Time, Aging and Inspiration

Every day I go out to shoot I say so myself, "What lesson will I learn today?"
Always a lesson.
A breath of air and never take life for granted.
Aging makes a soul tender and less physically resilient.
Somewhat a cruel joke as our minds are full of riches as our bodies begin a reverse of youth.
Karen Kuehn

My posts on Sunday mornings often start the night before. As I go to sleep, I'll start thinking about a topic for the following morning. It's a completely random process, but yesterday was different. 

I was reading Karen Kuehn's book, Maverick Camera. Reading is something I just don't do much anymore. So, yesterday, with Jim Brickman's Pandora channel playing in the background I sat down and started reading. Over and again I was blown away by each image together with what she wrote.  With her portrait of surfer Fred Van Dyke from 2001, she shared the wisdom above, and it got me thinking about aging, time and inspiration.

Time is our most valuable commodity, and yet it's the one resource we waste the most. We can't slow it down or stop it, but so often we spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror instead of forward. Look, I get it, I'm getting older, and while I don't feel any older, I creak for ten minutes every morning. As my passion for life and love keep growing, there are more reminders I'm not a kid anymore.

We were at the beach recently, and I watched a young couple body surf in some pretty decent waves after a recent storm. I wanted so badly to grab Sheila's hand and join them, but we both started laughing about the last time we took a shot at riding the waves - it took us ten minutes to get out of the water as wave after wave kept knocking us down! Trying to help Sheila out of the water, I fell on top of her twice!

And here it is, my Sunday anecdote on life, time and aging. With age come experiences and with each experience comes acquired wisdom. As a couple, that same clock reminding us we're no longer in our twenties is also responsible for appreciating the time we're sharing right now. The "waves" we have in our life are the speed bumps that help us stay on course, and create a never-ending appreciation for everything we have together.

Karen's line about aging making a soul tender is so accurate. My appreciation and understanding of life are constantly growing, and each day there's less and less I take for granted. As photographers, your images represent that look in the rearview mirror, but your focus is always forward in front of you. 

Wishing all of you a Sunday filled with pure appreciation for everything and everyone around you. You can't change the past, but you sure do have an opportunity to live in the now and for the future. Go for those therapeutic eleven-second hugs and with each one think about the inspiration, passion, and love that person brings into your life. Make it a day of peace, love, joy, and savor each minute.

​Happy Sunday!