Who knows what the future holds?
I don’t. It’s but a faint line on the horizon. I can see the here and now, what is. I can see possibilities for the future, what might be.
To reach the future, I have to move into uncharted territory. Into the blank, unwritten part of my history.
I have plans and goals, but where the path I start on will end is still unformed. And that’s ok.
It used to be, I needed to be able to see the end before I started. I needed to know how it would all come out. But that road of expectations led to disappointment, more often than not. Because the end didn’t look like I had envisioned. The path didn’t always turn out to be the one I really wanted or needed to walk on.
Where I used to want predictable outcomes, I am ok now with a faintly formed outline of what might be. I am ok with changing my direction partway through. I am ok with not knowing.
Maybe this is a by-product of age; of maturity. Maybe it is a by-product of experience.
Because now I know, the end is often more interesting than what I could envision. And the journey is where all of the fun happens anyway.
I don’t need to know what the future holds. I just look out at that faint line on the horizon, and go.
My Photo-Heart Connection this month puts into words a change that has been slowly creeping over me for the last five to ten years. Turning from a driven, goal-oriented go-getter, always striving for the next achievement to someone who enjoys the journey and doesn’t mind winding my way along. Someone who doesn’t mind changing or abandoning a goal if it no longer suits. I’m now more in tune with myself, and what my heart wants. I don’t live my life for others, or for dreams of the past. I see all of that in this photograph, with it’s clear foreground tree and faintly visible horizon. I love that I can pull this out of my art, my heart.
What is your Photo-Heart Connection this month? What is your heart connection, in any art form? Here’s my approach to finding the Photo-Heart Connection:
- Identify all of the image I worked with this month. I don’t look through every single image I captured with my camera, but the ones I decided had potential and I edited. The sorting through of the raw images to edit throughout the month is really the first step of my Photo-Heart Connection, I don’t need to do it twice.
- I place them all in one location, in this case it’s a special folder on my hard drive where I export copies.
- Then, in the quiet of the early morning, I look through them on a black background and see what kind of emotional response I have. If there is no emotional response at all, I delete. Generally, the first time through more than half are eliminated. There are always a few that start to bubble to the top.
- As I get to these few that “bubble up” as having a stronger connection than the rest, I usually take a break. Go refresh my tea, and see what sticks in my mind. What words come out to describe the feelings that are coming with the remaining images.
- When I sit down again, it’s usually with a top two or three. I look through them, feeling each one and the words that come. From there, I can usually tell which one is coming out on top, from the feeling of both image and words.
- I start my blog post, add the picture and usually start with the few words that were with me as I made my decision, and then I write. I let the story emerge, as if I’m telling it to myself. What you see in the posts is the result.
Your approach to the Photo-Heart Connection is likely different. That’s ok, there is no right or wrong. Maybe this month, as you go through and do it, you can share your approach with us along with your February Photo-Heart Connection. Then we can all learn a bit more… about you, and about this wonderful process.
Yeah, I am not so interested in getting to the end, it is all about the Journey. Just when I think I have one thing figured out something else comes along and completely changes the game. Which I think we learn to except and even enjoy the farther along we get on the path.
I remember seeing this photo on flickr and liking it immediately. I can see how your interpretation of meaning came from it. For myself, I feel something different, like I wish I could see what is over there-but at least something is over there, when the fog and mist clear.
I like how you describe finding your PHC image. My routine is not as thorough, but along the same lines….and I never know what I’m going to write about. I think that’s the magical part. My image almost always triggers something I had no idea wished to be revealed. Magical indeed.
Thanks for hosting such a great meme. Have a great day.
I understand how expectations can lead to disappointment and I know that experience and maturity makes a great difference in how we accept changes to the path we’ve chosen.
I posted my PHC for this month before I came over here and read yours and your suggestion to add how we determine our PHC. I look through my images and like you add them to a folder. Usually one photo will draw me in, but it’s hard for me to put into words exactly why. This exercise is not easy for me, but I do enjoy the challenge and love reading everyone’s photo connection.
Beautifully written, Kat! The road is full of bumps and twists and turns that we can’t predict, but it’s our journey and letting it unfold is so much easier than trying to control it all. I think experience and maturity teaches us this. It’s exciting that you can look back and see how far you’ve changed along the way.
Your lovely image matches your thoughts so well. Wonderful post!
Kat, I’ve tried several times to link up, and the software keeps saying I don’t have a back link, which I do. I’ll try again tomorrow. Gina
Ahh – that’s my kind of landscape! Beautiful scene and it fits your heart so perfectly.
I think my process is similar to yours – I just browse through my images from the month to see which ones jump out at me, or to see if there’s a common theme. Then I start trying to find few words that express my feeling about the image I chose.
PS I got some error messages about a backlink, too, but my link seems to have appeared anyway.
There are times when I have a modicum of clarity about where I want to go. However, for the most part, each photo edit is an adventure. I generally don’t have a clue as to where I will end up. Part of what this means is that the end result often is what for me is a failure (i.e., I trash it). I passionately love life in the digital darkroom. It has tapped levels of creativity inside of me that I had no idea existed. (PS – when I die, most people, including my family and friends, won’t give a hoot about 99% of my photographs. But nobody can take away from me the incredible joy I have had on this grand journey.)
Same as Gina, Put in a permalink and post does contain a back link but the link up won’t take it. Did this last month too. 🙁
Bummer! I changed the settings. Try again!
Isn’t it amazing how we change, how our lives evolve? Your image fits so perfectly with this new mindset you have…less concerned with what will come and more open to this moment and all that is.
I wonder how much your art, your photography has impacted this? No doubt it has helped in many ways.
As for my process of finding a Photo Heart Connection, all I can think of is that somehow I see the story in the image. Some stories seem to stand out and yell at me, while others have not much to say to me. Often I have to look at the images from the month a few times before I know which one is “yelling” !
Thanks so much for hosting this!
Love your post, I can relate so much to what you say. I too used to expect too much and tried to control how life should be… but now I try to trust it, Your trees always amaze me. Thanks for hosting.