C’mon. Make up your mind! I live in middle Georgia. While I live in a city it is little more than a county seat with less than 11k people. We have two grocery stores (one a franchise and one independently owned). We have a movie rental store. We have three drugstores. It is a rather quiet existence 25 miles removed from the closest strip mall or office complex. The downside? Boredom. Because I grew up in the city and I spent a large part of my life in the creative arts world I often find myself missing theatres, museums, galleries, and the like. I miss French food and pubs that specialize in Ales. My life now is so different from just barely over two years ago when I lived in the middle of Brooklyn sandwiched between a Dominican neighborhood and an African-American one. Some days though, I am not sure if I want it to be.

I’m confused. Do I want to live on a hobby farm surrounded by acres of pasture, growing my own food, and sleeping by the suns clock? Do I want to continue harvesting rainwater, experimenting with solar energy, and longing for dairy goats? Or do I want a brownstone in the middle of ethnic diversity so rich the air smells of Bahamian beaches and Ukranian bakeries? Do I want absolute silence as I go to sleep or do I want the security of paramedic sirens and fire horns? Which lifestyle makes me feel more alive? Which do I truly want? I enjoy aspects of both and when immersed in one, can’t even imagine the other.

Is one more simple than the other? Six of one, half dozen of the other, I think in regards to which is more simple. Life in the city makes things more accessible; more evident. You can walk, ride your bike, take public transport, etc. You can enhance your life with cultural and artistic stimulation and you probably don’t have to go far to find a friend to spend time with. But out here in the county there is more time to reflect on life. There is better access to God’s creation, a stronger sense of “self,” and a plethora of quiet time to ease the stresses and strains of the day. The downside? Separation. I don’t need a crowd around me to feel good. I don’t need to be in the thick of things. But I do need to connect and I do enjoy a cold beer with good friends and that just doesn’t happen in the milking barn at sunset.

I have never been a lukewarm person though and I don’t intend to start now. I can’t live in suburbia. It’s a nightmare to even think about and I’m either staying out of the pool or I’m diving in the deep end.

What about you? Where is the life that late you led? Where is it now? And more importantly, where do you think it should be?

When the garden is planted and the strawberries aren’t quite ripe for picking and the corn has been sewn and there is little else worth doing on a Saturday morning it is a safe bet that quite a few folks can be found heading to the lake or the pond to do a little meditating – or as we call it around Odom’s Idle Acres, fishing!

Middle Georgia isn’t known for it’s lakes or water reserves but there are a few that have some good size fish and while I haven’t caught a ton of fish on these little outings, I have learned a few things while sitting on the edge of the bank, pole in hand.

Patience Takes Practice – What else is there to do waiting for ‘the big one’ to take the bait? You can’t speed the process up or talk a fish onto your hook. They say patience is a virtue and if it is I think a lot more people – myself included – could learn to be a bit more virtuous. When your kid or your spouse or your colleague is knee deep in telling a story, being careful not to leave out any detail, or when you are the 2nd car at a red light and the first one doesn’t punch the gas like Dale Jr. as soon as it turns green, remember to be patient. There is nothing in life that is worth hurrying through to the point of angering or disconnecting with others. I guess I could use more time sitting on the banks.

Ripples Still Cause Reaction – Not everyone is going to go through this life making waves and impacting all those around them. It just isn’t everyone’s calling. If you notice the next time you throw a stone into the water or you cast out your line, the ripples expand out from the center and we tend to think that the further out the ripple the less impact it has in those outer parameters. But the fish can sense them and they get spooked. They run. So it is with life and our actions. One small act can have an enormous effect as it spreads out from its point of origin. I think of the insurance commercials running now that show how one action can spark another and another and another. But so it is also with poor choices and disagreements. Like a neatly arranged line of dominoes, one harsh word or discouraging action can impact someone to the point where the ripple may never fade away.

There Is A Season – First spoken in Ecclesiastes 3:1, for everything there is a season. Turned to song by The Byrds, A time to plant / a time to reap / A time to kill / a time to heal / A time to laugh / a time to weep / To everything – turn, turn, turn / There is a season. Going fishing midday is a mistake. It is too hot and the sun is just overhead. Fish don’t like shadows and a long, midday shadow can spook them to the bottom. Early morning or early evening is when the folks around here choose to cast their bait. And like fishing, there is a time for everything in life. If we choose to jump into something before the time is right, the results can be ruinous. I am a huge fan of seasons and signs. If you wait for the right season in which to do something, the signs are never far behind. There is a season.

Just Let It Go – Not many people keep the small ones. In fact, the rule is if it doesn’t feed a family of four, it isn’t worth keeping. Throw it back and give it a sportin’ chance. In life, it is often best to just let it go. As humans we are quick to anger and slow to forgive. But if we take real, honest inventory of the situation, did holding on to that anger get us anywhere? Chances are they didn’t and in fact the feelings of anger and resentment started eating away at us. In order to find true peace we need to learn to forgive and forget.

This week has been about anxiety for me. I have felt tremendous anxiety. I have read about God’s protection from anxiety. I have talked with others about their anxieties and I have learned to release anxiety.

Along the way though I found things that make me happy and have sustained me in the lull times.

This week I updated all my social networking profiles like this one, this one and this one.
I started writing for this great ezine and meeting other contributors.
Pan and I began dreaming and trying to figure out finances for this little baby.
I spent hours trying to figure out how this cube could effect multiple housing situations around the globe.
I watched this classic an embarrassing 27 times.
I then contemplated how different my life would be with this in my wardrobe.
But I ultimately decided I would stick to just this.

This week has simply flown by. The high school yearbook is wrapping up so I got a lot of calls asking me to do last minute portraits for students who did not have anything to submit yet. I also spent some time taking some shots to round out the yearbook for final upload. I would complain but there is nothing to complain about. All the students I worked with were great and so appreciative. And the school always goes out of its way to accommodate me. Pan only made the week better by fixing up some amazing dishes this week including chicken and rice (leftovers today, in fact), pork chops with some sort of roumalade and, of course, brilliant steak. And if all that weren’t enough, we are going to be working on bring the gardens back to life this weekend which will include firing up the tractor – always a guilty pleasure of mine. But at work I found myself getting lost on the Interwebs and enjoying a wish list of things – yet again!

• I found a lot of practical ideas when researching and studying the history of these again.
• I found a great picture (which I promptly lost) of these, which I have asked my wife to work on when her shop gets warm again.
• Several times I tried to stay interested enough to read this whole page but instead decided to check out the cliff notes version here.
• About Wednesday I felt like I just needed to remember the good ‘ol days. So, I did…right here!
• Oh….and here too!
• But as always I returned to all I really want in life. Well, with some goats.
• In this dreary, cold weather I would gladly settle for just a few of these, to be honest.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time just kind of hanging out. It’s been incredibly cold here in the southeast. The gardens are long gone. The chickens spend most of their time huddling and lying down. Pan has a part-time job for a few weeks so we haven’t been cooking a lot of fun stuff. Baking has all but stopped post-holidays. I have no photo shoots coming up. Work has slowed down for the time being. So I have been occupying my time daydreaming, writing, reading, blogging, etc. So, here’s a quick glimpse into what it boils down to:

• I think these would probably bring a little light and a whole lot of fun to any 3-season room or craft space
• I have been waiting for this show to air again since it left off last October or so
• I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and this shall be my guide
• Looking at these guys for inspiration for the Buggy Town 1980s prom
• This is probably the coolest friend I have met on Flickr in a long time
• Learning to love REAL scotch
• One day I will have one of these in my hands
• I really want to adorn my walls with some of these

What about you? What are you filling your spare time with these days?

As the title of this post reads, thankfulness shouldn’t require practice. Sometimes though I have to remind myself of all the wonderful things in my life that I should be – and AM – thankful for.

Inspired by Laura at Heavenly Homemakersas well as the Crunchy Christian Mom I decided to just post a quick reminder to myself as well as a challenge to others to take a few minutes today to focus on thankfulness.

First and foremost, I am grateful for Pan. She is a delight to wake up to and go home to each night after work. She is a blessing; my best friend and my partner.

I am grateful for my family. With all of the ups, downs and in-betweens, I am so grateful for them.

I am grateful for my job. There is no mistake about it. I don’t like it all the time and I am not often challenged by it. But I am grateful to have a job to go to that offers me a bit of security; financial and otherwise.

I am grateful for photography and the outlet it allows me.

I am grateful for the weekends. They offer rest and rejuvenation. I am so thankful that God commands a sabbath.

A poignant question, I think, considering I have not so much as looked at this blog in well over a month. So what have I been up to you might ask? Perhaps the question better asked is what haven’t I been up to?

Pan and I were approved to purchase the house we were looking at in early August but ultimately decided it wasn’t the one for us at this time. We politely turned down the financing and decided to just keep praying for God to open doors for us. In the meantime we have taken over a new part of the house (we are currently “living in community” with my folks and sister) and painted it a lovely, tranquil blue with white trim. The only accents are a few pillows and some of our growing art collection.

As fall is approaching we have moved from spring/summer garden status to autumn garden status and are enjoying watching the new growth. I have to say that our spring/summer did exceptionally well with the ‘top performer’ ribbon going to our cucumber plants. And now we are harvesting snap beans each day from a few plants I originally thought weren’t even going to break earth from seed. Boy was I wrong! So to date we have planted beets, vidalia onion, lettuce (red and romaine), broccoli, collard greens and fall tomatoes. This in addition to our pepper plants which are still blooming impressively.

Work is still going fairly well although we have all been asked to keep our hours right at 40 hours/week with no overtime. This is sometimes pretty challenging as I have to be in the office to do my design work but if I am going to have the hours to tend to my “reporter/photographer” role I need to reserve some hours. So as one would imagine my days are a bit hectic, coming and going, averaging up time on the time card, etc. I have gotten some solid photos lately and shown at two different galleries in middle Georgia.

Pan and I have also started attending and working with Vertical Community Church Dirty Mary Crazy Larry movie

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which has really been a highlight for us. We had been praying for some time for God to give us a body of believers to hang with. Traditional churches were not cutting it and we are both over the whole “Sunday best” thing. We literally just ran across Vertical as the pastor, Shane Harris, put an ad in the newspaper I work for. God does, in fact, work in some strange ways. So we have really gone headfirst into Vertical and are quite pleased we have.

So that about brings me up to date. I mean, other things have happened and life always has a new adventure but for some reason I just don’t think too many folks out there are waiting with bated breath to hear from me.

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I wanted to desperately to write a blog post today. I don’t even know why. I just felt like it was time. I wanted to reconnect with the few that faithfully continue to read my words and look at my images. But alas, I am here with nothing to say. It isn’t that life is unfulfilling or even uneventful. Quite the contrary. Each day is filled with new things to do, new people to talk to, new ideas to think through, new pictures to take. But when it come to really sharing them I find myself wanting to be selfish and just enjoy them for what they are, when they are. No repose. No pondering. No analyzing. My feeding the chickens each morning is not some great metaphor for life and I don’t do it whilst Twittering the clucks ‘the girls’ make as they dive head first into their mash. It is just a chore and one that I enjoy.

So, I leave you with that. I am alive. I am happy. I am beginning to hear some thing from God and I just want to relax into them. I hope life is well with you too!

Today was a bit of a sobering day for Barnesville, Georgia.

One of the oldest businesses – Davis Cooper Ford – not only closed its doors recently but today removed the sign from both the pole out front and the side of the building. I got to the auto lot just as workers were stacking the letters against the wall.

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Through the years I have taken much delight in posting images of my personal workspace be they at home or in an office. Well, now that I am a 9 to 5er, my desk is not that great. It is junky, has coffee stains, very little elbow room, and sits next to the draftiest door I have ever felt. Whatever the case, here it is now (looking a whole lot more interesting than it really is).

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