Find Your Rose

Red Rose Bloom
Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
 or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

Abraham Lincoln

There's not a person alive that has never experienced some kind of disappointment or melancholia in their life. Some folks appear to be more predisposed or susceptible to it than others. There are a few folks in life who enjoy the chemistry of the glass is always full, while the rest wade through the murky waters of blind despair.

Growing up, I distinctly remember that poor was certainly not us. My parents would always hold out some other family or person who was undeniably worse off than we were. We were the fortunate ones or so they believed.

Although, I've tried the same technique since then it hasn't quite worked for me. Instead I've found that photography jars my mind on to a different plane and moves me out of the negative thinking and often melancholic rut. The image in front of me becomes the focus of my attention and it transforms me. To that extent, I am encouraged and reminded by the roses that frequent me via photography. We all should be so lucky to find our personal rose.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

represented by: Simon Gallery of Fine Art, Tucson

Cardinal Sin

Cardinal "Sin"
Keller, TX

Use what talents you posses; the woods would be

very silent if no birds snags there except

those that sang best.

~Henry Van Dyke

If we could simply assign sins degrees of gravity, I've thought that the most grave would be those that fall into the realm of causing self affliction. Ones where you cause harm by cheating yourself and the life you lead short; where you squander your life, and talent, simply to chase your material well being but do nothing to satisfy your emotional and spiritual well being.

We all have things we need to do such as raising and providing for our families. (There are some who readily shun those obligations and society frowns upon them as it should.) However, within the context of living there remains something which seems to allude most and that is the satisfaction of exploiting and discovering our own talents.

Since 2010, I've been on a quest somewhat like Ponce de Leon seeking my own spiritual fountain of youth something to quench my thirst for meaning and purpose and in the process discover my talents. My purpose unfolds for me as I commune with my visual world. It inspires and drives to me experience and participate in life rather than read about it or watch it on television.

Don't want someone else to tell me about it but rather, I want to be its witness firsthand. My talent is my ability to convey to others both what I've seen and heard and tell a story that inspires others to do and find the same.

It should not surprise us if it others don't feel the same because we are all different. In fact it shouldn't upset us if others think we are absurd or they don't comprehend. The cardinal sin is to ignore that restlessness that may reside within you; that is for the logical a very frightening Nicodemus experience. We have to let go of the fears that have constrained us.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com