Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about change.
It’s something I think about even when I’m out messin around with my camera – I have a new camera, it’s a delight, but I’m still learning all of it’s functions, all the little buttons and buried menus and options, all that fancy digital stuff.
So it’s a change.
And I’ll be out trying something old or trying something new, and it doesn’t always work out, but it makes me think. And one of the things I think is about is that strange human thing where we resist change, even when it’s for the good, how we tend to always seek the familiar, the known, and want to stay there, because we don’t know what it’s gonna be like on the other side, even if we know we want to need to change, want to need to go in a new direction to a new place.
For example, say you want to lose 30 lbs, and so you know you need to eat less and exercise more, but in a kind of frenzied fit of self-sabotage, you start to eat more and move your body even less, as if some part of you is digging in its heels like a toddler saying, NO. No way. Not doing that.
And you get stuck in this tense place of resistance.
I’ve been feeling this lately, a kind of vague angst that I suspect may actually be a good sign, that I’m on the verge of some kind of movement, some shift. Because I’ve been looking for, pushing for changes that need to happen in my life, and it isn’t comfortable, what I’m feeling these days, it feels like pressure –
Resistance is a natural biological function that shows up when our status quo is threatened.
Change affects us. As we begin to do things differently, we ourselves change. We can’t help but become different people as the activities that we participate in, the habits that pervade our lives shape us, re-shape us.
Clearly we all have fears…that keep our Current Ways of Being Intact.
And: even though we want to be living differently, we secretly hope that WE won’t have to change to get there.
We all have our own ways of preventing the death of a self: who we take ourselves to be. Right here. Now.
~ Joanne Hunt
In the park, early in the morning, I was thinking about this. There was a bird in the stalks of the bullrushes. I wanted to get a picture of him. In my head was a photo I took with my old camera – if only I could do something kinda like that but with this camera with more pixels and just the right light in the bullrushes, then for sure it’d be the bomb…
But birds in motion are always a challenge, and at the same time I was trying to figure out the back button manual focus gizmo on the camera, and it only seemed to activate when you moved the focus ring, and would slip back out to autofocus if you lifted your thumb from it, and meanwhile the bird was moving around between the stalks and I kept losing track of him. Tricky stuff. I may have cursed. I hated and loved the new camera. And I was almost about to get the whole thing coming together when the bird flew away.
After standing sadly for a moment, waiting in vain for the bird to come back, I realized of course it was okay. What was really happening in that moment was about Practice. To change means to anticipate the resistance, and to lean into the resistance is to practice. Learning the new camera is practice, in the same way learning a new way of being is not a one shot overnight thing, it happens within practice.
Expect the resistance. Anticipate the resistance.
And practice.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Motion
follow your nose 
Stunning photos! Love them all!
Well, thank you! You come visit any time… 🙂
You can practice and get rid of any mistakes you like without problem. How bad can that be? And you can use some of those “useless” photos for the Photo Challenge. I like the way in the first of the two bird shots, the bird appears to have run into the grass. 🙂
janet
So true – I tend to use photo experiments for the challenges, more than the successfully realized shots… Thanks Janet 🙂
“Without change, something inside us sleeps” (Paul Atreides, Dune)
The enforced change from outside forces is one thing – you just have to adapt.
But trying to change from the inside… now that is HARD.
We can be very stubborn beasts, to be sure.
Nice song!
Isn’t it? And although a season 2 of this particular series seemed like a bad idea, I think i’ll have to check it out…
I’m struggling in those same murky waters right now… but yes, I feel so hopeful that the changes are just what i need! That said, it is always hard. While I’m someone who always seeks growth, change… I can’t say I find it comfortable. Peace in the journey, K!
I love, love, love that 4th – the one you used as a header too. It’s so magical, mysterious, beautiful! I love the bird’s wings against the soft grasses. Wow!
Dawn, so glad you know what I’m talking about. It is exciting and inspiring, and then all of a sudden difficult – what will life be like if I don’t recognize myself? I try on new attitudes, new personas, but to really start to be deeply different and for everything to start moving differently around me? It is what I want, but how will I proceed?
Thanks thanks thanks for your comment 🙂
Simply stunning shots. I love them all!
I smell discomfort in the first picture And yet the contrast between light and darkness gives us excitement.
Fantastic job!
Mmmmm, she “smells” discomfort. So interesting. I was, in fact, worrying about my safety at that moment, as there had been several dodgy passersby just before, and I was focused on my subject, not my back…
Thanks for the kind words, as always.
You were in my thoughts.
xxx
Love the photos. That first one is genuinely haunting. Interesting combination of themes in your posting!
Thanks so much Steven. Glad you liked that first one – it called to me, the sun coming through that way…
right on! 😎
This is what I need to chew on, right now, right here. Thank you!!
So glad there are chewables to be found… 🙂
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nice post! the search never ends 🙂 lovely pictures too
-mindfool
thank you 🙂
Wonderful series of images Katalina and I have to say I rather enjoyed reading the post. I felt the images were a reflection of the words, in so far as the struggles of the bird and the wish for it to return and our struggles in life and the resistance we meet. The last image as a ray of sunshine breaks through onto the lens is as though it were the light a the end of the tunnel . OOOOHHH Crikey getting a bit carried away here.. I hope all is well with you and have a great week.
Please, get carried away whenever you like!
Thanks so much for your generous comment – very glad you engaged as you did.
As a photographer I’m sure you appreciated my sophisticated tech talk 🙂
I can’t get over your pictures – you are talented! And thanks for adding the True Detective trailer. I watched it mainly for Colin Farrell (*swoon*), but I’m excited to watch the second season. The first blew me away.
Yes, those eyebrows… I wasn’t so sure about the idea of doing a second season, but I can spend some time watching Colin Farrell for sure 🙂
Thanks thanks thanks for your kind words…
You are welcome, fellow Colin Farrell appreciator!!
Wow… so love the images you have shared, the prisms of light and the birds you have captured are just Magical.. Change suites you Kat.. keep capturing the moment.. Loved these photo’s
Hugs Sue ❤
U captured the photos between the most beautiful moments…..
[…] terrible in a way, as it’s all clustered into what has become a fairly conscious process of change I’ve been working on for some time now, deep thinking about the things that are not working, the things that need to be better, the places […]