I decided to use my long telephoto lens today—a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens. I actually never made it past my front porch before I saw these adorable birds looking for food around our neighbor’s bush. The bird in this picture really seemed to want his portrait taken. I guess he heard about my project.
I obliged him.
have always enjoyed going out on photo expeditions looking for odd things. At various times I have headed out with my camera looking for pictures of common things taken so closeup that it is hard to identify them, pictures of contrasting light and dark, pictures of complementary or contrasting colors, candid pictures of people touching, crying, and showing various emotions, and pictures of unique architectural elements. That kind of focus on a specific topic of interest always seems to unleash my creativity.
But today I came across a concept I had not heard of before—Project 365. This project is a commitment to take at least one picture every day for a full year. There’s even a web site dedicated to this project [365Project.org]. I liked the idea, but I’m calling mine 365+ because I know I won’t be able to limit myself to just one picture per day.
It ought to be fun.
So today, during my lunch break, I headed out into my yard to get the first of 365 straight days of photography. I wanted to up the ante, so to speak, so I also limited myself to using my Canon EF 80mm f/1.8 fixed focal-length lens. It’s a great lens, but the lack of a zoom makes me carefully consider the shot, rather than just twisting the zoom dial until the picture is cropped properly in the camera. I hope you enjoy these. I enjoyed taking them.
Count your blessings!
Here’s just one for today—Christian musicians who glorify God by being the best at what they do. Phil Keaggy:
od provided an incredibly gorgeous weekend for us. Saturday felt like a spring day, and Sunday continued the theme. And I continued my efforts to improve my health.
So Saturday morning I pulled out my bicycle and rode to the hospital to weigh in on their über accurate scale. The bike ride was great, although riding a bike shows me what seriously bad shape I’m in. The ride to the hospital is a very short one, but there are a few hills along the way—so I was huffing and puffing by the time I got there.
I went up to the floor where the scale is located and weighed in. Praise God! I have lost another 8.5 pounds since my last weigh-in. So I happily rode my bike back home and told my wife, “I've lost 8 pounds in one week!” She said, “No, you haven’t, you’ve lost eight pounds in four days. The last time you checked your weight was not last Saturday, but last Tuesday.”
She was right!
So... since February 20, when I decided to get serious about my exercise and diet, I have lost 28.5 pounds. And now I have set up some goals for the rest of the year. My goals are pretty high and will require serious focus and commitment to reach—but I plan on meeting them.
Saturday afternoon, my son and I went for a walk around the neighborhood—a color purple walk. (I took my camera along with me to capture the evidence of God’s love for us in the beauty he has surrounded us with.) After having pushed myself so much on the bike ride that morning, the walk was a bit more difficult than normal. But it was enjoyable and my son and I had a good time together.
If I meet my goals, I will weigh less this coming August than I have at any point in my life since college. If I continue to meet my goals for the rest of the year, I will make my high school weight by Christmas.
Did I say, “if”? If that implied that I will be trying, but will hang onto an excuse just in case. That inference was not intended.
As the ever-wise Yoda said, “Try? Try not! Only do... or do not. There is no ‘try!’”
These are the remaining four photos from yesterday’s Color Purple walk. Today’s walk will be in the area around my office. I did not bring my camera with me to work today, so there will not be any photos from today’s exercise and color purple expedition. But still I will be looking.
In an effort to keep working toward being a better person, I have decided to focus my daily exercise walks on finding the color purple. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while most likely know how I’m using the term the color purple. I am using it in the sense that it was used in the movie by that name. Essentially, it means noticing the wonderful blessings God has placed all around us instead of walking ignorantly past.
Here they are—photos from my first Color Purple Walk. I took all of these photos while walking a single loop around my neighborhood. I will post the remaining photos from today’s walk tomorrow. It’s not difficult to find the color purple in our neighborhood—living here is a bit of a color purple moment in itself.
The remainder of the day’s Color Purple pictures will be posted tomorrow.
’m not quite sure how it happened, but I suddenly realized this year that I am old. Or, perhaps, I’m about to become old.
It’s now March. Back in January I began grappling with a thought that I have not been able to put into words. Not because this thought is so difficult to express. Not because it’s a particularly profound thought. But simply because I hated hearing it. I hated admitting it. I hated realizing that half a century has passed me by and I have done far too little flower smelling.
Well... it’s far past time to wake up and smell the coffee. (I may be old, but I can still stick a coffee metaphor in just about anything I write!)
This year I will turn 50 years old. By the age of 30, Jesus had turned the world upside down. Well, perhaps comparing myself to Jesus isn’t wise in this current context. But Justin Beiber is around 12 years old and he has more fans and more enemies than I can imagine.
So... it’s time to buckle down. It’s time to stop hoping for what may happen in the future. As a long-forgotten Redskins coach used to say, “The future is now!”
I am beginning a new thing this year. I’m getting more exercise, eating better, focusing more consistently on tasks at hand, loving more friends, rejecting false friends, calling my parents more, paying attention to my family more, stopping to notice the color purple more, regretting my shortcomings less. And I’m laughing more, crying more, and speaking up when it is needed more. And I’m holding my tongue more when that is needed.
Not a New Year’s resolution. A return to basics. A tune-up. A swift kick in the pants. A poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Whatever it takes.
As a practitioner of the communicative arts, I love a good turn of a phrase. I love the rare and precious expression that gives a simple clarity to a deep concept and helps people understand.
I have often mentioned an example of such clear communication from the movie “The Color Purple.” Although not one of my favorite movies, the scene from which the movie derived its name is a powerful scene. Two young ladies are walking through an open field filled with tall grass. As they walk and talk one of the girls stops to look at a purple wildflower. The other girl urges her on, but she lingers at the flower. Finally she says (in somewhat cruder language than I will post here), “I think God gets mad when we don’t notice the color purple.”
In the context of the movie, this young lady was making a profound statement. God loves us and has showered us with blessings—but it is up to us to notice, appreciate, and praise God for those blessings.
Yesterday my wife called me—very excited—to tell me that God had stretched our available budget for food beyond all imagination. Our finances were quite tight and we were concerned about putting food on the table. We knew we wouldn’t go hungry, but we thought we might be eating beans and rice for all three meals every day for the next few weeks. But my wife had made a list of all the things we needed for the next two weeks’ worth of dinner recipes and headed to the store to see how much of this we could manage. Unfortunately, she needed to buy some cleaning supplies as well, which further cut into the available food funds.
As my wife excitedly told me about her visit to the grocery store, in which seemingly each item on her list was on sale, she became very emotional as she explained that she had picked up a box of very inexpensive breakfast sandwiches. She sends these to work with me in the morning so I don’t have to spend time preparing breakfast before heading out to the commuter lot. She had removed any “luxury” items from the food list in an effort to keep the costs under control—so there were no desserts on the list. But she was hoping to get these sandwiches for me and had decided that she would put them back only if the total cost for absolute necessities exceeded the money she had.
As she picked up the box of sandwiches a coupon fell from the box to the floor. This coupon was for our son’s favorite breakfast food—cinnamon rolls. This was definitely a luxury item that had not been on the list. But the coupon was for those cinnamon rolls if you purchased the breakfast sandwiches. My wife immediately saw the color purple. This was a gift from God. This was a blessing we don’t deserve, and could not afford. But God gave it to us anyway.
As my wife mentioned this color-purple experience, I was reminded that I, too, need to look for the color purple and thank God for his continual blessings.
When we moved to Front Royal just over one year ago, we knew no one from this area. I had no idea if I would be able to get involved in music in the community or in our new church. And music is my cinnamon roll—it is the dessert to my life. I love music.
For half a year, no musical opportunities presented themselves. My guitars rested forlornly in the corner of my library. My bass guitar amp became a credenza to my desk. Eight months after we moved to Front Royal I began commuting to work by bus. After another month or so I was riding home on the bus one evening and the bus manager sitting in front of me was looking through some pictures. I could see over his shoulder that each photo was of a guitar. And they were very nice guitars. I asked who owned them and the bus driver said, “they’re mine.” As we began to talk about the guitars I found out that the bus driver (Jeff Blakely) is the leader of a Christian rock band (Remembrance) in Front Royal. I told him that I had played bass guitar in a few worship teams but was not playing at the time. (Warning: Huge color purple moment coming!) Jeff said, “my band just lost its bass player, would you be interested in playing with us?”
Wow!!!!
It is now half a year later. Many things have happened during those intervening months. Jeff no longer drives that bus. I no longer commute on that bus. Jeff’s daughter, Tiffany, decided to play bass for the band just after Jeff mentioned the position to me. But then Tiffany headed off to Lynchburg, Virginia, to attend Liberty University. A whirlwind of events that seem, in my mind, to all point back to that short window of opportunity—the few months during which Jeff was driving and I was riding ... and the fortuitous conversation around the pictures of Jeff’s guitar collection.
God crossed my path with Jeff’s And now I am playing in a wonderful Christian band. We’re doing a benefit concert on Saturday, December 11, to raise money for a local little league team. We have played in Jeff’s church multiple times. And along the way, my family has gotten to know Jeff’s family. And we really enjoy this friendship. They’re a delightful family and they mesh well with ours.
Thank you, God. Sometimes the color purple can be overwhelming.
any poets, philosophers, and regular folks have tried to point out the importance of being alert and enjoying the little pleasures in life. One of my favorite examples of this is the line from “The Color Purple” from which the movie gets its name. Two girls are walking through a field. The tall grass is brushing against their legs as they navigate through the weeds. Then one girl stops to look at a small purple wildflower. She says something like, “I think God gets really mad when we don’t notice the color purple.”
When we moved to Lynchburg, we began to take in some of the local flavor and quickly came to appreciate the small city. We found seemingly hidden gems tucked here and there throughout the city of Lynchburg. The gems came to characterize the city in our minds. Places such as the White Hart cafe that I’ve spoken of here on this blog, and places such as Daddy Bim’s Pit Barbeque formed my image of the city.
We now live in Front Royal and are beginning to find the same hidden treasures. Not really hidden; but hidden if you pay attention to the big city (Washington, DC) and don’t stop to notice the little splotches of the color purple scattered all around—little pockets of excellence that may frankly be found anywhere, if only we take the time to look.
I was reminded of this just today when I found a video of one of my favorite musical groups. This group isn’t well-known. And they aren’t rich and famous. But they are one of the best vocal ensembles I have ever heard.
But you won’t find them if you’re not looking.
If you happen to be in the right place (Disneyworld’s MGM Studios in Orlando Florida) at the right time (just prior to the presentation of Beauty and the Beast Live), you may notice a stage hand walking across the stage checking microphones. He looks the part—kind of geeky, looking a bit socially inept, and probably making a modest, if not poor, income for his age. If you pay attention to this geeky stage hand he will introduce you to his three friends—all dressed in MGM Studios staff uniforms. And then you will be in for the impromptu concert of your life.
You’ve just found the color purple in a quiet corner lot in one of the most bustling and talent-filled places you could ever visit. And you’re about to hear musical magic. Here’s Return 2 Zero:
Check out the great analysis of the words of this song at Lydia’s Extra Thoughts.
any years ago I watched the movie “The Color Purple.” I remember it as a good movie with a good message. But the most vivid memory I have from that movie is the line that gave the movie its title. Two young ladies were walking through an open grassy field. As they approached a small patch of wildflowers growing in the field, one of the girls stopped to look at the flowers. She said, “I think that God gets really pissed off when we don’t notice the color purple.”
That quote is stated a bit more crudely than I would prefer when talking about God, but I believe the sentiment it expresses is a very good one. God has created amazing beauty all around us and we need to appreciate it.
God created a world of amazing beauty and then placed Adam and Eve in the Garden where they were to enjoy this intense beauty while having a perfect relationship with God, whose beauty far exceeds that of the natural world.
When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, the relationship with God was severed. But also the natural world began to feel the effects of sin. Just as we humans are not perfect as we were created to be, the natural world is not perfect as it was created to be. And yet there is incredible beauty all around us, as long as we take the time to notice. And noticing the world’s beauty should prompt us to praise the Creator, just as the young lady did in The Color Purple.
This past week has been a very full and busy week. We had planned on doing a lot of packing for our upcoming move—and those plans were fulfilled. But many other things came up as the week progressed and we had difficulty getting everything done. So yesterday was a day that we were able to slow down a little bit, wrap up a few loose ends and, at the end of the day, simply sit back and relax.
I had mowed the lawn and the lawn furniture looked particularly inviting. I had also stopped on my way home from DC this past Thursday at Pearmund Cellars Vineyard and Winery to pick up a few bottles of their outstanding wines. So I pulled a bottle of Pearmund Riesling out of the wine refrigerator, grabbed a book, and headed out to sit in the yard. But I never got to read the book.
I had been outside for no more than a few minutes (and read less than a page of my book) when a young deer bounded into the yard. I watched as he frolicked in the yard and looked for food around the apple trees. When he ran off behind our house a few minutes later I continued to look at the trees, the mountains, and the sky. And I had a Color Purple moment.
I went into the house, grabbed my camera, and returned to the yard. By the way, although I love to play around in Photoshop, none of these photos have been altered except for the header photo. The name of my blog was not actually floating there in front of the trees—I had to add it.
The sky was a beautiful deepening blue as the sun began to set. Different types of clouds—some bright, fluffy and white and others dark and whispy—floated across the sky in an ever-changing panoply of beauty. I noticed the wonderful gradations of green in the leaves on the trees, the myriad shades of blue in the distant mountains, and the vivid pink and yellow rims of the clouds as the sun fell further and further from its zenith. It was gorgeous.
And God orchestrated the entire thing—even the all-natural fermentation of the Riesling grapes as they became the outstanding wine I was enjoying—just as he does every single day. His artistry is intense and amazing. What a wonder our God is!
I love the change of seasons and see beauty in all of them. But sometimes I forget to look and appreciate.
The title of the movie "The Color Purple" comes from a simple phrase in that movie when a young girl walking through a field with a friend notices a small wild violet flower and stops to appreciate it. She tells her friend that she thinks God does not like it when we don't notice the color purple. Although in the movie it was phrased in a somewhat crude way, I think that concept has some truth in it.
God's glory and majesty are all around us in the world he has created to be our home.
With the economic picture becoming more and more bleak and the future of our nation resting in seemingly dangerously inept hands, I am tempted to forget that our God is in total control. We are to rest in him—to find our comfort in him, not in our economy, our savings, our government, or anything other than him.
And today God reminded me of his beauty, glory, and majesty. And he used the color purple to remind me that he is ultimately sovereign over all matters. He has truly created a wonderful world for us to live in. But our great hope and sure foundation is in the fact that our future will be so much better.
There's a place in most of us where the rain is pretty much constant, the shadows are always long, and the woods are full of monsters. It is good to have a voice in which the terrors of such a place can be articulated and its geography partially described, without denying the sunshine and clarity that fill so much of our ordinary lives.
—Richard Bachman
But when we are kept from being able to voice this portion of our lives, this area of life seems to overcome the sunlit and clear portions like a slow-moving, but ever-creeping fog.
