Caitrin, Liam and I took a walk last week up the street to the nearby llama farm. I took the camera with me for the first time since I stopped photoblogging on Dec. 26.
What a spectacular day it was for photography! The light was perfect, the sky foreboding and textured, the colors popping. We saw the horses and oxen this time (no llamas). The grass rolled out to the line of trees in surprising jeweled green for January. The red barn is a welcome relic in the land of "little pink houses for you and me."
For all that, I became fascinated with the barbed wire fence. I like the rust, the way they edges pierce the larger, cloudy sky. Took scads of photos. Then didn't know what to do with them. Yesterday, I became fascinated with decoding my site meter to figure out the source of an unwanted anonymous comment to my blog—a barb directed at me by someone who knows me well.
Suddenly these photos seemed entirely relevant.
12 comments:
Don't know why that I have not ever mentioned to you how much I have enjoyed your photo blogging this past year.
Your pictures are imaginative and interesting Julie. Great job and kudos to you for a great year of pictures.
Love these shots Julie - especially the first one. I was going through your 365 blog yesterday for my 365 favorites post ~ your eye and photography skills grew exponentially over the year. I hope to get the post up soon, btw - finally got the time to work on it and firefox kept freezing on me.
Sorry about the unwanted comment. Hope sitemeter gives you what you need to figure out where it came from. It was helpful to me in a similar situation - sometimes it took comparing a few days visits to narrow down to the specific visit.
Sandy that is such a nice thing to say! I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your work to show which photos of each person's you enjoyed the most. You've done a wonderful selecting job.
Thanks for the tip about site meter too. I think I know who it is now.
These shots are wonderful, although the sentiment is saddening.
great pics Julie...you have inspired me to get out my camera and take it along more often....
re: the anonymous responder...sadly one of the downsides of these e-discussions...but thankfully this is the exception and not the rule.
R. Michael
These are excellent. I love the ambiance of the somewhat foreboding sky in the backdrop as well. It makes for fantastic depth.
These photos are wonderful, Julie. I think there is a beauty in the barbed wire, especially with the nice blurred but beautiful backgrounds you've show it against. However, that's where the metaphor breaks down-- I don't think the word beauty can be applied to the "other" kind of barbs!
Great pix, Julie!
I made an anonymous comment on 1/4 to your La Vie En Bleu blog. Is that the barb you are talking about? It was anonymous because it was an impetuous action that I hadn't thought about signing up as 'anybody' and wasn't sure if I wanted to. I've looked over your posts & comments from this blog back and haven't found any other anonymous comments. If my comment is the one you are talking about, I am puzzled by what struck you as a barb - I was so excited by reading your blog and was amazed at how you could go from Rush Limbaugh to Air America. If something in my post seemed pointed or judgemental, I totally apologize - I am not aware of anything and I had no intentions of being negative in any way. I am a huge A.A. fan, a totally 'unlabel-able' Christian who doubts, shouts, loves, cries, soars, seeks, fears & hates the religious right (so un-Christlike to hate of course), (I know, I know - hate the sin, love the sinner - referring to the hardened moralistic, self-righteous, cold, empty judgemental pharasaical). My faith is not in knowing the answers, but knowing the person - ie God. It is a struggle to find people who I can bear my heart to because I am not a 'label', my mind is open, my eyes are open too - I can't bear lies and deceit, I sometimes stick out like a sore thumb in evangelical circles because I am mostly a Democrat, I don't fake anything I don't feel or believe, I just don't see things in traditional ways. But I sometimes share moments of God's presence with people and that's what I seek & what I share with others. It is scary to not have a dogma or creed or follow the visible 'norms' of American Christian experience - I am always on the edge, seeking the truth, seeking the holy, seeking His face. I do believe the Bible although I don't claim to understand everything in it - for instance, if Joseph was sent to Egypt to have the Wisdom and direction of God to save a large portion of the world from starvation and extinction, why did he have to institute the food program in such a way as to line the pockets of the Pharoah? Why did the people have to lose all their livestock and lands just to eat? It seems like a great get rich quick scheme for Pharaoh that God masterminded through Joseph. So I do believe the Bible, I just don't believe everything that people teach about the Bible - I think there is so much mystery that I may not understand until I die, but I know enough to keep going in my quest. I know that God himself is trustworthy - not people, not my very limited understanding, not theology,and many evangelicals say experiences can't be trusted - but I trust God. I trust His holiness, His love. Pastor Steve Schell talks about God's holiness - I love Words & pictures of words - but Schell's description of God's holiness really inspires me - if I can paraphrase - He is Unchanging, Pure, No shadows of darkness, no unkind motivations, no partiality, no sin of any kind - as high as the heavens are above the earth, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and His ways higher than my ways. That kind of purity cannot be vindictive or cruel. So although I don't understand how things are supposed to be sometimes, I understand Who I am seeking, and I have moments of breakthrough where it all comes together. What I miss the most is sharing this with others on a regular basis, like coals burning in a fire - close together and hot and flaming - I miss the flaming faith of youth (when I thought everything was soo simple & I thought I knew everything - LOL).
Seeker, your comment was more than fine. Not you. :) The comment I refer to here was posted to the "Here's what they are saying" thread and I deleted it. That's why you can't find it. The deleted comment was posted by a friend, someone I know well.
Thanks for caring and sharing more of yourself. I recognized your writing voice in your anon comment and you are more than welcome to post comments to this blog.
Julie
P.S. Seeker, I loved reading this lengthy exposition by you and am glad you misread my post here because it was wonderful to hear how you are processing your relationship to God and the bible. I have *never* thought about the Joseph story the way you describe! Wow. That's new for me and makes me want to go back and reread it.
So please keep posting. Great stuff.
Ditto this for me:
"He is Unchanging, Pure, No shadows of darkness, no unkind motivations, no partiality, no sin of any kind - as high as the heavens are above the earth, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and His ways higher than my ways. That kind of purity cannot be vindictive or cruel."
I also liked what seeker said about experience.. especially those of the heart. I think that many religious people dismiss experience because they are uncomfortable with the heart stuff.. they can get their religious minds around doctrines but the things of the heart.. well that's another story :)
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