Happy Benchiversary!

Wow - over the last year, I have welcomed nearly 250 subscribers to Imago Scriptura! To each of you (and those who were here before then) - THANK YOU! I am so humbled by you clicking that “subscribe” button and am grateful to be sharing this journey with you. Today is a bit of a “looking back” post but also some current moments.

It was a year ago that the quote from Karen Eiffel (from the movie Stranger than Fiction) really came to life for me. In the movie, she said, “Like anything worth writing, it came inexplicably and without method.”

That describes perfectly my experience from nearly a year ago when I began writing my book, Ordinary Benchmarks. A year ago right now, my wife and I were in Acadia National Park on a “yay we’re empty nesters” trip and were soaking in the peak autumn beauty of that amazing place. Here are my posts from that week.

Acadia Part 1 - Hope and Breath

Acadia Part 2 - A Picture Is Worth...

Acadia Part 3 - Scout-less Hikes With Scout

Acadia Part 4 - A Place to Play and Pray In

Acadia Part 5 - Beauty, Wonder, and Changes (Welcomed and Not)

While we were there, 745am came into clear purpose for me. You see, for most of the year leading up to that time, I was photographing one bench at a local park at 7:45am many mornings. It started as just a curiosity but then turned into something that, at least initially, I wasn’t sure where it was going. I had created four-seasons series before (one photo in each of the four seasons of the same location) but this was turning into well over 100+ photos - kind of hard to do a photo series of those. Prior to our time in Acadia, I knew that what I was experiencing in these moments was finding meaning in the ordinary bench, at the ordinary park, at the (roughly) same ordinary time. But it wasn’t until Acadia that the muse started to speak and the writing just began to flow inexplicably and without method. In fact, a lot of it came in notes I made on my phone while out early for sunrises in the park.

I began writing about what I was seeing in the photos from earlier in the year, drawing upon some of what I also had written in my journal on those days and eventually by mid-November I caught up to the current photos and began writing as the moments were photographed. It was a remarkable time for me as the ideas, words, and feelings just flowed beautifully. I am also so indebted to my friend Michele for her incredible design and layout work!

Eventually it all came together in what was titled, Ordinary BenchMarks and self-published through Amazon or purchasing the ebook directly from me (less money in Bezos’ pocket)

Ordinary BenchMarks Info Page

Ordinary BenchMarks Amazon Page

I share all this as both an introduction of sorts to those ~250 new subscribers but also because I have found myself at the bench at 745am several times over the last week. It wasn’t intentional but just kind of happened - walking the same path and realizing what time it was. The photos you have seen sprinkled through this post are those three images over the last week. The bench is still there but the water level has changed and there’s some “new things” that weren’t visible last year. But still, there is the call to intentionality of finding meaning in the everyday.

So if you are interested in the book, you can click here for more information about it or to purchase it if you’re so inclined. But it has been fun to just be back at the bench once again and to share some new 745am bench photos…

Other Noticings From the Last Week-Ish

This next photo is from the same morning of the first bench photo - I just loved the way that the sky was reflected in the water and the patterns of color and light on the water’s surface.

And then birds and murmurations (of a sort)…

This video is about 2.5 min long but was of something I don’t remember ever having seen before. I have seen murmurations of birds in the sky (the amazing patterns that groups of birds make) but here it was like a murmuration of birds on the surface of the water. They kept having these moments of swooping down and making these tiny ripples on the water and then flying back up again. You can’t really hear it in the video but there were these tiny sounds that sounded almost like “tapping” as each bird made contact with the water. It was mesmerizing to take in.

And then this from another location several days ago- just the sounds of hundreds of birds in a tree above Scout and I as we walked. It was so beautiful to walk towards and just have everything else be drowned out by the songs and chitterings of these birds. A similar moment happened this morning. There were several trees ahead filled with the sounds of these birds and then as another person walked by the birds all took off in two big groups and the sound simply stopped. What had been a cacophonous sound of hundreds of birds was suddenly silent and replaced by patterns of birds flying in these amazing formations in the sky. But here’s the sound of the first moment I described

Happy benchiversary!

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

PS - A shoutout to the congregation I serve - they did a beautiful sharing in our service on Sunday for pastor appreciation Sunday. They had a cake (with yummy buttercream frosting), a beautiful card, and a nice gift and they also got Scout this ring toy as she’s part of the ministry team as well. Scout chewed on it a bit and then kept it close for her Sunday afternoon nap...