photo&essay extravanganza

I think I've decided what to do around here for the next little bit. I saw this photo challenge list the other day on pinterest and it caught my eye... but I don't want to do a thirty day photo challenge. I don't want to just find another angle or subject to try and clear the inspirationless cobwebs in my head. I want to write. I want to think. I want to look around. But not just for the sake of looking.

I've moved to a new home. Okay, we all know that.

It's hard. I feel the dryness and the forlorn attitude that is starting to creep in because things are different here, and maybe a little more difficult. The sun doesn't shine very much, for one thing.

We've moved, it's hard, but I know this is where we are supposed to be. I'd love to be able to jump in and do all the things I was doing before and beginning to enjoy so much. I'd really love to be able to walk around and photograph this city like I was hired by National Geographic or something. I'd love to write a book and have it drip off my fingertips instead of having to fight fatigue, or all the other tasks that end up filling my day. I say these things to myself a little too much lately. Then I remember (or my better half reminds me) wait, this is my life. And it is good. It is given. I can already see the good work He is doing in my heart.

So yes, it's a little slumpy around here right now. Maybe I can't write about the things I think I should, that reflect China or our life here or who knows what else. Maybe my pictures are not forthcoming. But these are the days given to me, in my hands like putty, poured out with grace, though I may not be accepting it or willing to take it in it's given form. But who wants to be like that? I don't. I'm asking for help. I always need help.

I'm not sure all of what I need to do, maybe just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Maybe drink more soothing beverages. Pray. But today I did think of one idea that sort of excited me, at least in the areas that tend to refresh and inspire me. Why not instead of just doing a photo challenge, or a series of writing prompts, combine the two? I could make a list of subjects- similar to the photo challenge above, and take a photo. But the really fun part would be to use that photo to prompt an essay. Not a journal entry, but an actual essay. One that makes you think of a theme, or leads into a memory, or rehearses a train of thought that in the end may reveal or teach you something.

That all sounds maybe a little too profound and important. There is no guarantee anything interesting of the sort will happen. But it would be fun (for me anyway) to try. It would give me some parameters, a backbone of sorts to build off of. And I like the idea of the writing especially, because that is often where the heart and soul work really grinds itself out, instead of just trying to take interesting photos.

I think I just may try it. A list of fifteen things. It doesn't have to be every day, though I'll try to be consistent about it. I cooked up a little list so I could be all fancy and serious about it, and mostly because I just think it's fun to do such things. Of course that means you'll know what's coming... but it also means you could do it too.