How to Savor the Gifts

I love the beauty that is imparted by the intertwining of compelling images and stirring words.

I have struggled with both.

More often than I’d like, I have time for neither writing nor photography. Days go by and posts are left unwritten. Sometimes days give way to weeks. I wish it weren’t this way.

Yet, when the busyness of life has the days passing by in a whirlwind, it is the counting that slows me down. Without the deliberate counting of gifts, I may not slow enough to notice them. Gifts unnoticed are gifts want of gratitude. Gratitude to the Giver.

So the counting of these eight hundred gifts so far has itself become a gift. A slowing down of mind and heart to glimpse the grace of God. And Mondays are the one day I rarely miss writing because there is always time to count.

And the images? They have been an integral part of the counting right from the beginning. But it has only been recently that I have realized why capturing the moments in pictures is so important to me.

Counting the gifts has helped me to slow down and notice them.

Photographing them has helped me to slow down and savor them.

It takes but a moment to notice a gift and give thanks for it. But when you are learning your way through the dials and buttons on your camera, and peering through the viewfinder to see what is in the frame, noticing the gifts become studying the gifts. And studying is savoring.

This week, as I switched from auto to manual mode on the camera, and captured images assigned by Kent in our Photo Composition eClass, I was able to see and savor some gifts that had gone unnoticed until now.

And so my camera itself has become a way for me to savor and notice the gifts.

As always, I count and give thanks. #791 – 801

• milk glass – the last three from my grandmother’s set. I remember drinking from these when I was just a little girl

• baskets – I love their handcrafted beauty and usefulness

• a good set of knives – not as emotionally touching as the milk glass, but I sure do appreciate these knives and am grateful for them every time I use them (which is pretty much every day)

• my camera, which helps me see and savor the beauty
• photographic successes {small as they may be}
• anticipating all the opportunities to take better pictures this year {birthdays, vacations, and of course, flowers and sunsets!}
• capturing images of things as practice so that soon I’ll be able to better capture people and special moments

• snow melting again!
• grass that will soon be green {hopefully!}
• bringing out the patio  furniture

• slowing, noticing, savoring, and counting. Always counting.

In hope,
Shelli