Steadfast

This past weekend, I helped my friend Kelly with her booth at a large craft show. Although to be honest, it was more like Kelly manned her booth and I went around buying other people's stuff.

One of the booths belonged to J.R. Botdorf who is an amazing photographer. His work is absolutely beautiful.

I'm struck again at how art - someone else's interpretation and vision - can move a complete stranger so much. I saw this picture and at once knew that I needed to have it.

There's something about the beauty of this big rock - standing strong amidst the turbulence of the water. The water? It's just doing what it's supposed to. And the rock? It's also doing what it's supposed to. Both are just being - one is not out to make the other's mission harder. They simply are just being what they were meant to be.

In my life, I've felt pressed to change - to be something that is more loved by my family, to be something as pretty as my friends, to be smarter than my peers, to be more successful than my co-workers, or even to be something nicer, calmer, quieter, thinner, or less passionate than what I am about any given thing. It's been within the last year and a half that I've started to realize that I'm fine just the way that I am. Someone who can be abrasive, loud, sarcastic, selfish, downright unlovable...yes. But also someone who can be giving, caring, thoughtful, considerate, and patient. All of those parts of me make up a pretty cool rock.

The thing is, I can choose. I can choose to look at and concentrate on the rushing of the water around the rock - almost feeling the pressure that the water is creating on the rock to move or to change.

Or I can concentrate on the beauty of the rock being exactly what it was meant to be despite whatever forces are around it.

The movement in me the last year and a half has helped me to stop looking to everything else for contentment, for approval, and for satisfaction. It's been for me to realize the power that I have, to realize that I'm not meant to be like anything else other than me... or possibly a better version of me.

The name of the picture? Steadfast.