Day 100 / 2022 Photo Project365

The Time We’re Given.

It’s my hundredth day of this photo project! I have to say this daily activity has served to focus and clarify my formerly random photographic pursuits and goals. For most of my life, I’ve procrastinated and held off from doing things (including creative projects), telling myself I’d “get to them” eventually, do them “later” or “one day” or “sometime” in the future. So of course, all those things I could and should have done along the way, never got done.

Sure, I wrote a few haiku and posted them, but slowed to a few per year. Sure, I took lots of photos, but never submitted them to juried shows to be considered. Yes, I heard of opportunities to show my work in solo or group exhibits with other artists, but never got around to it. And forget about my plans to paint and draw! Those tools and supplies — pads of paper, pens and pencils, brushes, paint box, easel — all unused, gathering dust.

But as 2022 approached and arrived, a number of experiences, events and epiphanies lit a fire — not one of those fake fireplace logs, but a frickin’ bonfire — under my creative ass! Here are my key moments and recent realizations:

I hit my 60th birth anniversary in mid-2021 and went through a six-decades-of-life, mental-emotional-spiritual reckoning thing.
I participated (also mid-2021) for the 2nd time in a global 24Hour Photography project and became journalistically reawakened.
I finally submitted some of my work (instant photos using a vintage “Big Shot” camera) for review and award consideration, paying a little extra to get critiqued by one of the judges. I was deeply moved and motivated by the feedback — they “got” me from just those five photos!!
I started this daily photography-posting project, after consulting with a few photo-friends who’ve done similar projects for one or more years and was told urgently and emphatically by each of them, “Do it!”
I was inspired by a sentence misattributed to the Buddha (scholars have debunked it and proposed alternatives more likely to have been uttered by the Buddha), but these words spoke to me and jolted me into action, “The biggest mistake you can make is to think you have time.“

Now, I’m awakened and inspired, acting on my ideas, realizing my dreams, and creating daily as if there’s no tomorrow. Not living for the moment, but living and creating IN EACH MOMENT. The best thing about it is, although I’m doing it for myself, my children, loved ones, and friends are enjoying it too. Shoulda done it years ago, but as Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” So I’ll make the most of the time I’ve got!