Capturing the Glory of our Spiritual Dawn

    When I saw this windmill I could see the outline, but not the details.  The vast contrast between the bright rising sun and the shadow side of the windmill also deprived my eyes of fine color detail.  My brain knew what was before me, but my senses could not grasp all the details as the wind gently started moving the blades and changing the scene.  

    I looked into the scene and then began to think of our spiritual lives.  We first know the world as it exists around us with natural light and law.  When God's light falls on the land the contrast between the right and wrong becomes distinct.  What we thought before of our environment will radically change if we embrace God's law as our spiritual dawn arises.

    This is the key moment in the transition between dawn to day in our spiritual lives.  If we accept God's law over us, the light will continue to grow into full day.  If we decide to follow man's law alone, we'll need to wait for the street lamps to come on to make sense of the world.  Street lamps are no substitute for God's light.

    Even with embracing God's Law bringing on our spiritual day, our earthly minds will never see the world as clearly as God sees it.  We will, however, be gifted with the knowledge and graces needed to avoid pitfalls if we ask for them with heart, mind and soul.  If we grasp the offered graces, sacraments, and penance we have a better chance to stay on the path to heaven.  

    If we obtain the prize of heaven through the gift of God's mercy, we will one day see as God sees.  The outlines will suddenly become full of detail, the high contrast will yield brilliant color, and the slightest breeze will be noticed and appreciated.  

   Sounds good to me...

-ehw

Six Months and Going Strong

    Amidst the winter illnesses and stresses of life comes one great story...John Paul celebrated six months Friday!  He continues to excel in the growth department, weighing in around 19 pounds and long enough to DEMAND twelve month duds.  As the bib says, he is heaven sent and on a mission to be 100% cuteness (so others besides the Dad says).

    I cannot believe we are so lucky to have John Paul.  I cannot believe the love the other children show him, and the care they give him every day.  I am so blessed to watch the creation of new hearts open to life and the work required to bring it to fruition.  It is a series of observations which through pretenses of materialism into the shredder, because their work for John Paul demonstrates the power of agape love.  John Paul detracts nothing from the older kids, and in the big kids work for John Paul they glorify God.

    We still need prayers for Mom to get fully healthy, but for just a minute I want to bask in a moment of God's Glory captured in a digital form.  I hope it gives you as much hope and joy as I get when I see it.  For if our lives are to be full of toil (or so says Proverbs) seeing a moment of God's makes the work worth it to survive to see another day.

-ehw

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Once Upon a Dream

    When you give my girl music, a dress and a light saber you get a whole new version of the Saber Dance!  She takes after her big sister who as I type is spinning in the kitchen as she loads up her breakfast cereal.   All children at some point need to enter the real world, but for now I love keeping them safe to dream and play in a wholesome way.

-ehw

An Anniversary Present

    This is my third annual tribute to two of my Grandparents on what would be their anniversary month....my Babcha and DjaDja.  This was the flower Babcha loved dearly, and my grandfather scrounged up for all their dates during World War II in Boston, Massachusetts.  A special couple and full of love.  Through better and worse they made a good life together, and have a wonderful love story.  I miss my DjaDja and wish I could visit my Babcha more often...

    What is hard to tell here is that two years ago this bush almost died in the coldest winter in decades.  We had no blossoms last year.  So this year I am loving the sweet fragrance of these flowers, and their beauty before my eyes. 

   My next project is to get my Nana's favorite flowers so I can do the same in the memory of my other grandparents!  Such good people, and examples of time hardened marriages!  Their grey hair are crowns of glory as spoken in proverbs, and had so much to pass on I just did not have time or the experience to fathom.

-ehw

Faces of Joy

    Seeing the joy on so many young faces this weekend at first communion was a great experience.  This is actually one of the best parts of parenthood.  Helping your child experience these good steps towards adulthood should fill you with joy as well.  Helping our children to know and love the Lord is a challenge, and of the greatest importance to parents for our own eternal salvation.  So let us pray we do our evangelization joyfully, and the children respond in kind as they continue their rites of initiation!

   -ehw 

First Communion and a Special Priest

    This weekend we celebrated another wonderful family milestone.  Our third child received the Most Holy Eucharist for the first time.  With family, friends and a wonderful priest around us; we had a weekend to remember for a lifetime.  On a weekend where I had tears fill my eyes as Kevin approached our priest, I just wanted to share one thought with you right now.

   Father Mario, of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Alpharetta, is a very special priest.  Last year it was this priest who rearranged his calendar to help my wife through the miscarriage with sacraments, and me with prayer.  Father Mario, and several deacons, constantly encourages the altar service of my oldest son...and made a call for my second son to join him on the altar at the First Communion Mass.  This wonderful priest also quietly will touch my arm every time I pass him, and asks how the new baby and my wife are doing.  His homilies always have humor, yet never shy away from calling us out to increased holiness.  He also does not shy away from answering tough questions on the homily from my three oldest children...and this happened twice this school year already!

    I ask for each of you to pray for the ministry of this special man.  He is doing God's work, and not shying away from the challenge of calling men out to join him on the journey.  

    God Bless you Father Mario!

-ehw

P.S. With so much craziness around us, I wanted to let you my friends know people do exist in this world who are making a difference to add souls to God's Kingdom.  For so many of them, raising them up in prayer is the only thing we can do to help sustain them.  While some may think this a trite thing to do, it actually can mean the difference in their sustaining their strength in their difficult job!  If you agree share the sentiment along the way!

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Father visited each First Communicant at the sign of peace

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Father Mario takes a moment to bring God's grace at every opportunity

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Father Mario's standing order to altar servers...if you are here for daily mass suit up!

Travel into the wild...

Yesterday I met a young photographer and she showed me some of her urban explorations....pretty cool stuff.  Well talking to her I also made me long to get out a shoot myself.  You know work and play often don't mix it up very well...and the client projects I did make over the last month were for internal release only!

So after we got home, fed the kiddos and enjoyed a quick date night out I realized I still had some daylight left.  Instead of urban exploration I did some deep forest exploration from my backyard.  I spent the rest of the night playing with development settings, Aperture, Capture One, OnOne, Nik Suite....just to see what I could do.  This is one of the three I liked.  I wanted it to make me think I was really deep in a mysterious woods. I hope I fooled you!

So the moral of the day is..as Bob Coates would say...take some time to play and imagine.  Sometimes it unlocks doors you would not know existed.

-ehw

PS Fujifilm X-E1, 23mm, tripod mount, Capture One and Silver Effects Pro2.

Missing my Kiddos →

What does a Daddy miss on a trip?

How about the youngest playing in sand by the lake?

Or the lovely, thoughtful girl writing up her dreams in her special spot?

Or the good son who always tries to please and grow into a responsible young man way to fast?

Or how about the funny boy who always provides us wisdom in words as sharp as diamonds?

And of course the Momma who builds a warm home where love can grow.  (If I posted her photo without permission she'd kick my butt)

Funny how some time away always makes you long for home...and you forget about potty training, the work of cooking for six, someone's sniffles, and the lost this or that...

Well time to head off to work...I bet my feelings are the same as those shared by every good Dad on the way to work...

-ehw

P.S.  Three taken with the new X-E1 and various lenses...and one taken by a six year old Pentax K200D..yep it still takes good pictures if treated nicely! 

Directions, Corrections and Instruction

     I once was afraid to ask for help. To ask for help was then a sign of weakness.  Then one day a revelation hit me when I realized someone always is over me.  It does not matter if I am the subject matter expert, the boss, the Dad or husband. There is always a boss, a customer and of course God watching over me.  Since I must ultimately answer to a boss, knowing their needs was not weakness but a strength. So why was I still afraid to ask for directions, corrections and instruction? 

     The solution seemed pretty self evident after further reflection.  Try to get it right the first time, corrected in the first edit for follow on publishing, and to keep learning so my problem solving capabilities improved before a new problem arose.  To accomplish those goals I needed directions, corrections and instruction to improve my imperfect self.  Technical manuals, practice, improved listening skills, and learning more about the Lord began to aid my growth as a person in many ways.     

     So get over the pride of self, and fear of perceived weakness.  Get direction, correction and instruction.  You'll be a better person for it, and a whole lot easier to live with!

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-T1 in Savannah, GA.  Raw file processed in Captue One Pro with a few minor edits.  I highly recommend trying this RAW developer and processor out.  It is a superior product to both Aperture and Lightroom for most Raw conversions...digital asset management no so much so far. 

On Main Street Roswell you can pickup a front row seat here to watch the world go by with a cup of joe...oh that is cappuccino in the fancy neck of the woods.  People sitting hear have however also been known to bring up some coffee and a Krispy Creme from down the street though!

Well Monday is here...and I rather be there instead of work.  Oh well...got to earn a living!

-ehw

This is another example of post processing done in Capture One.  I continue to find the tools are very sophisticated, and attack problems a bit differently than Adobe or Apple's solutions.  I'm liking them a lot!  Speed is also pretty darn good on my rapidly aging (in computer years) iMac.