I assured him that I would not hold it against him for the unprintable photos and excitedly proceeded to go to my van to open the contents of the small, flat photo processing envelope.
However... it would be dishonest to say that I was just a "little" disappointed though. I was so expectant that in developing that roll of film, the images captured in them would be strikingly profound ~ something... meaningful & deep ~ something... prophetic that might jump out of that envelope and shout at me clear directions and confirmation and Divine Inspiration... but nothing dramatic happened. Except that out of an entire roll of 24 photos... there were eight pictures in all that came out. $1.29 a piece ~ for a handful of less-than-inspirational images.
Of trees.
and a lake...
and mountains...
and a road...
and my mom.
I tried looking "deeper" into the photos, to see if there was a minuscule something... an out of the ordinary anything... that might jump out at me and scream inspiration.
Not.a.Chance.
So I decided to go ahead and share them here anyway, since I know that many of my friends and family have been eager to see what the "treasure" inside looked like.
Once I uploaded each of them, I decided to search for just the right captions to accompany them here. Dispite the absence of clear definition, I discovered significance in these photos. As I take each new step towards wherever God might be leading me... here's what they represent to my heart:
 |
| "Stand Tall and Proud Sink your roots deeply into the Earth Reflect the light of a greater source Think long term Go out on a limb Remember your place among all living beings Embrace with joy the changing seasons For each yields its own abundance The Energy and Birth of Spring The Growth and Contentment of Summer The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter"~ Ilan Shamir, Advice From a Tree |
 |
| “Not every lake dreams to be an ocean. Blessed are the ones who are happy with whom they are.” ~ Mehmet Murat ildan |
 |
| “Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.” ~ C.S. Lewis |
 |
| The buck stops here! ~ Harry S. Truman |
 |
“Change: A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn. ”~ Helen Keller |
 |
| "For every mountain there is a miracle." ~Robert Schuller |
"It is when you lose sight of yourself that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon."
~ C. Joybell C.
And because there appears to be no profound & divine messages hidden deep inside these photos, I'm reminded of the verse from Romans where it says,
"because he dared to trust
God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word
make something out of nothing. ...deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do!" Romans 4:17 ~ The Message
God promises to do things with my life that I can't do ~ no matter how hard I try.
My task, if I choose to accept it...
is to Let.God.Chisel.
Let.God.Move.
Let.God.Lead.the.Way.
Philippians 3: 13
"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me"
"It is when you lose sight of yourself that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon."
~ C. Joybell C.
And because there appears to be no profound & divine messages hidden deep inside these photos, I'm reminded of the verse from Romans where it says,
"because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. ...deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do!" Romans 4:17 ~ The Message
God promises to do things with my life that I can't do ~ no matter how hard I try.
My task, if I choose to accept it...
is to Let.God.Chisel.
Let.God.Move.
Let.God.Lead.the.Way.
Philippians 3: 13
"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me"
"The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future."
~Alyson Noel
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
~Robert H. Schuller
"It is the possibility that keeps me going, and though you
may call me a dreamer or a fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible."
~Nicholas Sparks
Faith is daring to put your dream to the test.
It is better to try to do something and fail than to try to do nothing and succeed.
~Robert Schuller
Dear God,
in light of the fact that I know that you are here... even in the snapshots of myself when I can't "see" you on the surface, or know right what you're doing with my heart on any given moment of my life, I ask you to help me trust in you with all my heart. Help me to not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways, help me to acknowledge you and remind me often that you will direct my path, every step of the way.
@men
Ya know Ang, your whole camera/photo things spoke to me. ME! Weird eh? And the message I got loud and clear is 'Sometimes the gift, the silver lining, the ordinary miracle, the extraordinary miracle isn't found where I am going to expect it to be (like inside the camera) but somewhere altogether different.... like in the whole blessing of the beautiful symbolism of the camera itself. The way that whole thing played out was as if your dad reached across the veil (which is sometimes so thin it blows me away) and handed you a gift that he couldn't give you when he was still here because you weren't ready for it yet. But he's been waiting... and the timing was absolutely perfect... I just think there was so much more to Ricoh than you know, and it had not a single thing to do with what was inside (which is of course the mysterious "typical" kind of goose bump story you might get to read about in Chicken Soup style stories... but what you got, was a gazillion times better than anything that could have been found on that old brittle film... who woulda thunk you'd get a gift from your Dad this year? hmmmm..... xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteTo me these photos reminded me of how your parents loved to go to Colorado to witness the fall colors and beauty of the Aspens. They aren't just pictures of trees and a lake, they are memories that he wanted to capture forever. Memories of special times spent with his forever love.
ReplyDeleteAng, thanks for sharing these pictures which were taken on our last trip to the Colorado mountains just before Dad started chemo for his Bone Marrow Transplant in October 2010. He wanted to see the aspens turning, which we had done many times during your growing up years, and the doctors gave us permission to go. WE BOTH LOVED THOSE MOUNTAINS . . neither of us knowing this would be our last trip up there together, so these pictures are priceless to me and brought back wonderful memories of that day as well as times spent in those mountains in the past! I even remember some of our conversations that day, especially when we went by the spot where he had taken Troy's senior pictures with his "S" letter jack on -- WITHOUT FILM IN THE CAMERA . . . and he became upset just like he did when we got home that day and said "I still can't believe I did such a stupid thing"; and then we both laughed.
ReplyDeleteI drove (he certainly would have been driving if he were able) and we sat at a 4-way stop in Estes Park for more than 30 minutes . . . blocked by hundreds of huge, gorgeous elk . . . and we both just sat in awe of God's wonderous creations, not saying a word. That was a "GOD THING" because as you know, he was very short on patience whenever things like that happened before. We even stopped at the place along side the road where the cement yard decorations were sold -- but for the first time ever, we didn't buy anything. We did, however, stop to find that most precious rock to bring home, and even though we both knew we shouldn't . . . WE DID IT ANYWAY!! "What difference will one rock missing up here make" he said.
He wanted to stop to get some cherry cider and I said we'd better not "because it isn't sterile." He so wanted things to be back to normal, but God had other plans because HIS "normal" WAS FOR DAD TO BE IN HEAVEN WITH HIM!!
I have another tidbit for you -- I FOUND THE ORIGINAL OWNER'S MANUAL TO DAD'S -- AND NOW YOUR NEW CAMERA, along with the receipt. I'm sure you'll be writing a blog about this because even though I'm not creative enough to see the significance, I know that you will: WE PURCHASED "RICOH" ON 10/11/1986 . . . . DAD'S BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT WAS ON 10/11/2010 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! WOW ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Thanks, Mom for sharing those precious details about these photos! What a blessing it is to know more of "the rest of the story..." that the pictures in print didn't clearly define!
DeleteI think that significance of the 10/11/10 might be useful to know in the future as I begin to unravel my thoughts here.
Love you!!!!!