Bargain to be Cherished

‎"Your life feels different on you, once you greet death and understand your heart's position. You wear your life like a garment from the mission bundle sale ever after -- lightly because you realize you never paid nothing for it, cherishing because you know you won't ever come by such a bargain again." Louise Erdrich

Profound Awareness

"The only lasting freedom from self-consciousness comes from a profound awareness that God loves me as I am, not as I should be. He loves me beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity. He loves me in the morning sun and the evening rain without caution, regret, boundary, limit or breaking point; that no matter what I do, He can't stop loving me. When I am really in conscious communion with the reality of the wild, passionate, relentless, stubborn, pursuing, tender love of God in Jesus Christ for me, then it's not what I've got to or I must or I should or I ought; suddenly I want to change because I know how deeply I am loved." -Brennan Manning

Self-Portrait

Don't remember when or where I took this picture. Always kind of liked it though.

Portraits

Similar to a previous one I posted. I like this one a little better. Taken down by Jackson Pond behind Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, GA.

Yellow Bird

Took this with a 2.1 megapixel camera. I had it on the macro setting and was about an inch away from the bird when I snapped this. For whatever reason, it decided not to fly away until after I got this shot.

Devon, England

The British coastline in Devon, England. Taken close to six or seven years ago now. Spent a week there every summer for three years of high school.

Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece. Took this in spring/early summer of 2005 while I was in Athens and on the island of Evia for a few weeks.

Bear Paws

Took this picture in Jackson Hole, Wyoming when I spent the summer there two years ago. Grizzlies and black bears were abundant.

Getting Back Into It

This was one of my very first pictures that I ever took. I took it with a 2.1 megapixel camera - the Nikon Coolpix 2100. Back in the day, it was one of the nicest cameras you could get for that price (around $600). Took this shot on a pond in a little town called Bakewell, England.

Next Chapter

College was a pretty significant chapter. Now that it is finished, I'll be moving on to the next big stage - real life (or so what everyone else calls it). I never really liked it being called that. Almost seemed to place a gross insignificance on everything previously experienced. But I am beginning to understand what they meant. Responsibility is an old word with a sudden new-found meaning.

My family is moving soon. They're heading back to the mission field. I can't say where. It's sad to see the house here in Franklin being emptied. I'll be moving in with Wim and Libby next week, at least for a while until I can find my own place. I'll be taking 12 credits this summer to get to my 150 credits for the CPA exam, while also starting to study for the CPA exam. I start at Ernst & Young on September 16. Hard to believe..