An open letter to all preachers and teachers everywhere:

I get so weary of what comprises most sermons and teachings in most churches today. It is of no practical benefit to me whatsoever to sit and listen to someone preach for an hour about all that is wrong with religion, or anything ELSE for that matter. I already KNOW what is wrong with religion…probably better than most preachers who are preaching against it. It serves no practical purpose for me to go to church and listen to someone drone on and on about what is WRONG with ANYthing. I dare say that there is very few, if ANY of us, who aren’t quite clear about what is WRONG…with ourselves, our families, our friends, our circumstances, our jobs, our churches, our lives and this present world in general. Tell us something we aren’t already quite painfully aware of. Instead, give us some PRACTICAL information that we can actually USE to cope with and/or possibly even CHANGE, all that’s “wrong.”

It seems that “religion” has become the new satan. BTW, the word satan is not, nor has it ever been a proper name for one individual. It means simply…ADVERSARY. Your “adversary” could be anything or anyone, including your own SELF. The adversary is neither he nor she. It has no burnt red skin nor horns in its head. It doesn’t cause little girls to vomit green muck nor spin their heads round and round. But as usual, I digress…

Religion does today, and always has, served a very valid purpose, however lowly. It is a but stepping block in the progressive spiritual evolution of the individual and of mankind as a whole. It was never intended to be an end in itself. And this is where it has become demonized…where man has MADE it to be an end in itself…similarly, just as christianity has made the term “salvation” an end in ITSelf. To understand salvation as an end in itself is to effectively bring the whole PROCESS of salvation to a screeching halt, because it is NOT an end in itself. The word translated from ancient texts as “salvation,” almost always denotes in actuality, a living, moving, breathing CONTINUOUS state of progression toward an ultimate state of wholeness (HOLYness). I absolutely CRINGE when I hear someone ask another person, “Are you saved?” Of COURSE they’re not “saved.” Newsflash: neither are YOU. If you were, you would not be clothed in mortal flesh and subject to illness, injury and death. You would not require sleep nor food for sustenance, nor would you have any need to eliminate whatever sustenance is not utilized by the organism in which you live. You, like the resurrected Christ, would be able to appear and disappear at will (wouldn’t THAT come in handy?!). You COULD share a meal with your friends, but would not have NEED to. You could move quite freely between the unseen world AND the seen, and everywhere in between. I don’t know about you, but personally, I don’t know anyone who has yet achieved such a state of being. And again, as usual, I digress…

Religion is not the enemy. Friends, family and co-workers that use you, lie about you, lie to you, and stab you in the back at every opportunity, are not your enemy. The lightning that runs in on your heat pump and sets it on fire, is not your enemy…nor is the wind that blows down giant trees on your pasture fence nor the beavers that build damns that cause your pasture to flood. Your enemy is not your liberal black, Democratic President, nor is it the conservative white Republican President that he replaced. It’s not even some ayatollah, caliph, imam, mullah or sheik who hides in the desert and extols hatred and death to all who differ from him as being the ultimate solution to all the world’s problems. The enemy is not the religion that preaches your present belief system, nor is it the religion that preaches everything that is OPPOSITE of your current belief system…not the race of mankind whose skin color differs from yours, or the peculiar individual who lives in a culture that’s different than yours…and one that you don’t understand.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, because to all appearances, we still aren’t “getting it.” “Our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) The most powerful, fearsome and destructive of these aforementioned rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world reside quite comfortably in the “heavenly realms” of your own soul, and in your own thought processes…yours AND mine. And their greatest power is in our PERCEPTIONS of what they are, where they come from, what their purpose is and how they work to accomplish it.

GOD’s solution to all that is “WRONG” is so simple, it defies comprehension: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with GOOD.” (Romans 12:21). THIS is the gap that all preaching and teaching needs to be bridging… the gap between all that is WRONG, and HOW we might EFFECTIVELY and PRACTICALLY walk out the command to “overcome evil with good” in each of our own everyday lives, thereby making what is WRONG, right. Now THAT would make RELEVANT subject matter for a sermon.

May he who has ears to hear…HEAR…what the Spirit is saying.

How appropriate, that I would come upon this shot last night while working on rodeo shots…just in time for the National Day of Prayer.

Soooo many things I want to say on this subject. Instead of simply throwing in my own 2 cents worth into the ongoing arguments, may I propose that there might be a BETTER way. Indeed, according to the scriptures that we, as Christians claim to adhere to, there is only ONE WAY to overcome evil. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with GOOD.” (Romans 12:21) Arguing and bickering is not GOOD. Willful ignorance is not GOOD. Spreading sensationalist exaggerations and propagating outright LIES is not GOOD. Attacking everything and everyone who doesn’t agree with you is not GOOD.

According to those same scriptures, “our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) Since this passage was written a very long time ago, I don’t believe the ‘rulers’ and the ‘authorities’ referred to here is our own U.S. President Obama…the ‘evil in the heavenly places’ is not referring to Democrats in Washington, D.C. (or even ‘rogue’ Republicans from Alaska).

On this National Day of Prayer, might I suggest that ALL believers EVERYwhere come together to do just that…PRAY. For at least this ONE day, could we, as believers just PRACTICE what we PREACH…and just PRAY?!

Laziness. It's contagious.

I ate a significant number of simple carbs for supper tonight…fat grams too; did NOT do my P90X workout; did NOT work on my images; and is now going to lay down on her sofa like a slug and watch Monday night comedy shows. Then, she will read a few pages of a mindless fiction and go to sleep. (If there had been any in the house, I would have also eaten a dessert.)

It’s so easy to get caught up in the momentum of things…like a snowball rolling downhill…until that massive snowball turns into an avalanche and buries you, and THEN you realize, “Uh-oh. This thing is OUT OF CONTROL.” If you can somehow dig your way out of the embankment you’ve become buried in, it could be time to rethink your predicament and strategies.

So many things and so many people demand our attention and our energies. Each claim equal importance over all the others. Yet our present reality is that no one can be everything to everyone all the time. Not you, not even me. Though it may often be quite difficult to convince others of this (especially when you have made a habit of attempting to MEET all unreasonable expectations anyway), you must realize this yourself and periodically take stock of your many endeavors and re-prioritize your focus, based upon your OWN goals, not everyone else’s EXPECTATIONS, challenges and demands.

You must remember that your own sense of self-worth must not be tied up in comparing yourself to others, or their accomplishments. You are on your own path of destiny…don’t allow passersby to distract you, challenge you, OR discourage you to get off course. Just as importantly, neither should you allow those behind you to give you an over-inflated sense of your own position.

There are things we do well, and want to learn to do better. There are new things we want to learn and experience, at the same time we’re improving upon the foundations we’ve already built. There are some things that we don’t particularly WANT to do, but MUST do, nonetheless…at least for now. There are 24 hours in each given day. It’s up to us to find the balance for ourselves…and HOLD ON to it.

Sometimes, you’ve just GOT to stop, sit down, close your eyes, and get RE-FOCUSED on what exactly it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and where exactly it is that you want to go from here. Sometimes, the only way to get anything done is to simply STOP DOING, and remember where it was you were headed in the first place, so you can find your way back to the road that’s going to get you there.

On my way home from my shoot Saturday, I caught a glimpse through the trees of this abandoned back yard treasure as I drove off the exit ramp. Not wanting to stop ON the exit ramp, I turned in the direction of the boat and found a driveway leading to an abandoned house, all boarded up with all manner of ‘No Trespassing’ signs all over it, as well as on a chain that blocked the driveway.

Try as I might, I could not figure out how to get to that boat without violating the trespass signs, so I drove back up to the highway, parked on the side of the road, and ran back down the exit ramp to the place where I’d first glimpsed this find and shot with my zoom through the trees.

I got several peculiar stares, but I did, after all, have on my photographer’s vest, so perhaps between that and a big zoom lens, that made me look professional enough for them to dismiss my bizarre behavior as some crazed paparazzi, or maybe they thought I was a private detective. (My ex-husband once said I had quite a knack for detective work…he should know…such said talents played a big part in why he is my EX-husband…) Whatever the passers-by thought, I got my UNIQUE shot without being flattened into a road pancake by a semi. After all, how often is it that you see a boat afloat in a field of wild flowers?!

I deduce that having reached a stage in my pursuit of images, that I’m willing to risk life and limb…and PRIDE…to get “the shot,” I now declare myself a PRO.

SAME FILE, after being processed as HDR and tonemapped with Photomatrix, then tweaked and toned in Photoshop and Topaz Detail:

Can you say WOW?! ALL that detail and color was actually THERE in that original image, captured by the miracle of camera raw technology. But you could not see it until the image was processed through software programs and creative techniques that specialize in finding and pulling out the details of all that unseen data.

Pictures are sort of like people I guess. To be seen in the fullness of all their inherent glory, they often require much “processing” and “tweaking.” That takes both the power and technology of specialized software programs (the circumstances of LIFE), combined with the artistic eye and touch of the creator, who has a ‘feel’ for just how to tweak all the many and varied control settings (GOD) to get the best possible results. The beauty, the color, the intrinsic details were all there all the time. It just could not be PERCEIVED by others without some highly skilled PROCESSING. The artist knew it was there, and knew how to bring it out.

OUR Creator knows and sees the good things in each of us…things that others may not yet see…things that we OURSELVES may not be able to yet see. And He knows exactly what circumstances are required and exactly how to tweak all the many and varied settings of those circumstances, to bring out that WOW factor in each of us. So let go, and let God have His way with you. He’s an expert in high dynamic range processing.

PURCHASE PRINTS!

To date, I’ve shot this old truck from every imaginable angle and in every season (except snow). So recently, when I revealed this treasure to a new photo buddy of mine (Sonja), I felt a bit challenged to find some new approach to one of my favorite and most familiar subjects. This compelled me to get closer than I normally do…really “LOOK” for details that I may have missed in previous shootings…details like the tiny vines entwined in rusted cracks of metal…like the nuance of colors in the rust and the way the light hits the glass in the headlights…the frayed remnants of the steering wheel cover blowing in the spring breeze, or the vines creeping up into the place where a plush seat once rested.

Sometimes when something seems old and outdated and seems to no longer serve any useful purpose, perhaps it has simply adopted a NEW purpose. This old truck no longer hauls hay and feed, no longer takes teenagers to drive-in movies or to get ice cream on a hot day. But it CAN reflect the play of the light and shadows around it; it serves as a nice backdrop for a tangle of tall grasses and creeping vines. As the integrity of the old metal gives way to the ravages of rust, passersby who take a moment to stop and look, can enjoy the varying textures and colors of the process of oxidation and decay. Whooda thought destruction could be so charming?

Too bad I can’t look in the mirror at the ravages of time as played out on my own carbon unit, and appreciate the process of aging as aptly as I can in this old truck. Wrinkles, freckles, age spots and cellulite just don’t come across as quaint and beautiful as rusted metal. But I CAN lose myself–in all my inglorious imperfections–behind the lens of a camera, as I continue to seek out and reveal the surprising beauty of unlikely places.

PURCHASE PRINTS!

It was my original intention to write something inspiring or insightful to accompany this image of an old wooden box of bottles I found tucked under a board in an old abandoned barn. But when it was done, I thought…BLEH.

What I wrote wasn’t entirely bad…nor was it entirely good. Not sure if it’s the value of the content of what I wrote which is lacking, or if it’s just my somewhat sour mood that makes it seem so, but sometimes, perhaps it’s best to simply present an image and let the viewer’s imagination provide the background story.

Maybe no story is necessary at all. Sometimes, just viewing something interesting is, in itself, enough to soothe the restless soul…or at the very least, provide a temporary distraction.

This movie was about a lady who was a bit of a control freak (unlike MOST of us…aHEM), and her approach to romance was very methodical and logical. Oh PULEEEASE…even I know there is absolutely NOTHING logical about love. There’s really a myriad of different things about men that draw the affections of women…what works for any 2 people is always different really, because everyBODY is different. And every potential relationship is based upon the complexities of the individuals involved. But I think that once all that other stuff is figured out (moved past, or even blindly and foolishly IGNORED), it comes down to one thing that is the turning point for a woman…VULNERABILITY.

Have you ever noticed how many women are inclined to fall for extremely FLAWED men – men who lie and cheat, men who are abusive, men who are drunks and addicts, or men who are terrified of commitment? It’s because somehow over the course of those twisted relationships, that woman has somehow managed to connect with the little boy inside that screwed up man. You see, at the core of every woman’s being is the quintessential MOTHER – the nurturer with a NEED (or maybe even a COMPULSION) to console, comfort, heal, protect and care for her children. We fall in love with that vulnerable little boy and set out to “save” him from the cold, shallow, arrogant, calculating heartless monster that has taken him captive and hides him from the world…and HER. About half the time, that actually works…the other half of the time, it doesn’t.

Most women – if they hook up with a liar and a cheater, or a bully, or a drunk or drug addict, or a loose and shallow coward – must at some point admit, if they are completely honest with themselves, that there was ALWAYS a part of them that was fully aware of the fact that they hooked up with a jerk. But the complicated reality is that they fell in LOVE with the little boy INSIDE the jerk, not the jerk. This is the basis of that whole “boyish charm” thing. Boyish charm is where a man has, either on a conscious (or likely more often, SUBconscious) level recognized this weakness in women and learned to play upon it to his own advantage. THESE are the most DANGEROUS men. Sadly, this would include MOST men. This can put them in control. Or, if the woman herSELF is AWARE of this, then SHE is in control.

(Did you really FALL for that? FOOL. In love, NO one is in control. GEEZ.)

I’m not sure, because I’m not a man, and judging from my own love life, certainly no authority on men OR love. But it has often appeared to me that men TOO, have a thing about rescue when it comes to women. Funny, that it seems the driving force behind love is the need to rescue one another, but we seem so much more adept at WOUNDING one another instead of RESCUING one another.

Love is a crap shoot. Sometimes you win, though you’re probably likely to lose more often than win. Crazy stuff to be contemplating on this gorgeous day. I have more yard work to do and horses yet to tame…

In contemplating some manner of ORGANIZED, methodical manner of getting my images ready to present and start selling, I’ve decided to begin working with them by grouping them into series. And I’m going to do my DARNDEST to stick with ONE grouping at a time…to COMPLETE it before moving on to another. My first mission: Cars, Trucks and Tractors. Haven’t decided yet whether to break those down into individual categories or not…probably not, but not sure yet…decisions and the commitment to follow them are difficult for me. But I will TRY…

In the meantime, I HAVE gotten Buy Now buttons up and WORKING on most images at artwerksbydonna.com. Go buy a handful of prints…you KNOW you want to.