What a great ending to my venture into the 2014 Lenten photo-a-day discipline.  I wasn't sure where I was going to go with this today.  I was ready to ruminate about our eagerness to move on from the self-reflection of Lent to the joy of Easter resurrection, but having to spend this day between the... Continue Reading →

When most Christians are asked what they feel is the holiest day in the church year, I suspect most will say Easter, with Christmas coming in a fairly close second.  For me, the most holy day of the year is today.   Good Friday, not Easter, is when Christ showed the world who he really... Continue Reading →

Another day where I woke up with a solid plan for my daily photo.  This one was going to be so easy.   I had already planned on making bread today to see if I couldn't fix my standard recipe to get it a little softer (hint I heard on NPR).   But then, life... Continue Reading →

  Here was another word that was hard to photograph.  Solemnity is not a visual thing.  It is a state of mind, a feeling of importance, an intentionality. We mark the important milestones in our lives with solemn ceremonies. We observe the cyclic markers in our seasons with solemn holidays and holy days. We approach... Continue Reading →

Today's word was really easy for me to "get."   I am in the home stretch of this Lenten photo-a-day discipline (day 42 of the "40" days of Lent to be more precise).  There have been days I just wasn't "into it."  There were days I asked why I should keep doing this.  And interestingly enough,... Continue Reading →

We live in a very loud world.  And only a fraction of this noise is auditory.  We are bombarded with sounds and images and tastes and all sorts of causes vying for or attention. Every once in a while, we need to find a quiet place in our lives to allow ourselves to clear the... Continue Reading →

This has been a difficult pair of days for getting photos.  Yesterday, I couldn't get my head around how to capture the theme.  Today, I couldn't find a way to go beyond the obvious. Growing up, "mass" was a foreign word.  It was something the Catholics did.  Lutherans had "church services" or "worship services." The... Continue Reading →

Kindness.  Really?   How do you photograph kindness.  If you're lucky, you might be in the right place and time to capture that photojournalistic image of someone doing a random act of kindness.   But as a daily assignment, this is a rather daunting task.  I could have staged something, but that would be rather... Continue Reading →

Symbols are ubiquitous. They capture complex ideas into a simple drawing. They allow us to communicate with each other over time and space. They can relay simple instructions. They can invoke complex emotion. They can be universally recognized or only for the initiated. They can be clever or mundane. They may be beautiful. They can... Continue Reading →

for·ti·tude   /ˈfôrtəˌto͞od/ noun: fortitude courage in pain or adversity. "she endured her illness with great fortitude" synonyms: courage, bravery, endurance, resilience, moral fiber, strength of mind, strength of character, strong-mindedness, backbone, spirit, grit,true grit, doughtiness, steadfastness;  antonyms: faint-heartedness Perhaps this is a side effect of being male, but often when we (or at lest I) think about fortitude, we think of standing strong... Continue Reading →