In September 2008, I lost someone of paramount importance: my father. I spent much of the next sixteen months in absolute denial of my self. As a result, 2009 passed in something of a nightmarish blur. I can count on one hand the meaningful accomplishments, learnings, and actions of that year. At the risk of running you off with a horrible cliche, 2009 left me a shell of the person I had been.
But 2010 taught me something about recovery. Of heart, of mind, of purpose. Turns out, there's much of it to be had, if you take the time to process what you missed and if you throw yourself willingly into insecurity and uncertainty.
Somewhere along the line, balance and self seemed to return, first in simple and physical manifestations, then later in the intellectual, and emotional challenges that I'd generally refused to face the prior year.
People--their stories and their images--have been an unremitting source of these beautiful challenges. A photograph of a friend crossing a marathon finish line, with a look on his face that I couldn't place but was desperate to experience personally. A book, casually lent, that reignited my long-dormant fascination with psychology and biological anthropology. The look of a little boy who is bursting forth with a personality all his own, and my urgent desire to capture that image indelibly.
365 Degrees is my place to share some of these stories and images, along with what inspires and challenges me creatively in the coming year. Thanks for following along.
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