Anonymous Gifts & New Year’s Resolutions

This anonymous gift arrived in time for Christmas, and it bloomed over the weekend, just before my in-laws headed north to Connecticut. I think they were following the geese that way – winter in Charleston this year is gladly giving way to spring, and taking my paperwhite surprise out on the town with it.

I fought for this photo. I know I could have turned the HDR mode off, or pulled out a tripod to steady my shaky self, but I didn’t. Intentionality demanded that I do this one the hard way. I needed it to matter, just as I’m learning to make every image matter. I’m studying the really good work this year, pushing myself out of my “what is good enough” mode and holding myself responsible for “what takes my breath away.”

It’s not about colors or formats or processing this year. It’s not about “capturing the moment.” I’m still not totally sure what it’s about; I still don’t have a word for 2013. I haven’t had time to really think about it yet. I know we’re only two weeks into the year, but a lot has happened in those two weeks. We’ve had two sets of family in our home, I’ve launched a new twist to my wedding photography (I can’t wait to have images to show you!), Pete’s boss has decided to run for Congress in South Carolina’s special election this spring, I’ve set up meetingsmeetingsmeetingstrips, and our “settled” life here is swiftly changing so that we don’t know where we’ll even be next Christmas.

And on top of all that, my flowers have bloomed. Just like that.

We’re downsizing – the culling never ends, does it?! – and deliberately choosing our life as much as we can just now, cutting out extras, looking at what we want and waiting for God to move, praying our way through new responsibilities and uncertainties, hoping we can get our house clean at some point before May, and getting up in the morning to do the next thing.

I’m taking the pictures here that I’ve been putting off in the four years we’ve been here, but I noticed on our Sunday walk to the river that even though I’ve shot there many times in the last four years, there has always been something new for me to find. If we move this year, I will miss this place I didn’t think I could love when we came.

I’m welcoming spring in January, and I’m making an effort to count every moment, because even if 2013 is determined to go at its own breakneck pace, I’m going to live it as fully as I can so that the breath I lose is on the beautiful, instead of the wild ride.

FILED UNDER: 2013, Anonymous Gifts, HDR, Intentional, Narcissus, Paperwhites, Updates