Small to Important - Pt 1

Sunday morning, I was excited to read that my favorite podcast, Poetry Unbound, is releasing its next season of podcasts!  In his substack post about the new season, Padraig Ó Tuama, shared about his process of selecting the poems and a bit of the history of the podcast.  He noted that he didn’t expect the podcast to grow into what it has become and he asked a seemingly simple question for his readers to reflect upon...

What’s something that you thought would be a small part of your life that’s turned, unexpectedly, into something important.

I have been sitting with that question the last 24 hours or so and I have two things that I cannot choose between so I thought I would share about both.  The first is that without which this site would not exist...photography.

I have reflected upon my larger story in previous posts  (link and link and link) so I won’t go over the full thing again but simply to note that I went through a period from 2011-2014 (and probably before that as well) where I struggled greatly with deep and crippling depression and anxiety.  As a part of trying to work towards healing, I participated in a program in North Carolina for pastors that changed my life.  There was so much about the experience as a whole that was transformative but one thing that was not “on the agenda” was the beginnings of how photography would become a core part of my spiritual, emotional, and psychological health.

What started as a moment on the shore of a lake in North Carolina, continued with a simple comment by a counselor about Enneagram 5s and photography, and then blossomed after I discovered exploring the Psalms through the lens and continues to nurture and feed my spirit and my life.  Rarely a day goes by where there isn’t a new photograph (or many) that show up on my memory cards or my phone.  Today it was how Scout seems to walk all the time on the grassy edge of the path rather than on the gravel and then a small plant growing out of an old stump base.  A few days ago it was a small Eastern Bluebird poking its head out of a bird feeder and a few days before that it was seeing a faint cross radiating out from the early morning sun rising in a smoke-hazy sky.  Each of these fed my soul in different ways but it all goes back to this simple tool that goes with me virtually everywhere I go.

As I type this, I think of Jesus’ wisdom about the small things from Matthew 13:31-33. Jesus speaks of the tiny mustard seed growing up to a place where the birds would nest and then he speaks of the tiny grains of yeast that can transform a piece of dough into bread far larger.  Small things can make a great difference.

What small things in your life have made a tremendous difference? I’d love to hear about your “small things”

Part 2 coming later...