It's "sunlight" week at the P52 Photo Project but I'm taking a little different twist in that I'm not taking a picture of a sunny day. Life isn't always sunny. Storms blow in unexpectedly, as is the case in this series of pictures. Even though it is getting dark because of night and storm, there is still light, and it is sunlight. I like to think of that when life is getting rough and dark. There is still light from God. I just have to look for it and try to see by it.
I had driven my boys down to Baldwin Park for youth group and spent the next couple of hours in Subway munching on cookies and reading. The sun was setting by the time I picked them up a little after 8, but you couldn't really see it because a storm was suddenly rolling in. I loved the dramatic lighting, so the first shot was taken in the parking lot adjacent to the church office.
A few minutes later, I pulled over next to Lake Baldwin to snap a few more pictures. The lightning flashed in the distance, but I wasn't able to capture any of it on my iPod, which doesn't "do" that kind of light well anyway. This is a beautiful place to walk in better weather, with a path all the way around. I think it's about 3 miles?
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| This photo is almost impressionistic in its style. I like the way the tree branches seem to be reaching up, cradling the leaves. |
Just minutes later, the rain poured down. I like the effect of the water and light through the windshield, courtesy of the iPod, which like I said before, doesn't "do" light well. |
| By the time we got home, just 20 minutes after leaving Baldwin Park, the rain torrents made driving visibility almost zero. The photo quality is technically terrible, but I still like the effect of light and shape. |
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| Our sideyard walkway, so wet and dark that I can barely make out where to step. |
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| My husband took this picture of a normal sunset of Lake Baldwin the next day. He texted it to me and I set it as my wallpaper. He knows how much I like sunsets and clouds. Pretty! |
While we're doing sunsets, just three more pictures I took on June 1. My husband and I went out to dinner at Jason's Deli and shot the first two photos from the parking lot afterwards. Yes, that is a rainbow in the first one! The third one is from the Sam's Club parking lot when we stopped for gas; the reflection in the foreground is from a puddle and in the background is ReStore (a thrift store operated by Habitat for Humanity.
If you would like to see more sunset with clouds and lake pictures, click here: Weekend Gratitude: Lake Sybelia at Sunset, Lake Lily at Dusk.
While we're talking about storms, I ran across two articles I wrote years ago about handling crises in life. They are good encouragement for me right now. Here the links with short excerpts from each:
Tough times?
"Enduring tough times can enable us to connect more completely with those around us, either because we are finally desperate enough to ask for help or because we finally understand enough about their struggles to show a little extra compassion. There are new choices, too… We can stop placing such stringent expectations on others, and instead guard against our own unhealthy reactions toward those who disappoint us. We can humble ourselves enough to seek God's guidance, rather than just plowing ahead with whatever solution seems most efficient at the moment. We can survive with less clutter and start to appreciate simple blessings. Our lives can become less compulsive and more compelling. We can become real, authentic, sincere people, rather than cold, hard, shallow shells. We can allow ourselves to feel and grieve and then move on, instead of covering it all over with a superficial happy face. That's when the deeper peace and joy come along -- as the inner calm right in the middle of the tempestuous storm."
Grace to you in the middle of it all,
Virginia Knowles
www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com
This post will be linked Saturday morning (June 16) at:
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