Kat Eye Studio

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So Simple

It’s amazing how something can be so simple, yet at the same time so elusive. We go around, looking for inspiration, but it’s everywhere. Truly everywhere, when we open our eyes. Inspiration can be as simple as vines on wood.

I don’t know why, but I always love the lines and curves of climbing ivy vines. There is something so beautiful about the way they reach out and grow and grow. Add a textured wall and some soft overcast light to give depth of highlight and shadow in those wonderful green leaves, and I’m in heaven with my camera.

So beautiful to me, yet so simple. Proving yet again, we often make things harder than they need to be.

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Dream More

Do you believe in messages from the universe? I do. Here’s one I saw on my Sunday excursion in Northwest Portland. I love the giant arrow pointing to the message, as if we wouldn’t see it otherwise. Which, given our busy lives and drifting thoughts, is probably true.

So here’s your message from the universe today, you can’t miss it: Dream More.

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Renewed

This morning I am feeling happy. Creative. Renewed. I am breathing deeper and feeling relaxed.

Yesterday I met up with a friend I haven’t seen in a long time and visited the Portland Art Museum to see the Mark Rothko exhibit one more time before it ends. After visiting the art museum we wandered a little bit around downtown. I was very sad for the lack of photo inspiration I was finding. I was beginning to get worried. What was wrong with me? Was I in a creative slump?

You see, the last couple of months have been sort of a photo-taking dry spell for me. I had a lot of other activities going on and my creative energy was focused elsewhere. Now that the other projects are finishing up I was expecting the photo creativity to come back. It started to, with my rainboot photo shoot last week. But wandering downtown Portland was doing nothing for me. Something was wrong!

I told my friend I needed something different, so we headed to Northwest Portland. It’s got neat shops, old houses and lots of greenery, and I’ve had success with finding inspiration and even scooter sightings there before. Wow, that did the trick! I came away with some photographs I absolutely love, for the first time in a long while. Today’s image is one of these new favorites and I’ll share more this week.

Not only do I feel happy, creative and renewed, I also feel relieved. All I needed was a couple of hours in a place with texture, color and interesting “real life still life” to capture. Whew. No creative slump after all.

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Focus on Strengths

If you choose to focus your attention on the strengths of others, on the virtues of others, on that part of others that strives for the highest, you run through your system the higher frequency currents of appreciation, acceptance and love.
— Gary Zukav in The Seat of the Soul

There it is again, the concept of focusing on the good. It popped up in my morning reading today, this time around seeing the good in others.

When we focus on what we perceive as faults, annoyances and shortcomings in others, that becomes all we see. It shapes our interactions. It sets up expectations. We look for the fulfillment of those expectations. Our perception of a person spirals down, down, down. One thing leads to another until our “reality” of that person is negative.

But look at it from the opposite perspective. If we focus on the strengths of others, we see things in a different light. We can look for things a person does well and that we appreciate. We can stop assuming motivations for actions. We can realize we don’t know another’s mind or intentions. Our “reality” of that person changes, because “reality” is subjective.

All it takes is a slight shift to one side.

Zukav goes on to say, “As you come to seek and see the virtues and strengths and nobilities of others, you begin to seek and see them in yourself also.”

Interesting concept, huh? We can’t forgive ourselves and sit in judgment of others at the same time. We can’t see the bad in others and expect to see the good in ourselves.

Don’t we all want to see ourselves in a good way? To see ourselves loving, caring and forgiving beings that want to move forward and grow? So many of us struggle to create a positive self-image. We see our faults and weaknesses and not our strengths.

Maybe we need to start by seeing the best in others, to see the best in ourselves.

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Dissolving Problems

Isn’t it funny how when something comes up in your consciousness, you suddenly notice it everywhere? Like getting a new car. Suddenly you notice how many of the same car are on the road. Your awareness helps you see what was already there.

Last week, when I wrote Focus on the Good, it was unrelated to anything else that was going on for me. Since then, the concept of “focusing on the good” has come up numerous times. It’s coming up in books I’m reading, in conversations with others, and in my own self-examination of things going on around me. I keep seeing how focusing on the good brings me to a better place. It keeps me moving forward, instead of wallowing and getting stuck.

In general, I consider myself an optimistic personality. When I run into a problem, I don’t get stuck. I say, “OK, here I am. What am I going to do about it?” I’m a problem solver. I think you have to be optimistic to solve problems. If you believe there is no solution to something, there won’t be. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But maybe the “problems” don’t always need “solved.” Maybe it’s just a matter of seeing what’s good in a situation, and going with that. I wonder, would the “problems” dissolve away, in that case? It’s something for me to think about. I see some interesting possibilities in the idea of problem dissolving rather than solving. As if maybe, some of the problems aren’t really problems in the first place.

You can see the dandelions as weeds, or as a pretty yellow flower. Your actions will be different, depending on how you look at the situation.

Focus on the good. Dissolving problems. I might be playing with this idea here for a while. I think there is something to it.

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Strong Connections

As I write this, my husband is on his way to take his parents back to the airport after a for a one-week visit. Brandon is off getting ready for school, after a tearful goodbye. I expect more tears to follow. Goodbyes are always hard for him. They are hard for all of us, but they are always extra-hard on him.

It never fails to amaze me the depth of connection that my son has for his grandparents, and really all of the extended family, that he rarely sees. It’s as if there is an invisible tie that binds him to these people. There is some chemistry that makes him always feels safe and loved in their presence, unlike anyone else.

I must admit, I don’t quite understand it. I never had that kind of relationship with my extended family. I didn’t grow up with many of them around, similar to Brandon. Visiting them was always fun, but I didn’t know them well enough to form a strong attachment. Maybe that’s the difference between my son and me… It takes me time and effort to develop a deep relationship with someone, while he loves with his whole heart open from minute one. A good thing, I suppose. And a scary thing, to me.

So this morning I will provide the comfort and stability of a mother. Another relationship with those invisible ties that run deeper than I would have ever though possible, until having a child. The love that is a universal, unceasing presence, not like the the ocean that lies an hour away from us. There may be storms on the surface – frustrations and stresses of the day-to-day – but in its depths it is the same. It’s always there for us to visit, to tap into and gather strength from, when we need it.