Sunset at Klingman's Dome - Practicing Patience

Discipline is a part of every professional photographer's habit. One of my disciplines is to get myself into position at the right time of day, hoping that the lighting will be "magical."  One evening a couple of years ago, I headed up to Clingman's Dome. The sky was mostly cloudy and not promising. But because my time on location is limited, I put myself into place.

I saw a number of other people in cars, photographers I was assuming. Since it was cold and the sky was uninviting, we were just there, waiting, hoping that as the sun traveled below the horizon, that a slit would open in the clouds.  Truthfully, I wasn't hopeful, but discipline had me out with camera and tripod, just in case.

The time for sunset was past, but there it was, the beginnings of an afterglow, lighting the colors a subtle pink.  All of a sudden the photographers in the cars were leaping out, grabbing their equipment and trying to find their spot.

The color started spreading across the sky.

The colors got brighter and brighter, filling the sky with a beautiful crimson glow.  The sidewalk was filled with photographers trying to capture this magic moment.

As I worked the images later, I put multiple exposures together to try to recreate the beauty of that sunset with the amazing sky color and the beautiful ridges of the Great Smokies.

While I am not always rewarded when I wait out a dull looking sky, it is always peaceful and tranquil to be on location.  And, many times, it is worth practicing patience when the sunset or sunrise exceeds your expectations.

Today . . . . .

Let me say upfront, I am not usually good with things that require daily disciplines - I am too easily distracted and usually have many things or projects going on in my life. But a practice that I try to keep going, however irregularly, is a "quiet" time with God. As part of that time, I have a journal. When I browse through the pages and realize how irratic it is . . . . I grimace inwardly.

The Bible I use with my daily time is a One Year Bible with scriptures set up to read an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, a Psalms passage, and a verse or two from Proverbs. I started in January trying to read all of them in the hope that I would make it through the entire Bible this year. I found, however, that I was just reading it - without having time to contemplate on the meaning for me, today, at this point in my life. So, I've gone back to reading the Psalm passage for a given day. If a miss a few days, I go ahead and read the passage for today's date. I start with the Psalm - and if I find meaning for my life, I may highlight or underline the verses that resonated with me. Because I've been doing this several years - coming back to a marked passage usually reinforces what had special meaning for me.

On a few rare days, the Psalms passage does not have a verse or two that jumps out at me - so I search in the other passages for the day. Generally, I find something on which to focus my thoughts. Today was a day when nothing in the daily passages really leaped out at me, leaving me searching through other back-up resources. My book on Abundance is one that I added yesterday for further enrichment. But today I was still searching . . . . I thumbed back through my journal, happy that over the last several months, I have more entries and more pages, a hint of a little more consistancy. But then I found the thoughts that resonated . . . for today. I found them in prior pages in my journal from perhaps a couple of years ago. Sometimes I note where I found what I journaled - this time I don't know whether I was writing from a source material, or if these were my own thoughts. But they were encouraging to me, and I am posting them here, because I think they might be helpful to others:

Each day is a new beginning, an unwritten page, a clean slate, unspoiled.
Nothing that happened in the past can be changed.
In God's book, it is in the past, forgiven, forgotten.
The past should not be allowed to spoil a new day.
Each day brings new opportunities.
Each day should start with joy:
"I am ALIVE!"
"I have a chance to make today beautiful!"

While there may be times when I need to bring out something ugly from the past to examine it or to understand it, for today, I will keep it in a mental "box" - so that I can enjoy the present.

Today I will look for beauty.
Today I will spend time with God
Today I will be joyful.
Today I will be optimistic - not letting little things obscure the big picture.
Today I will be courageous, trusting God to meet my needs and protect me.