can survive the ocean without a vessel to carry them, even the sea of Spirit will drown us if we don’t create vessels to carry us. A fundamental purpose of creativity is to engage us in the creation of vessels that will carry us in the sea of Spirit, in which we need to immerse ourselves to make life meaningful.

— Mark Nepo, Drinking From the River of Light

When I look at the texture and detail of the tiny feathers of the birds I photographed this morning, my heart lifts with exaltation. What an amazing thing life is!