In the creative core of who I am I am always looking. Always watching. Always wondering. I’ve often wished my eye were a camera lens, an additional option for capturing images. I could twist my ear and capture the picture I see right then and there. Yes, I understand that is what our eyes are for, as well as our brains and the accumulating memories. Yet, it is rather hard to print and frame those. It’s not always possible to have the camera at the ready, but, my ears and eyes are always attached.

I’ve been know to stop mid stride, take a few steps backward and peer around. Much like a robin who knows there is a worm underfoot. Waiting, looking, and finally finding what I caught a glimpse of. I will squat, bend, lean or lie down with phone or camera in hand and shoot. I hope to capture the fleeting image, the idea, a story.

Most of the images in my writings are just that, a capture, a spur. God shows me the picture, I capture it and He fills in the blanks, He creates the narrative. When they say “a picture is worth a thousand words” I could easily write them.

Walking along the edge of the road, where my dearest friend and I had walked many times. Before the sun was a glimmer on the horizon we would meet to walk. Other times the sun blazed bright or the stars shone like pinpricks in the blackness of the night sky. Walking we experienced frozen eyelashes, sweaty brows, cool breezes and perfect days, and gentle conversation.

This day I was alone I believe, I could be wrong. It was that golden time of day when the sky came alive with the yellows and oranges of sunset. In my hand a brand new camera just dying to be broken in and an twitchy finger longing to create magic.

I was walking along the normal route we would walk we I noticed the beginnings of a construction project. The grass and dirt were bunched up like a receding wave sneaking back into the ocean. Looking down as I walked , I stopped, backed up two steps and found an amazing gift, a wish you might say.

I readied my camera. Looking, I took in the splendor of a simple wish. A dandelion near death, yet full of hope. I looked across the field and saw the sky catching fire as the sun dropped. I knew I had a minute to capture the image. I lowered my self to the ground on the side of the road.

My camera became an extension of my eye, my hand and my heart. I waited ten seconds, lining the sun up with the very heart of the dandelion, click..click…I moved slightly…click…

It was a moment that set my adventure in motion. It was a moment captured for all time. It was a moment full of hope, swelling with joy and containing a thousand wishes just waiting to fly free.

Some of the wishes set free have come to be, others still drift on the breeze waiting for just the right moment to land gently in the palm of my hand, reminding me to never stop wishing and to always have hope.

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25:4-5