Postings from The Lake District - I

Some time has passed since I shared a photograph from the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. Life goes on and as many people are, I too have been busy. A few months ago I decided to take my desire to strike out on an adventure seriously and packed my cameras and my bag for England. I joined an old friend and together we spent a week in Cumbria; in the Lake District to be more precise.

Time has been such that I have been prevented to settling down to review the photos I took. But today I felt that more time had gone by than I wanted and decided to sit down and begin work on my next 20 photos... book.. Here is the beginning.

This photograph looks as though it could have been taken anywhere. Not the case. This particular tableau is found in the garden at Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey. Hill Top was the home of Beatrix Potter and this setting pays homage to her precocious creation, Peter Rabbit. 

The evening following my visit to Hill Top, I wrote to my wife telling her that I could see us settling into a quiet life of retirement in Near Sawrey. In that small hamlet, I imagine a life of reading, writing, puttering in the garden, walks in the countryside and sharing an evening of conversation with friends at the Tower Bank Arms.

A man can dream. 

An Afternoon at the Frist

a rainy weekend

perfect day for kandinsky

tea and cakes and talk

New Years Day 2015

The first cup has been poured from the French press and I have made my way upstairs to begin to write.

The new year has dawned and with it all the hopes and dreams that have piled up, waiting for this day. What the year holds will only be discovered in the the course of time. The hope is that it begins well, then perhaps it will end well. At the very least, having looked ahead, we have increased the odds for happy endings. The glorious reality though is that it is all in God’s hands. It is as it says in Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”

And so it is with me this new year. 

In this morning’s local paper appeared an article written by Professor Edward Fischer, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt University. In the article titled “Resolve to have experiences, not Rolexes,” he encourages the reader to:

• Place a higher value on a sense of purpose in life;
• Put aside the dream of things in setting priorities, and focus on improving relationships and experiences; and
• Do not be defined by things.

These are not new ideals. Like myself, many people now look at life as more than a collection of things. We look at life asking, what can we do to live as full a life as possible, not how full we can make the home in which we live. We search for ways to spend our money so that it leaves us with a sense of accomplishment and a wonderful memory, and not with something else to gather dust on a shelf. We wish to discover that thing, or things in our life that defines who we are and answers the question, “this is why I lived.”

As a spiritual person, as a Christian, I know that the greatest task I can undertake is to live my life for God! Submitting myself to His will, to have it revealed to me day-by-day as I walk in relationship with Him, is the greatest purpose for my life. Through this, all other aspects of my life are defined, refined, and given meaning.

Will I continue to make my plans? Certainly. I have goals: books to read, words to write, places to travel to, parts to play and songs to sing. More importantly, I have people to love! These things are the color of life. The purpose of life, “my determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest - my best for His glory.*”

In the new year, amid all the plans, all the hopes, dreams and desires is this - live my life for and closer to my Lord!

May the Lord bless you in this New Year and through all of your days!

~ Greg

* My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, 1 January