My Lenten Challenge

I'm not adverse to focusing on a little improvement for forty days, but I've never equated that with giving up a pleasure. Maybe if there's a deeper reason, but deprivation alone does not equal growth in my mind. So it's always a bit of a challenge for me to find a Lenten...well, challenge.

This year a few things came together to present me with an idea that, frankly, scared (scares) me. I have been meaning to learn to use the much better camera that I've recently been given, so that's been niggling at me. And then I took a picture--with my phone!--of my much-loved cow field in the fog. They've recently installed a construction trailer on the site, so the fog gave me a "last chance" to record its beauty. And a friend commented on the photo, "You find beauty in everything."

All those things together made me wonder. I've been so bitter and angry and overwhelmingly sad about this beautiful natural space of sky and grass and mellow cattle being plowed under for an apartment complex. What if I can photograph something beautiful about that process...every day?

I'll be honest, the thought terrified me. I don't feel like I have the brain power to learn the new camera. I don't like talking to most people, let alone confrontational people. What if the construction folks ask what I'm doing? And I hate that this is happening. I had planned to drive the other way so I didn't have to face it. How am I going to see the beauty in the construction, let alone record it?

Well, that sounds like a Lenten challenge to me. So I'm going to try! I may not post the results every day, but during Lent I plan to use my new-to-me camera five days a week to find something to love about that space. Yikes.

I had a serious learning curve with the camera today. For one thing, I left the camera on after I checked it earlier and the battery was dying. So I was turning the camera on and off to trick it into getting a few shots. I didn't have a lot of room for trial and error! Plus, I was nervous as heck about being there, but luckily the crew was on the far side. Annnnnd I think the pictures are too washed out (overexposed?) and too wide, but at least now I know what questions to ask. I welcome advice!

You may have to zoom in to see what I'm talking about, lol!

Victim of my hurried photography--there's a pretty line of orange flags leading away from the center fence post.

More for interest than beauty--these funky gourds are sprouting by the fence???

Again, I would have framed this differently if I'd had time and I want more of the real color, but the trailer in the field looked nice and rustic.