pearwood

Go within - prompt for November 8

The saints and sages have said it differently, the manner of speaking has changed over time, the core message has stayed remarkably consistent. Go within. Go to the secret place where your true self is, and where God is there with you.
Go within and seek God who is in you, that is, the God who is in your sisters and brothers also. In drawing near to him draw near to them, your sisters and brothers. Seek not to escape but to embrace them and yourself in the love of God who gave himself for them and for you.
Thoughts after Merton. I'm a day behind on the writing prompts. The lower back is getting better, I think, but with fits and starts and backtracking.
Soli deo gloria.

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2018-309 Wait - prompt for November 4

The writing prompt for yesterday was 'wait', which is what I did, and I didn't like it.
I rather overdid it at yoga on Saturday evening. I didn't realize how stiff I still was from my very careful and very intensive one on one pilates session Thursday morning. I did not go anywhere yesterday or do much of anything. Just moving was painful.
I prayed, "Dear God, I am an idiot." The Lord responded, "Yes you are, as a matter of fact. And this latest bit of idiocy is going to take some time to recover from."
I don't like to wait. I want to be up and doing and moving forward with my agenda. Sometimes the Lord's agenda is, "Wait." In this case it was due to my own idiocy. But it isn't always. Sometimes it is because my sense of timing and God's don't line up.
I don't like to wait. Patience may be good for the soul, but it's a painfully learned art.
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, an idiot."
And the Lord smiled, "I have and I will."

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2018-307 Dream - Prompt for November 3

Sixty-eight is not too old to dream. I dream of what has passed, I dream of what lies ahead. I'm still getting used to this retirement thing. It seems I am just as busy as before, though now I have more choice about what I am busy with. I do have more time now to think and to dream. I enjoy my monkish mornings.
When I lean back and dream ahead I think of days on the trail, endless days, or at least six months of days. And why should not my entire life be days on the trail? For I am on a journey, and closer now to the end than I was before. Each day is a day on the journey, a day of putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. I am in no hurry. I have my whole life to finish this journey.
Hiking the Appalachian Trail will take five million steps; I expect my life journey will require somewhat more than that. But it's still one step at a time, with my dreams leading me on and unfolding around me as I walk my waking dream.
So help me, Jesus, for you are my way, my truth and

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2018-306 Perfect day and Take steps

After a long break, Amanda published a set of self-care writing prompts for the month of November. I will write every day; some sketches may get posted.
Thursday's writing prompt was "perfect day". I wrote something. It was nothing wonderful, but it was a start. Today is a perfect day to begin again and take small steps forward.

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2018-306 Pinhole Meandering

Pinhole Meandering
Some photographs invite me to step up and look close. This is how they draw me into their world. I find my pinhole photographs invite me to step back and gaze through their window into the world beyond.
There are three pinhole cameras represented here. Most of the photographs were taken with the Ondu 135 pinhole. “Looking up” I took with my home-modified Argus C3 beer-can pinhole. It is the one photograph with from camera that has stayed up on my wall at home. “Back fence flowers” I took with the Holga 120PC.
Since this show runs through the month of Movember, I thought it appropriate to include before-mow and after-mow selfies.
The Movember Foundation raises money and awareness to combat two leading causes of premature death among men, testicular cancer and suicide. If for women’s cancer the dictum is “feel your boobies”, for men it is “know thy nuts”. Early detection is the key in both cases. On the mental healt

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2018-195 I will always remember

I went on a #HikeYoga outing this morning. The instructor incorporated a pair of short sketchbook sessions, one to draw or write about an object close by, and a second with a prompt.
Her prompt was, "I will always remember...". She gave us two minutes, so it had to be off the top of the head.
I will always remember...
- I am finite, with assorted weaknesses, and that's ok.
- I will not live forever on this earth, and that's ok, too.
I will always remember that Jesus loves me, and that is enough.

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2017-301 Cynthia Breheny spins a very fine tale

I posted this review on Goodreads and Amazon for PTElephant's new novel.
Once upon a Time from the Perspective of an Innocent Bystander by Cynthia Breheny
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cynthia Breheny has created a gem of a story in this, her first novel. She writes with a sure hand.
Elphadora Pratt is a boring and dreary girl of fourteen. Her twelve siblings are all wonderfully gifted children; Elphadora most assuredly is not. That's where the story begins, but it not where it ends. She and we are in for a wild ride.
I bought the book because I know Cindy on-line. I had not known she wrote. I know now. I started reading in the morning. It wasn't quite the next day when I finished. Highly recommended. I am eagerly looking forw

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2017-279 In Praise of the Brick

I am one of the guest artists in the current show at Image City Photography Gallery. This is the bio displayed with the images.
I have been hanging around Image City Photography Gallery for close to ten years, exhibiting a couple times a year, and learning about life and photography from the other photographers who hang around here. As I say at pearwood.deviantArt.com, where I’m coming up on thirteen years, "I'm not leaving any time soon".
I bought my first personal computer in 1983; I have made my living with computers and networks for the last three decades or so. Shooting with no-batteries-included film cameras is my rebellion and sanity. I like the way fully-manual cameras slow me down and give me time to think. Developing my own black and white film lets me be more involved in the process.
When I decide

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2016-314 To act justly and love mercy, for Jesus

When I was a child, one of our favorite Sunday School choruses was this.Jesus love the little children,
all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.The song still rings true, even if much of the conservative white church has added, "as long as they keep to their place and don't get uppity."
I do not say "evangelical church", because an Evangelical is one who trusts in the gospel (evangelium), the good news of Jesus Christ. That includes me.
Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by quoting from the prophet Isaiah.“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”As I read through the Bible each ye

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Rebecca pogopuggie is battling breast cancer. She posted a thirty-day challenge for October, a pink-ribbon challenge for Hopetober. I plan to use the series as writing prompts.
I have not had cancer, but at 66 I have been through the mill often enough to say with confidence, when the going gets rough, how well you make it, or whether you make it at all, is closely tied the quality of your support network.
If you are facing cancer or some other apparent calamity yourself, and you don't already have a support network, a team of people helping you pull through, build one. Now. Even if it means saying to a relatively casual acquaintance, "This is what I'm going through. I need a support network. I don't have one. Can you just sit and listen to me?"
If you are part of someone else's support network, let your words be few. Your presence and listening ear are what matter most.
So be it.

2016-277 Support

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2016-276 Acceptance and Courage

Rebecca pogopuggie is battling breast cancer. She posted a thirty-day challenge for October, a pink-ribbon challenge for Hopetober. I plan to use the series as writing prompts. Next month is Movember, so it is a fitting challenge for both sides of the house.
I am sitting on the porch watching and listening to the gully-washer rolling through, even getting some droplets blown in on me. It is a beautiful day.
Acceptance is like that. I can try to ignore the rain or pretend that it isn't there, but that will not change anything. The rain simply is. I can't make it not be. What I can do is decide what I am going to do with the fact that it is raining. I can sit and mope, I can do something inside, I can go for a walk or I can sit on the porch and enjoy it. But if the are upwind windows open, It would behoove me to go close them.
Accepting cancer or other life-threatening situation, either for myself or for another, takes something of the same. Denying Shirlee's cancer or wishing I would w

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2016-160 The Gentle Light - blurb for ICPG show

The Gentle Light
Sometimes the photographer chooses the theme; sometimes the theme chooses the photographer. This one chose me.
I was struck by the gentleness of the light in all the photographs. In some cases it was the nature of the day or the camera; in others it was the way I worked up the scanned negatives. If gentleness is strength under control, then there are far worse ways one could interact with the world.
The exhibit includes photos from several different cameras, the most excellent Welta Weltur and Yashica-D, the venerable Argus C3 Brick and the marvelous Holga Pinhole. There is even a set from a roll of 35 mm film rewound with a 120 spool and backing and shot with the Holga Pinhole. It was not an entirely successful experiment, but I like these four photos from around the neighborhood.
Thanks to m’lady for putting up with my cameras, and to Amber for letting me take her portrait. (The portai

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2016-156 Favorite book, wanderlust, horizon

Today's prompt is 'owl'. I'm not sure I'm a wise one, though I have learned a thing or two in my nigh on sixty six years.
The prompts for the three previous days were 'favorite book', 'wanderlust', and 'horizon', each prompt leading to the next. For what is wanderlust but the seeking of new horizons, new places to see and old haunts to revisit? My feet and seat have been too long in one place; I yearn to wander. I want to stretch the horizons of my eyes and mind and heart.
From time immemorial we have done that with backpacks and books, oftentimes together.
If I judge my favorite books according to the ones that keep drawing me back, Tolkien's pentology of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings ranks near the top. I did my first walking tour of Middle Earth in 1966 or thereabouts. I was in high school, and spending significant chunks of my summers at Deerfoot Lodge in the Adirondack Mountains. Parts of The Fellowship of the Ring I read while walking the six miles betwe

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2016-151 Foreign, Hospitality

To be foreign is to be different. We humans by nature tend not to like people who are not like us, who are not our kind of people. We fear them and hate them.
God shows us a better way. Be kind to the stranger and sojourner, he told the ancient Jews, for you were foreigners in Egypt. You've been there, you know what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land, hated and oppressed for simply being you.
Jesus took it even further, breaking down the dividing wall of hatred between Jews and Gentiles. He took the hatred on himself and nailed it to the cross.
When the teacher of the law asked him (seeking to justify himself), "But who is my neighbor?", Jesus pointed him to a despised Samaritan. "Go and do likewise," he said, claim as neighbor those terribly wrong kind of people, those people who are not like you. Now go, and love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the way of love, the way of hospitality, welcoming the foreigner into our lives.
How can we do less?
It does not take long liste

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The prompt for last Friday was "self".
The initial thoughts and meanderings were, methinks, prelude to dealing with what is actually on my mind.
Who am I? What am I? Do I matter?
I look at myself with pride.
I look at myself with loathing.
The truth is somewhere in between.
Professor Neal Plantinga told us, "Against all pride, we are but creatures; against all false humility, we are creatures of God."
Not only am I created by God, I am loved by God, as I am, pride and loathsomeness and all. Says the Apostle Paul, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6)
Years ago (before a lot of my watchers on DeviantArt were born), The Navigators got me started memorizing scripture. The first two verses in their Topical Memory System are II Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 2:20, on the topic "New life in Christ".
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
"I have been crucified

2012016-150 Self

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2016-142 Inspiration and Perspective

Thoughts from yesterday evening.
Yesterday's prompt was inspiration; today's is perspective. Inspiration and perspective stand in balance; perhaps we can see them as two sides of the same coin. Both, certainly, are gifts of God, part of being made in his creative image. Inspiration is the flash of a new idea, often taking the form of a new perspective, a new way of seeing some one thing in its relation to the whole.
Such inspiration is the essence of good photography. Photography is a way of recording and presenting what I see. At a deeper level, it is itself a way of seeing. I don't really know what something looks like until I take the photograph. Photography is a way of seeing with the eyes of my mind and of my heart.
I was out a week ago with the Holga Pinhole Camera loaded with 35mm film. Just the "wide 35" of shooting panoramic 35mm in a medium-format camera is going to skew reality. Combine that with the fact that the film didn't feed straight, and with the low-contrast grainine

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I use my dA journal for highlighting other peoples' artwork. If you want to know what's going on with me, read what I write here and on my PearwoodPhoto blog.

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