Will I Pay Attention?
A quarterly update of some recent work. This season seems to be the season of paying attention. I wish I could take credit for that, but those are Joy Smalley's words, in an essay for Velvet Ashes.
"Everyday my children come to me with bids for my attention. They want to tell me stories, they want to sit with me, play with me, experience life alongside me all the while learning what they are worth by my response. Will I pay attention? Will I stop what I am doing and play? Will I choose them over others?"
I'm not one who often chooses to stop, listen, pay attention, make the quieter choice. But perhaps this season of few words is just for that.
To pay attention.
Thankfully, turning these words into a picture of a life overseas gives me a small chance, every day, to do just that.
The above image is from my own essay on sitting in the discord, revelling in the full catastrophe. For me, it feels like the clanging cymbals of life and faith in a messy, fallen world. Or, as a wise man once said, “the human story is dissonance (or worse).”
Isn’t that comforting? :)
Photo by Peter Hershey on Unsplash
PS. A few people have asked where the images come from. I find almost every image at Unsplash, my favourite site for free (and excellent quality) stock photos. You do get the option of crediting the photographer, which I try to do whenever possible! The fonts are often from Creative Market. You can sign up for a weekly email offering six design goods every week. Most of them come with a standard license, which is perfect if you're working on a particular project or website. And I do nearly all the work using PicMonkey, a free photo editing service.