obsessed with story

how do you go from not blogging since november 2019 to trying to open up a new post in july 2020?
I ask you, how?
the cursor is currently mocking me.
in my defense, I kept telling myself I’d pick it up once things chilled out.
but I think if nothing else, 2020 has proven is has absolutely NO chill and the time is now. ;)

story.
I’ve become obsessed with the why of story.
why I crave it…why I respond to it…where I see it’s effectiveness.
it’s deepened my reason on why I pick up a camera.
it’s deepened my resolve to live a good story.
it’s caused me to hunger for more authentic story - even if it hurts to read or listen to.
I read this in my latest book I’ve been reading, “uncommon ground”:

”the beauty and wonder of art is its ability to tell stories. the artist is a storyteller - as is the painter, the filmmaker, the songwriter. by using stories, artists push people toward the master narrative of our creation, our fall, our redemption, and our jouney through the wilderness with God. people ar drawn to story. the lord of the rings saga are some of my favorite films, second only to john singleton’s boys n the hood. they show us human depravity, the darkness of the heart, and our lives wrestling with a sin nature…
I am a storyteller, and like most good storytellers, my stories are complex, filled with complex people. there are seldom pure heroes or pure villains. in our lives, as in the bible, our villains have surprising strengths and our heroes have tragic weaknesses, and there are lots of people in between…
those who came before me taught me how to describe the reality that I encounter. they told stories. I tell stories. we all create narratives.
we tell stories to give meaning to otherwise messy situations and to reconcile in our minds what all the chaos means. we create heroes and villains to make sense of our stories. who will be the hero, and who will be the villain? sometimes our heroes are more villainous and our villains more heroic than we think. neither we nor our heroes are as flawless as we would like to think. nor are the villains we deplore always that much different from us, were we faced with their same life circumstances. there si always a story behind the characters, one that can reveal these nuances. it take humility to listen with empathy to the stories of the people we encounter…”

yep, stories.
I’m obsessed with them.

I don’t think I’ll be able to tell all that I’ve seen and experienced these past eight months…but I’m gonna do my best to start honing that desire to tell more story.
I know I learn life from them.
maybe you do too.

oh, and the image in this post?
part of my job has come full circle as of late.
I started my career as a photographer only picking it up because of a graphic design need I needed about 12 years ago. at that time I had decided to put down graphic design (mostly minimal typography/logo work) and I dove head first into the chase of photography.
well, thanks to covid19 I was given an opportunity to start designing a bit again for my church.
I forgot how much I loved it.
mixing fonts/textures and now photographic layers. :)
so on sundays, regardless of what I’ve been commissioned to create, I take time to listen to our message (it’s IN PERSON THIS SUNDAY!) and then take an hour or so to create graphically what I heard from the message. *side note* if you looked over my shoulder when I take notes, you’d see I have a restless mind to begin with and my notes usually have loads of doodles and shapes emphasizing different words or thoughts that captured my attention…in an odd coping with visual a.d.d. way, it helps me listen better. we started the new book of john and I’m stoked. john is one of my favorite people in the bible…next to peter + paul + bezalel. one of the “son’s of thunder”, a fisherman - that’s just a studly occupation to have come from in my book! look up the sea of galilee pictures and imagine him fishing on that body of water, one of the first disciple of john the baptist getting to hear him proclaim that Jesus was coming and then finally to become the “disciple that Jesus loved” all the way to the end standing at the foot of the cross being asked to care for Jesus’ mom. CRAZY cool stories this man got to live and experience. I’m excited to dive into this book more in depth.