365 Project - Day 362

"Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding.
For wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
She offers you long life in her right hand,
and riches and honor in her left.
She will guide you down delightful paths;
all her ways are satisfying.
Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
happy are those who hold her tightly."
Proverbs 3:13-17

When I committed to today's project on "thinking," I could not decide how to capture my perspective. Then, we were offered this fantastic evening filled with rambling clouds and bright moonlight. I did not realize it at the time, but I needed to rush to capture the shot I wanted, because the clouds were beginning to clear. Unfortunately, as I folded my tripod, I noticed that I had forgotten to turn off vibration reduction and it was too late to reshoot. The clouds had cleared. If only I had taken the time to think.

It is often easier in life to drift like these clouds, or to follow the crowd, to agree with others, or to do as we are directed, without thinking for ourselves. In fact, we are trained to live life this way. There is little room for academic creativity when we are growing up. We are more often instructed than engaged. There is a right and a wrong way to do everything, right? Children are to be seen and not heard. There's a damaging consequence to this. Those children not taught to think, seek, explore, evaluate and conclude for themselves will follow someone else's path later in life.

We create a unique personal power when we exercise our mind. We must not, therefore, simply rely on answers from others. Ask questions. Seek knowledge. Explore. Take risks. Find opportunities to discern reality. Insist on facts.

Be confused. Be curious. The more advanced thinkers will ask absurd and dangerous questions. Wisdom often comes from poking in these crazy spaces. So, we should dare to discover new worlds and new truths.

Our mind is also a battlefield. It takes less energy to focus on negatives and our mind is perpetually choosing between positive and negative thoughts. When we consciously choose positives, we develop a rhythm or muscle, if you will, that will affirm our lives. As a result, new habits form. To stay in this space we have to clear our environment of negative forces, lest we unwittingly adapt to their rhythm.

The interesting bit is this: the more we think for ourselves, the less likely those negative forces want to hang around us anyway.

Blessings.

Today's Photo: Think

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." Henry Ford

365 Project - Day 332

"Great minds have purposes, others have wishes." Washington Irving

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

I recently read an article that likened the number of disconnected youth in America to the size of the state of Minnesota. For this discussion, "disconnected youth" refers to youth ages 16-24 who are neither in school nor working. Millions of youth who are single, at home caring for a baby (one study removed women who in this age range who were married to a working spouse) or seemingly lack the clarity, ambition, or guidance to get where they are intended.

My son is home from University for a long weekend. When several of his high school friends were over today, I wondered what made them seem different. Then it dawned on me that they were coming into themselves and emitted a lightness in becoming more like their authentic selves than the teens society wanted them to be just a few months ago.

At the same time, I had a brief a chat with a student looking at universities and asked what they wanted to study. When they did not have an answer, I probed about studying theater. I got the usual hesitation about the risk of not making a lot of money. I have long grown anxious that adult practicality throws water on the fire of youth passions and ambitions and then, those youth become adults who are no longer clear on their purpose in life.

I thought about this as I was processing these photos for today. Like the recent Super Moon Lunar Eclipse, we start out our lives with clarity and bright anticipation, only to become confused as we conform to the world's expectations. That is begins the time when we hide the person we believed we were meant to be. In the same way, the true nuance of the moon was difficult to photograph during the total eclipse.

Some of us become completely consumed as we accommodate the world's view of us, remaining hidden or disconnected and others are persistent enough to press through and become what God had intended. And, that is a truly beautiful thing.

Blessings.

Today's Photos: Stages of the 2015 Super Moon

"If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:

God’s blessing inside the city,
God’s blessing in the country;
God’s blessing on your children,
the crops of your land,
the young of your livestock,
the calves of your herds,
the lambs of your flocks.
God’s blessing on your basket and bread bowl;
God’s blessing in your coming in,
God’s blessing in your going out.

God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They’ll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.

God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he’ll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.

All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe.

God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today."
Deuteronomy 28:1-14