I had the pleasure of taking Lexi's portraits at the Howard County Conservancy earlier in September. Lexi is part of the legendary girls lacrosse team at Mount Hebron and has already made her college decision! More lacrosse awaits!
I love shooting at the Conservancy for all its variety: gardens, barns, fields, forests, stone walls, and more!
Wishing Lexi a great rest of the lacrosse season, her senior year, and the start of new adventures!
I just wrote most of a blog post and erased it. So many thoughts swirl and I cannot give you a coherent story yet. So instead of the poignant, deeper thoughts, a more lighthearted signpost will have to do!
Some time ago, my friend Mark invited me to join him at the Vintage Market to write poems. Having not written a poem in years, I found this a peculiar request. Yet he insisted and I relented and off I finally went, on an overbooked weekend, to Blacksburg.
Nestled between old records and old leather shoes are two desks. One, solid wood, with a 'FREE POEM' sign on the front in orange duct tape. The second: particle board, joined by a kindergarten-sized blue chair. I have my 1953 Silent Super. Mark has his 1930s Royal. We are ready to type.
For five hours, people pass by, in search of a vintage sweater or jewelry or other knick-knacks. Some look at us and smile oddly. A few engage - "Typewriters! I remember those!" A few take us up on our offer. "Free poems? Really?"
"Yes," we say. "Choose a topic!"
And so for Amanda I wrote about Sunday Mornings. For Eleni, a poem about her big family; for Chloe, Halloween. Mark gave away rhymes about spaghetti, coffee and cats, Iceland.
Whether ridiculous verse about pizza or poignant stanzas about home, it was an absolute delight to catch a glimpse of these souls and bless them with a brief poem about something they enjoyed and, in most cases, deeply loved.
As we talked with these people we barely knew, and as some even teared up over poems about their dogs, I was struck by the goodness and simplicity of it all. A connection was made, a gift was given, and people's days were made that much better.
I want to write more poems.
So to you, dear reader, I say this: Create Goodness. Find a way to tell someone today that their life matters. Be a blessing. Be a part of someone's healing. Who knows what joy will come?
(check out the poetry at Word on the Street)
Growing up, my parents and my mentors and various authority figures in my community taught me that integrity mattered. Honesty mattered. Respect mattered. Empathy mattered.
I learned that there was a golden rule - to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. The Boy Scouts reminded us weekly that we were to do our duty to God and our country; to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
Today, we respect a man or woman who honors his or her word. Who keeps commitments. Who has the strength to acknowledge a mistake and then right the wrong. Who listens to others and shows genuine care and value for those around them.
Yet, as this election cycle drags on, I wonder about the place that character holds in our culture. In the game of party politics, the other side's sins are reason for impeachment and outcry, while one's own identical mistakes are explained away. Both of the leading candidates in this run for the Presidency have a history of unapologetic lying. Both of these candidates have a Foundation in their name supposedly set up for charitable giving and yet there are serious accusations against both organizations that they are more of a slush fund than anything else. Both (seem to) have a history of demeaning women: one clearly through degrading comments and gestures, the other in allegedly casting aside victims of her husband's advances for political gain.
We can explain such things away as politics and business-as-usual. We can forgive certain evils in certain situations because of the utilitarian value. Maybe it wasn't wrong, because it seems to have worked...
But what happens in a country that does not require integrity, honesty, and character in its leadership? In such a climate, is it remotely possible that there could be a political class not marred by scandal or shady deals or accusations of falsehood?
Two of the least-trusted candidates in recent (?) history are running to lead this country. To whom will they be accountable? To what standard will they be held? Will there be a reward for integrity and consequences for corruption?
What road will this nation take? What path will this culture follow?
Who will we be, and what will we value?
The book of Genesis says God created the heavens and the earth and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Then he created mankind and gave us authority and stewardship over the earth. He created us in His image, which I believe means in a very real and deep way that we too are born to create. We have a vast playground, broken though it may now be, in which to explore and discover.
On the days - or in the months - when I feel like i am not learning, growing, or creating, I tend to fall into lethargy. The days when I succumb to a belief that I cannot make anything, that I'm stuck, that I'm no good at what I do anyway, tend to be days spent in bed or various forms of comfortable chair. Indeed, early last year, after a series of disappointments and mistakes and setbacks, I found myself spending far too much time in such lethargy, waiting for life to happen to me.
I spent far too long in that wasteland. Eventually, frustration boiled over into action and I began to walk out of the wilderness. Experiments with photography. YouTube videos with friends. Lindy Hop lessons. Career changes.
There are yet setbacks; there are yet days where I believe the lie of uselessness and choose to lie in bed. Nevertheless, I find myself to be more fully myself as I live out that calling of God to create, discover, explore. And, somewhat paradoxically, self-focus fades away as I live the way I was created to live.
As Jeff Goins is fond of saying, "There are no big breaks, only tiny drips of effort that lead to waves of momentum."
These little steps of trying new things, of asking people to collaborate, of exploring new locations...all of it builds momentum in the journey out of the Waiting for Life to Happen Wilderness. Who knows what the future will hold?
So, friend: you are given a gift of creativity to steward and nurture. Make something today. Cook dinner. Take a photograph. Hike to a waterfall. Play with the blocks at the toy store. Draw on your napkin at happy hour. You have agency and authority to create. You can build something great, even if all you do today is lay down a single brick.
Create a work of goodness today. Make life happen.
