Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit

This week’s there is: Habit. The stuff of the everyday — places we go, things we do, people we see.

We don’t often think of habitual acts as photo-worthy occasions — after all, they happen all the time. But it’s because they happen frequently that they’re worth documenting; these moments and people are constants in your life and deserve to be commemorated.

This week, show us something that’s a HABIT. If could be your daily walk to the bus stop, or your daily paper lying on the doorstep. Maybe it’s the guy behind the counter at the deli you always visit for lunch, the stuffed bunny your child must have at bedtime, or the view from your desk as you sit down to blog.

Every morning I like to read our city’s local newspaper. The perhaps most famous 20th century Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, once is quoted as saying: “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” Adding to Barth, I’d say that as Christians we are citizens of two kingdoms-the kingdom of this world (i.e. in particular your nation in which you hold citizenship, and in general as a human being on planet earth), and the kingdom of God/heaven. As I think further on this theme and our calling as citizens in two kingdoms, I also am reminded of the following song by Simon and Garfunkel, “7 O’Clock News-Silent Night.” Check out the other entries here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

This week Sara at the Weekly Photo Challenge writes: Horizon. The space or line where the sky meets the earth. So many places where the sky meets the earth around the world, and millions of interactions between two elements. It can be water, a city skyline, a forest, a wasteland, a desert, a sunset outside your bedroom window.

There are, of course, different kinds of horizons in life beyond the external physical world. There are, for example, mental horizons, thinking new (even sometimes old, yet valuable and time-tested true) and creative thoughts that are life changing. There are emotional horizons, experiencing certain feelings that open up new opportunities in life for health and healing. There are spiritual horizons, which draw us into deeper and closer relationships with others, the world and God, and shed light on life’s ultimate meaning and purpose.

Hope you enjoy my entry this week, the photos were taken back in 2007 on our holiday in Denmark.  Please check out the other entries here.

The North Sea from Hanstholm harbour, Denmark

Windmills along the North Sea, Denmark

Village along Limfjord, Denmark

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

Dag Hammarskjold

As soon as I finish one thing, there’s always something else on the horizon I want to do. I don’t have any intention of retiring from anything.

Marla Gibbs

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You

Autumn Leaves

This week Cheri gives us the following challenge: For this challenge, we want to keep it simple: share a photograph with a prominent color (or assortment of colors) that reveals more about you. It could be a symbolic, meaningful shade; a color that expresses how you currently feel; or a combination of colors that excites you and tells a visual story.

My colours and hues of colours change with the seasons. The above shot was taken while walking in Kin Coulee Park this past week. Check out the other entries here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Infinite

Ben Huberman writes:

As a kid, I loved standing between two mirrors: moving my arms, it felt like playing in an endless corridor of synchronized motion.

We continue to encounter these moments of wonder as adults, too, when the infinite catches us by surprise. We stumble upon it in things both big and small: on the beach, staring into the horizon; in the depth of a loved one’s eyes; or even drowning in the emptiness of a Berlin subway car.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO THAT SHOWS US A GLIMPSE OF THE INFINITE.

Infinity can produce contrasting effects on (and in) us: it might make us feel dwarfed or amplified, afraid or empowered. It might take the form of a wide panorama or a zoomed-in fraction of an object. A starry sky? A sea of commuters on a train platform? Rows of corn in a field? No pun intended, but the possibilities really are endless.

I agree with Ben that the possibilities are endless, a sense of infinity may be encountered in relation to the Holy One of heaven and earth; other human beings; the physical universe; a work of art, music or literature; and more. This week I’ve posted two photos from a trip to Germany back in 2007. Be sure to check out the other entries here.

Front of Cathedral of St George & St Nicholas, Limberg, Germany

This cathedral dates back to the 8th or 9th century. It underwent a major restoration process from 1965 to 1990.

Arches in one of the transepts

The arches have decorative floral and leaf motifs on them and the vaulted ceilings in this transept and throughout the cathedral create an atmosphere of the infinite. This cathedral’s architectural history is quite interesting, reflecting several influences, including: Romanesque, Romantic, Baroque and Gothic. The light shining through the window into the cathedral and even a bit onto the left side of the person reminds me of the Holy One, who is the Light of the world, and fills the entire universe with light that brings with it the capacity to encounter beauty, love, joy, healing, and life in its fullness-in short, the infinite.  When I think of the word infinite, my mind also goes to those famous, inspirational words of British poet and artist, William Blake:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Good Morning!

We all start our days in different ways: going for a run, hitting snooze 17 times, or watching the morning news, among many, many others.  It could be a shot taken during your morning walk, the morning vista out your kitchen window, your cat doing a pre-breakfast stretch, or a textured close-up of your oatmeal bubbling away at the stove. I’m excited to see how all your days start — maybe we’ll all pick up a new morning ritual! I am definitely “a morning person.”

I love the peace and quiet of early morning, when I get out of bed at around 5:30 or 6:00 A.M. most days.

Food and drink for my body

First of all, I eat breakfast, often it is a bowl of cereal and definitely coffee. I cannot start my day without coffee!

Food and drink for my mind & spirit

After breakfast, I spend time with God, reading the Bible, devotional literature, and praying. Be sure to check out the other entries here.

 

100th Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday Sunday, September 29, 2013, I was privileged to celebrate the 100th anniversary of St. Peter Lutheran Church, Stettler, Alberta, where I was ordained and served in my first call as pastor.  Of course brought my camera along and took some photos.

Church Exterior Front

Church Exterior Sideview

Church Sanctuary

I appreciated the opportunity to assist the resident pastor with the worship service and share a greeting/address with the congregation. Meeting with parishioners after so many years brought back many warm and grateful memories too. There were both tears and laughter, as folks reminisced; remembering the saints of old who have gone to their eternal reward; as well as the saints of today and their participation in this community of faith. I learned many things from the folks in this congregation, three of which I am in particular most grateful: the ministry of hospitality and generosity, the importance of listening on a deep level, and the love of and appreciation for music. Most of all I’m grateful to God for his constant faithfulness, love and grace, which continue to be poured out in abundance among the pastor and parishioners of this congregation. To God be the glory!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Saturated

This week, show us a photo of whatever you’d like, but make sure it’s saturated. It can be black and white, a single color, a few hues, or a complete rainbow riot; just make sure it’s rich and powerful. Let’s turn the comments into an instant mood-booster!

Sunrise

The same sunrise

When I think of sunrise, I remember this early 70s song from the British rock group  Yes, “Heart of the Sunrise.” Check out the other entries here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns

This week I am offering a second entry. Please visit the other entries here.

Top of outdoor display at Writing on Stone Park

Top of World’s Tallest Teepee

When I think of Patterns, I also remember this song by Simon and Garfunkel.

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns

From lines to patterns. We see lines and patterns in the world around us, in nature and things man-made. Sometimes we don’t realize they’re there: on the street, across the walls, up in the sky, and along the ground on which we walk.

Pattern Collage: Chair, Ties, Pot Heating Pad, Close-Peg Cross, Floor Tiles

This is my first go at a collage, which I made with the help of  Picasa 3.

Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.

Margaret Mead

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

Stephen Covey

The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns.

Marshall McLuhan

Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.

Fred Rogers

I think it’s harder for people than it should be. But as more and more of us become carbon neutral and change the patterns in our lives to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, we are now beginning to see the changes in policy that are needed.

Al Gore

Patterns are the fingerprints of God’s creative activity in the universe, which create a sense of awe, wonder and order.  Dim Lamp

Be sure to check out this week’s other entries here.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Michelle Weber writes: “This week, share what you see on the inside. It could be something literally inside, like these birds in the rebar or the inside of your home or favorite hideaway. If you’d like, go in a personal direction — share a photo of your best friend laughing, showing how she feels on the inside, or an arresting shot of your son’s blue eyes (windows to the soul, dontcha know). This is also a great opportunity to put what you learned in Jeff Sinon’s guest post on composition into practice.”

My entry this week consists of three shots I recently took on a trip to The Canadian Historic Windmill Centre, at Etzikom, Alberta. At one time the Canadian prairies were dotted with hundreds, perhaps even thousands of windmills to pump the much needed water from wells. Visit the other entries here.

English style windmill

Notice the pole in the middle of the stairway, extending downwards to the ground. It was used to turn the whole windmill in order to catch the wind from every direction.

Poster with history of first windmills in North America

Inside shot of the windmill, I like the contrast background wood, from which the poster is displayed.

Inside the windmill

When I think of windmills, I also think of the song by Dusty Springfield:

The Windmills of Your Mind

Round
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it’s own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half-forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of it’s face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly? 
Was it something that you said? 
Lovers walk along a shore
And leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand? 
Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong? 
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind