Just for today…

Just for today I allowed myself to be OK with me. I allowed myself to say “thank you” and “I deserve it”. I reflected and I even cried. Not because I am sad, but because I am amazed. I am amazed that I am here and doing what I love. I am amazed that 7 years ago I loaded my N70 with Fuji Chroma Color film.. ISO 800 and went to a skate park and just shot.. I don’t even think I knew what ISO was. The sun was bright and so were the colors. There was no facebook.. no twitter.. no blogging. Just me and a camera and a vision. A vision to capture a perfect jump mid-air. A vision to capture youth and heat and sweat and concrete. It wasn’t about posting the coolest pics and knowing the raddest photoshop actions. It wasn’t FOR them. It was for me. And in as much as things have changed over the last 7 years, so many things remain the same. And today as I walked past that skatepark and watched the kids skate.. it dawned on me. They haven’t changed. Sure, they used to wear baggie jeans and now they where skinny jeans. And maybe now they’re into Element and then it was Vans. Maybe the boards and wheels and trucks are different.. but fundamentally not much has changed. A bunch of kids pushing the limits of their curfew to skate just a little longer, get just a little sweatier as they whiz around a concrete and wood park on a board with 4 wheels. And so here I am; digital not film, Lightroom not a darkroom, and some minor comprehension of what ISO is. But fundamentally, it’s the same. I have a vision. A vision to pick up the camera capture. Capture whatever it is that God, life, the universe has presented to me. Each capture a moment.. a breath.. present, awake, alive. So.. just for today, I’m OK. I’m OK with me and my gift. I’m OK with who I am and where I am. Here.. present. Awake. Alive. Blessed.