A Sense of Place - A Bookseller in Sepia

Tonight...still behind in my Beyond Beyond lessons...was a jaunt to our local Barnes & Noble to pick a few magazines as a part of our prep work...(it's been a while since I bought a magazine...they've gone UP)...

So I decided to kind of put some of my thoughts from my Kat Sloma course to work...she makes us think about everything!  (Very attractive to a thinker like me...)

For some reason, since color was not my main mission...and I was editing...it seemed that color was a distraction, yet b&w too cold...after all, it's spring!

And look who greeted me as I came in the door?  Oh, Grace...only color for you my dear.  You deserve no less...

I saw this man...probably retired...maybe interested in a second career to supplement his retirement income...or he was really reading a "Dummies" book but did not want to stand in front of the "For Dummies" sign...

And this man...in his golden years.  Was he trying to fill up his time now left alone as a widower?  Or was his wife at home and he needed downtime away from the chatter?  Perhaps he just had cabin fever and wanted to feel the breeze on his face, getting out of the house...perhaps have a cup of coffee before leaving...

And of course, this shelf of Shakespeare...

On the second level, I was attracted by these chairs...not in a perfect row...turned every which way...for patrons to sit down to peruse their possible purchases...

I wanted to take a view from upstairs...a birdseye of the bookshelves and a glimpse of the cafe...  Now I've heard the discussion of shooting with intention, but I tend to enjoy seeing what transpires.  Shooting several shots, I was unsure if I wanted people in the scene...but it became hard to avoid.  When I saw this shot with the blurred boy, it made me smile...  You and I both know kids do not stand still on escalators!  They scurry...as he did here.

And yet this public place has a strange phenomenon...a place to be alone but not by yourself.  Many focused on computer screens, oblivious to others...even of me snapping their photo!

What a fun story to write with photos to give you a sense of this place through my eyes!  See you at the bookstore!

A Sense of Place - When is a Place No Longer the Same Place?

I was reflecting on my previous post and about how I travel back to some of the same places but it's no longer the place I yearn for...

What causes this?  And is it still the same place?  Let me give you an example...

This is my Mamaw's house...although it was sold almost 40 years ago.  This is the property, the structure, and the address of the place where we spent several weekends a month and full weeks in the summer.  Those are her roses on the left still growing and those hedges have been there as long as I can remember.

But the front door is closed.  There is no one on the swing...not even me and my brother swinging high...no sound of my Mamaw's broomstick pounding underneath the porch floor warning us young'uns to not swing so high that it flies off its hooks.

I don't hear The Secret Storm...her favorite soap opera...playing through the screened windows.  And the house is no longer green.

And where is the vegetable garden...the one where I toddled out with my Mamaw holding the colander with two tiny hands for her to put the fresh cukes in...where I could smell the vine-ripened tomatoes in the next row?

And where are the Chase's who lived next door?  Donna and Doris...who my sister and I spent time with when we were visiting?

Where's the swing on the back porch...the one too close to the house that we would swing horizontally? Where's my Bebaw, hunched over on that same swing?  Where's the smell of a quick whiff of smoke from his Lucky Strikes?  And where's the "bird bread" in the yard from his uneaten half of toast from breakfast?

And where's the clothesline and the wooden clothespins in the hanger that looked like a dress?  Where are those crisp white sheets freshly laundered yet still wet that I loved to run through?

Where is the smell of Zest soap on our skin as we go out the kitchen door fresh from our bath in the bear claw tub after a day of playing in the hot, humid summer?  Where is Mrs. Chase who came over from next door having decorating a plain cake my mother made for my sister's birthday?

And where is my Mamaw and cousin, Lynn, waving from the upstairs porch as my family and I head north to Ohio on the road below...after a wonderful time with my mother's parents and family?

So...when is a place no longer the place it once was?  Change is imminent.  Life is not static.  While much of the aspects of this place that gave it meaning is long gone...this place has amazing power...

The power to stir the senses and emotions of days I love to remember...even after so much has changed.

A Sense of Place - Week One Reflection

It's been awhile.  I think I needed a little breather after a 14-day series...

Of course, I remain entrenched in Kim Klassen busyness...including a new class in her Test Kitchen... but this week I plunged into a new adventure with a Kat Sloma course called, Sense of Place.

Oh maaaaaan...DEEP!  First week's focus:  Do you photograph as you travel or travel to photograph?

As Winnie the Pooh would say, "Think, think, think..."

But the "committee in my head" believes that it has to be: I travel to photograph!

Now, in past posts, I have written about my Appalachian roots...and while living in Ohio with West Virginian parents, you are hardly aware of anyplace else.  But after my father died in 2009, I longed to find out more about my family tree beyond my grandparents...discovering a five century legacy of Appalachian roots. I realized West Virginia is truly my home...and go their at least three times a year to capture it all.  Not just places...but the taste, feel, smell, people, emotion, the oldness, the heart and soul of its true essence and history.  And of course...at least one WVU Mountaineer football game is always an annual event!

And as you can see...the "sense of place" at a Mountaineer game is its people...its fans!

I travel to photograph the idiosyncrasies...another part of the "sense of place"...

Rusted, non-working vehicles in fields...or sometimes on concrete blocks in the front yard...

Mountain isolation colliding with the high-tech world...

It may be a humble abode...but we have our satellite dish!

An Appalachian woman scurrying into the IGA...

And the ruggedness of a hard life in the hollers near the Kentucky border...

And of course its sense of history:

A foundry and repair shop for Shay engines that repaired what pushed the logging cars up steep mountains during the logging industry in the early 20th century...

Civil War era of Harper's Ferry...

And sense of my history...

The one-room schoolhouse my father attended...

The log cabin built by my 5th great-grandfather, Henry McWhorter.

The little mountain church my father began attending as a baby, where he heard the Word he based his life upon.

And the gift of a migrant scarlet tanager in the trees above my great-great grandparents' grave...

And of course, the sense of place in its breathtaking beauty...almost untouched over time...

The cotton grass of Dolly Sods...

Abundant fields of wilflowers...

White-tailed deer in the mountain mist...

Endless mountaintops...

Tumbling waterfalls from mountain rivers...

Dappled sunlight in the holler known as Thurmond in the late afternoon...

and unassuming wildlife...

Some known as a West Virginia speedbump...

And yet...I can never capture it all...put it in a box...and bring this sense of place home...

And what my heart hungers for the most is something that cannot be filled...

The longing to touch and embrace those dear to me who are no longer part of this world...

My family...

A sense of place...is it elusive?  No...as I always carry it in my heart!

A Happy Ending - The Battlefield of the Mind - Day 14

As I close this series, we are in the days where we ponder the last days of Christ before His death...and return to life...

I have come across a verse in Scripture that has been quite perplexing.  It says,

But we have the mind of Christ.

I Corinthians 2:16b (ESV)

What does this mean?  I found this explanation from Joyce Meyer* quite interesting:

If we have His mind, we will think positive thoughts. We will think about how blessed we are--how good God has been to us.

Jesus was positive, in spite of being lied about, lonely, misunderstood, and a multitude of other negative things. He was deserted by His disciples when He needed them most, yet He remained positive--always able to offer an uplifting, encouraging word. Just being in His presence would suggest that all fear, negative thoughts, and discouraging hopelessness would evaporate into thin air.

The mind of Christ in us is positive. So when we fall for the opportunity to be negative about something, we should instantly discern that we are not operating with the mind of Christ. God wants us to be lifted up. It's the enemy of our soul who wants us pressed down--depressed. We have many opportunities to think negative thoughts, but that's not the mind of Christ at work in us. We don't have to accept those thoughts. They are not ours!

*This does not mean the owner of this blog agrees with every theological position of this author.

But between the impact of watching The Bible this month, going through this study, and an experience last night...I have had a personal revelation.

Last night, Edster and I went to a Good Friday service to hear Alexander Adelson and his wife, Svetlana, Messianic Jewish missionaries to Tel Aviv, Israel.  Alexander was born in Russia; his wife born in Ukraine.   They serve through the organization of Jews for Jesus.  They believe the Lord called them to Israel as 1.2 million Jews from the former Soviet Union live there now.

He demonstrated how the Passover feast points to Jesus...with great symbolism and a wealth of history of each element.  I saw how at the Last Supper, recorded in Scripture, we see only one part of the Passover meal...but after learning of the entire Passover ceremony, I was humbled at the meaning of the cup of the wine and bread...and the brokenness of the Passover Lamb on my behalf.

If a God would send His precious Son...who uplifted, healed, encouraged and truly understood those He came to save...to be broken, be abused, endure character annihilation, be abandoned...to redeem me...to ransom me...at such a price...how can I be anything less than deeply valued and precious?  How...now convinced that God must see me through His eyes is incredible...forgiven, clean, and ransomed...can I entertain any thoughts or ruminations that say otherwise?

Thank you, Jesus, for deeming me worthy of Your sacrifice, Your vulnerability, Your love, Your passion, Your compassion, Your forgiveness.

Help me to be victorious in this battlefield of the mind...

Remind me of Whose I am...

And may my behavior and thought life be indicative that I truly do have the mind of Christ.

Cynical Love - The Battlefield of the Mind - Day 13

Have you paid attention to the ever-expanding rhetoric in our culture these days that drips of cynicism and sarcasm?  (Turn on a cable news channel or watch a sit-com, if you doubt it.)  How everyone is suspect of having their own agenda or revealing only half-truths?  That everything is a scam or pyramid scandal or ponzi scheme?  Someone wants to get the upper hand in their position, their popularity, their standing at your expense?

And while I do not believe God wants us to be naive...actually He wants us to be wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16)...to be aware, with eyes wide-open, to be discerning...but in that same verse Jesus talks about also being harmless as doves.  In other words, don't handle the insight you have been given carelessly and thereby hurting others.

In the battlefield of our mind...the enemy can twist our thoughts about others in a way that matches our culture...being suspicious, cynical, sarcastic...even paranoid.  Ever walk into a room that gets quiet and you are sure they were talking about you?  Well, do you know that they were?  Or innocent, inadvertent oversights by others...your mind creates scenarios that something innocent was part of a deliberate slight or slam against you...and without empirical evidence, the mind creates an offense against the innocent, and a root of bitterness evolves, and the next thing you know you are harboring unjustified grievances against this person.

Jesus says, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its

own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things,

hope all things, endures all things.

I Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)

If love is to be our trademark, we must guard against the culture that wars against this battlefield of our minds before our love for God and each other is no longer recognizable.

Goals Gone Wild - The Battlefield of the Mind - Day 12

It's that time of year again...time for my annual review...time to see how the past year went.

Every year we set some goals for achievement...and they just get kind of lost throughout the year...for a variety of reasons. I know this year that an opportunity came along unforeseen that put some of those things on the back burner.  Flexibility can be a good thing.

I found an article that makes some good points. I totally LOVED the title: Goals Gone Wild...

Basically...if viewed in a Christian context...goals (good, wholesome, moral) can be part of the arsenal the enemy uses in the battlefield of the mind. How?

1. Goals that are too specific, create a narrow focus, that we are not looking at any other issues going on in our lives that aren't related to our goal. If I am so focused on my ambition with writing or photography, but fail to see some negligence in the areas of Christian fellowship or my marriage, than I have failed some priorities God has declared to be in my life.

2. Goals that have a specific quota within a certain timeframe can either be too high or too low. Too high and unrealistic, I can become discouraged and the work becomes unsustainable. Too low and I can miss potential that God has given me. (There was a great example of a study in 1997 where cabs in New York City tended to disappear early on rainy days because people did not want to walk in the rain, so the drivers met their quotas early and went home.)

3. Goals that are highly-specific and ambitious can result in risky practices. Early in my social work career, I worked in an arena where billable hour productivity had to be attained to remain an employee. Even if you went on vacation for a week, you had to meet that week's productivity goal...so you actually had to be ahead of your goal to get a break. As a result, there was a temptation to provide only what you could bill for, as opposed to a holistic, best-practice approach, that really was in conflict with doing what is best for your client.

4. A major pitfall of ambitious goals is unethical, sinful behavior to meet them. This is the greatest issue. How many Christian leaders or those in ministry have good and purposeful goals, only to fall and fail others, because their goal became their focus instead of God's plan and purpose?

Do you know the Bible speaks on this, as well?

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and

 will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? 

Your life is like the morning fog—

it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 

What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, 

we will live and do this or that.” 

Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans...for all boasting is sin.

- James 4:13-16 (NLT)

So...do not let your plans become a ploy the enemy can use to get your focus of God's ultimate goal for us: to do His will and be totally dependent on Him.

(Oh...and my review is April 4...I'll let you know how it goes...)

Ooooooohh...Shiny! - The Battlefield of the Mind - Day 11

Wow, 3 days left...this series has been a daily commitment...but I've grown through it.

Now...if I've made you think that following Christ is one battle after another...I've mislead you.  It is not...for one thing, would want to deal with that...The other, that would make the strategy of the enemy way too obvious and expected...

When I was little, my mother and I would often be in a store shopping. She loved the "five and dime" stores like Grant's, Kresge's, or Woolworth. I'd be walking along next to her, enjoying her company, enjoying being near her...when something else would get my attention...

(oooooh, shiny!). And after giving that "something" my full attention, I'd look up and my mom was gone!

Panicked, I would go up and down the aisles of the HUGE store (always huge when your a first grader) trying to catch a glimpse of her...THERE SHE IS...in the fabric. And that peace would come back and I wanted to be even closer...hold her hand.

We can be going along the way in our green pastures and still waters...thinking all is right with the world...

and then look up only to not be able to see our Shepherd. We were distracted and failed to follow. And alone...we become vulnerable.

But thank God for the boundaries He has provided to keep us from things that might devour us...like big, ugly Bruno dogs...

And for Christian friends who help us along the way...especially girlfriends.  But we DO have a good Shepherd that loves and cares for us, and watches over us, along the way!

Casting the whole of your care...all your anxieties...

your worries...your concerns..., once and for all on Him,

for He cares for your affectionately 

and cares about you watchfully.

I Peter 5:7 (AMP)