Summer fun and family!

Yesterday some of our family from Mount Vernon, Kentucky came to visit us. 🙂 It was too short a visit, but some of us did make it down to the lake for some swimming. I brought my camera, and have been thinking about why I like taking pictures so much.

Because I don’t just like it, I love it. Although I wish I could volunteer and/or be-a-mama-for-children-who-have-no-where-else-to-go for the rest of my life, I am trying to think of ways to bring in resources and okay—yep, here’s the word I dread—money. Because, to do what I want to do (which is simply to love and support others) I need money. And to get money, I have to provide something the world finds valuable. At least that’s what everyone keeps telling me.

But the world, I guess, doesn’t value that which I find most valuable: protecting and nurturing our greatest shared resources, children and the environment. I figure this because I look around and see both being destroyed.  It’s more than heartbreaking, it’s terrifying.

And of course, I know many have made it their life’s work to change things (some doctors, lawyers, activists, missionaries, and those living off the grid), but for the most part, I see a destructive culture that runs on people buying more and more stuff. Someone, anyone, please, please tell me I’m wrong.

But back to what I was saying. I need to find a way to do what I want to do and survive. Or, maybe that’s the catch. Maybe I do what I want to do and I don’t survive, or, maybe I just survive with a lot less. I guess we’ll see. 🙂

Here’s what I know. I love people, I love respecting people, and showing people how incredible and beautiful and unique they are. I believe everyone has a story, and I love listening quietly to that story, or documenting it, or helping to shape it, or simply coming along side someone as they face their own story, and the power they have to write it. I love focusing on the hidden beauty around me, and helping other people see it too, despite all the ugliness.

So yeah, I’m thinking about photography. The first few pictures are of my cousin Clara Rose. She didn’t make it down to the lake with us, but stayed with her mama at the house. She’s such a cutie pie. Or, as Mama Eula says multiple times a day as she points to the many pictures of Clara tapped in the most random places around the house (like in the drawer with the silverware),

“Now, she’s a STAR.”