This week FLEW by. I can't believe I'm already writing another one of these. Time flies when you're having fun I guess! This week has been really good. I feel like I'm having an impact, and also being impacted. I've had a lot of time to rest and reflect, and I'm starting to feel rejuvenated and ready for these last few weeks of travel.
Wednesday-Friday
Honestly, these three days were a blur. I was completely exhausted, and I don't remember exactly what happened on each day. I know I shot some photos and videos at the women's bible study on Thursday morning, filmed some interviews, and watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi, on Halloween.
My editing software on my computer also completely stopped functioning, and I spent 6+ hours on with unhelpful tech support before getting the problem fixed with something that took LITERALLY five minutes. Had to laugh about it. It really do be like that sometimes.
Saturday:
Things improved greatly! I spent the morning re-watching the Odesza concert I went to over the summer, and that never fails to make me happy. In the afternoon, I went downtown to take some photos, and walked around for quite a while. There was some kind of festival happening, so there were tons of people and lots of food being sold from the market in the main square. I witnessed a man playing soccer with his dog and it was one of the greatest things I've witnessed.
That evening, I went to the Stephens' house (the missionary family I'm working with) and we ate dinner together. After dinner, we made a big fire and roasted marshmallows and relaxed by the fire for the evening. It was raining, but we were under a roof on their patio. Crackling fire and pouring rain are contradictory, but equally calming sounds. It was a beautiful evening.
That night, I spent two hours on facetime with a girl I only know from Instagram, Joanna Schaus. She is an incredible humanitarian photographer doing amazing work for refugees. Check out her website and blog! We had an amazing conversation about photography, social media, life goals, etc. Eventually, our conversation led to the impact of our work. Her humanitarian photography vs. my landscapes and travel photography. Both are important, but as the conversation progressed, I started to realize that while I love the landscapes, maybe that's not fully where my heart is. When it was time to go to bed, I laid down feeling quite inspired, but also a bit confused about what God was trying to tell me.
Sunday:
I went to church in the morning, and heard a great sermon about prayer. It's been sooo refreshing to be back among people who share my faith. After the service, we had a big church potluck!
That afternoon, I headed back with the Stephen's, and we spent the afternoon watching movies and eating ice cream.
This whole day, I started getting ideas, seemingly generated from the previous night's facetime conversation. It really feels like this idea was planted there. Gonna talk more about this in the conclusion.
Monday:
Spent the morning and early afternoon at the church, working on my laptop. Then Leland and I went for a long walk and had a great conversation. Last night, I had dinner with the Stephens, talked to my mom on the phone for a while, and watched How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (phenomenal movie if you haven't seen it.)
Tuesday:
Despite a fairly laid back week. I really felt like I needed a day or two to fully relax and reflect on the past few months. So I've taken the day to pray, watch Netflix, and eat pizza. Days like today are so necessary. The last few weeks of this trip are gonna be a bit of a whirlwind, so I need to have as much energy as possible!.
Conclusion:
This week, I had at least six or seven different conversations that ended up being about the idea of balance, in one form or another. Obviously, there was something God wanted to say to me. Life really is all about balance. Work vs. relaxation, time with people vs. time alone, diet, everything.
For me, I think I really needed to take that step back and just let my brain and body have a chance to recharge. For two months, I've constantly had to think about the future, about what's next. So taking time to let all of that go for a while has been so important.
Also, there's the photography. I will always love landscape photos, and I will always love going on adventures. But like everything in life, there has to be balance. And I feel like I need to be doing more with my work. I want to have a positive impact on people, and use my talents to change the world for the better. For the first time, I feel like I have an idea of what that might look like. I will build something that allows me to use both landscape photography and humanitarian/missions photography to change lives. Granted, that idea is extremely vague and I truly have no idea what the path looks like yet. Just a current location and final destination, but I'm excited to see that path come together.
For you this week:
Where are there imbalances in your life? How can you change the scales?
Songs for the week:
Check out Marshall Marshall
I Just discovered him this week. Soooo good.
As always, chase your passions, stay stoked, love first and remember that fulfillment lies on the far side of discomfort.
Until next week,
- Zwiegs
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