Welcome to Making Eye Statements!

The goal of this blog is to reflect on my journey with photography. 

Background:

Almost two years ago, I retired from a long teaching career in Toronto and moved to Belleville with my husband, Bill. During the first few weeks of retirement, I was giddy with excitement - so many projects and dreams were dancing in my head. The body can be a brutal smasher of plans, however, and mine intervened decisively on July 25, 2014, at a Highway 401 service centre on my way to Toronto with Bill. As I was climbing up into Bill's formidable Dodge Hemi 4x4 truck, something torqued in my lower spine, causing intense, debilitating pain. (Fear not, dear reader, this blog is not a whining platform about health issues.) Suddenly, all plans and dreams were shelved, and a single goal emerged: to heal my back.

It took over a year to fully regain mobility, but in that year of healing, many, many blessings came into my life, including - unexpectedly - a passion for photography. I can't say I'm glad that I injured my back, but I am certainly grateful for the resulting gifts.

Daily walks became an important part of my healing regimen (what Blair, my gifted physiotherapist, referred to as 'walking therapy'), mostly near my home in the east end of Belleville. To add interest and accountability to these daily walks, I took photos with my modest Canon PowerShot SX210 IS and posted at least one image a day - actually taken that day - on Twitter. Over the course of 365 days, I posted over 500 photos. (That little PowerShot had accompanied me faithfully on travels in North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe, and I will always keep it, even though it has been succeeded by a Canon G3X and 70D.) Blessedly, my back slowly improved - and so did the quality of my photography.  

In these blog postings, I plan to reflect on the photographs that I post and to also ruminate on the use of photography as an act of witness, contemplation, and worship. 

I would be humbled to share these postings with fellow travellers and friends. Feedback, of course, is welcome. In my next posting, I'll write about the bizarre photo above. 

I also invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time,

L