Wake-up Call
I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. I’m not one for diets either. To some degree, both those words fall too often into the temporary camp of let’s give it our best go before our natural tendencies win the battle and the world settles back into status quo. Easier is the path of least resistance. Besides, there is always tomorrow.
But recently our world was was riddled with unexpected news. The kind that places a mirror squarely at eye level and forced us to take an honest assessment of our lives, evaluate the truth, what is crucial and that which is highly inconsequential. Unfortunately, we swim in the deep end of the latter. Perhaps most of us do. But, after the visual come to Jesus talk, the dawning realization was quite obvious. We’ve been living for the later and not for the now.
I saw something posted online that said, “one day or day one.” What if there is no day two? And what if we spend all of these days uttering one day realizing we never put ourselves into a position to actually begin day one? Then it’s too late. What a scary reflection to witness in a blink of internal observation. Then comes the question…
Why?
Why aren’t we living the life we want to live today? Of course, a thousand and one reasons explain this path and I promise you, they were all completely justified in thought and action. But perhaps blindly they failed to focus on the true importance of our existence. Which brings us to our next question…
What is truly important?
That answers rings different for everyone. For us, it was a wake-up call. Time to make some changes, permanent ones. Ones that do not merely part the grass to allow our passage, but forge paths in our wake. Not the path of least resistance, but rather the path to a more meaningful and purpose-driven life.
A life where tomorrow is marked with day two, day three…
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Behind the Scenes - Wake-Up Call
This particular piece was created quite awhile ago for a series stuck in my head like a rerun for some time now. I’m not even sure it belongs in said series any longer, so perhaps it’s now time to introduce it to the world…or at least the web. For it has made its presence into a gallery recently.
It’s one of my favorites. I think I like the simplicity of it the most. And before you ask, this is anything but a reference to Leda and the Swan. Truth be told, I never actually read that piece of Greek Mythology but some pesky critic dismissed this piece as an obvious representation. A little bitter – yes, but I recognize the viewer is 50% of this equation and people will see and experience as they like.
But I digress, this particular concept came together perfectly one weekend. I took over the bedroom for a bit of furniture rearranging and to eliminate the scene of distracting elements. Actually, that took longer than anything else. I set the timer and shot three rounds before declaring victory and moving into post processing.
Luckily I have a library of swan images from my visit to Fire Island back in 2014, a fun adventure with the Bayerdorffers which feels like a lifetime ago. My apologies for the incessant photographing that naturally occurred once these two beauties made their way over, obviously with the intent of begging for food. They hovered for at least a good 20 minutes before departing to find some friendly stranger willing to toss some scraps. Nonetheless, these swans have come in handy many times and have made appearances in Northern Migration and Swimming Between Dimensions. I’m sure they will swim their way into some future piece as well.
Swans have a way of doing that.
Interested in adding Wake-Up Call to your collection?
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