Lukewarm and Loving it.

Love this guy's passion.

Photographer Au Pair Extraordinaire

Multitasking. Its a hard job, but I suppose someone has to do it.

Introduction to Life 101

Hi.

My name is Laura Clawson. I'm one of those people who likes to try to figure things out. Whether its sketching it up or just thinking it over and over and over and then jumbling my words all up when I try it get it out, I like to figure things out. I want to figure out life, so I can do it the right way. You know, not mess it up, not waste it, not let a single moment of time, tick tock by with out me knowing.

Here is the thing:
The more I figure out life, the more I am coming to find that its not what I expected it to be.
Its much more. Much, much more.

And its different. Its about different things, that is.

I used to think that Life, or the 'good version' of life was for the rich, the lucky and/or the beautiful.
Reality check:
its not.
Wow.
Life is for me.
Because of Jesus and what he does and did and will do I get Life, 
The good version. The full version. The extended version, even.  Its a lot different from what I thought it was.

 

Feel free to quote me on this offical statement:

"Holy Smokes. I love being alive."-Laura Clawson

Books

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and with that one, is what we are doing."
— Annie Dillard

Today I feel:

8 years old.

Small Beginnings

Confessions of Multnoma Falls

So. A confession, if you will. I have a secret that I probably should tell you. 

I'm not a huge fan of Landscapes [and] I think waterfall pictures are sorta cliche.

There. I said it. I got it out. 

To me, a waterfall picture is just another picture of a waterfall. Sorta the "seen it once, seen it all" idea. 

So, its funny that I spent most of the day last Sunday afternoon with my friend Elizabeth Knopp, driving to, climbing up and photographing a waterfall, right?  Its okay, you can agree. Its funny.

But here is the thing. 

A waterfall is different in person. 

No, really. It is. Nature has a way of, once you take the time to take the time to be out there in it, making you remember things. 

So, I took a cliche picture of a waterfall. 

But It wasn't the waterfall itself that made me want to take a 'cliche picture of a waterfall.'

It was the effects of it. The impact it made on me. 

 It was the bigness of it that made me remember my smallness.

The consistency of it that made me remember my undevoted heart.

The strength that made me remember my fragility.

The cool mist that landed, sparkling on my sun warmed body that made me want to remember it. 

That is, after all why we take pictures right? To remember the things important to us? The times in life when we felt  satisfied and in awe, mysteriously in awe? 

Yes. That is why I take pictures. And I liked that waterfall and the way it made me feel in awe. The way that hiking to to the top flooded my human veins with accomplishment (or maybe it was just the fresh air) whatever it was. I liked it. And I took pictures. 

The End.

Took a path to the top of a mountain.

What we think about God determines

Choruses from The Rock

Choruses from The Rock
T.S. Eliot, 1934

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.

O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

The lot of man is ceaseless labor,
Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder,
Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know
That it is hard to be really useful, resigning
The things that men count for happiness, seeking
The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting
With equal face those that bring ignominy,
The applause of all or the love of none.
All men are ready to invest their money
But most expect dividends.
I say to you: Make perfect your will.
I say: take no thought of the harvest,
But only of proper sowing.

The world turns and the world changes,
But one thing does not change.
In all of my years, one thing does not change,
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.

You neglect and belittle the desert.
The desert is not remote in southern tropics
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.

Let me show you the work of the humble. Listen.

In the vacant places
We will build with new bricks

Where the bricks are fallen
We will build with new stone
Where the beams are rotten
We will build with new timbers
Where the word is unspoken
We will build with new speech
There is work together
A Church for all
And a job for each
Every man to his work.

What life have you, if you have not life together?
There is not life that is not in community,
And no community not lived in praise of GOD...

...The work of creation is never without travail

Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.

O Light Invisible, we praise Thee!
Too bright for mortal vision.