Matthew's Thorns

Editor's note:  I started writing this back in November, then got busy.  Jose aka 'Twomedicineman' prodded me because I haven't posted a blog in a while - and I remembered this, sitting unfinished on my laptop.  So here I am, picking up where I left off... 

This past weekend, we had a spiritual retreat, a “silent” retreat in which the folks participating are not supposed to talk from Friday evening till church at 11 Sunday morning.  This is the second such retreat I’ve been involved in, and, like  the first, there were some awakenings within.

Set the stage… Last Sunday evening, Pastor Bob met with us to give us a background…  It is a reading, a parable, from Matthew 13…

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

So Bob told us to consider these words, and then… don’t do the obvious – “Which ground am I???”  but instead consider that “I am… all of them”.  And what percentage of us are represented by  each one of us these things?  We were given fifteen or twenty minutes of quiet time to ponder this, to meditate, as it were... and then came back as a group to share (if we so desired) our thoughts on the subject.

For me, my initial short-term reaction was to quantify these things within me… Where I am today, but also, where I was, say, five years ago.  Some of the things, to me, meant things totally different than they did to other people…. We have the will and the freedom to interpret things our own ways… I won’t tell you what my answers were.  That isn’t important.  What is important is that the good things are growing once again inside of me.  (But why don't YOU share your thoughts, if you care to..)

Other people in the same group had very thoughtful answers, but so different from my own.  Obviously, the ‘fertile ground’ is the place for growth, and what grows there can produce “a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”  But what signified ‘good soil’?  Or for that matter, what in our daily lives can be signified by the path, or thorns, or rocky places?

I would highly recommend this exercise… Take some quiet time, ponder it, think about what it means to you.  Quantify it… what percentage of you is fertile soil, vs. the other alternatives?

Back to this weekend’s retreat…  I had my camera with me and kept finding myself drawn to the oddest of things.  Like a thorn on a wild rosebush, with a bit of vine curled up next to it.  I took a photo of it, a macro closeup.

Thorns of a rosebush

Thorn of a rosebush with a little tendril of vine, complete with shadow!

There were other things I kept finding myself drawn to… But mostly, at that moment, thorns.

Funny thing is, I saw an ‘apple’ (or something that looked like one) stuck up in amongst some thorns in what appeared to be a locust tree…

Apple-like 'fruit' up in the tree... there were a couple of them, but I am not sure what kind of tree it was.

More thorns - definitely a locust of some sort.

I saw red berries, interspersed with thorns…

Hawthorn, I think?

There are those thorns again… all over the place… Much like the song, Every rose has its thorn.

But roses are beautiful, you say, and thorns are ugly.  I say, thorns are NOT ugly – they are a part of the natural beauty of the landscape. Much like life, there are things that cause us pain, but they can be accompanied by the roses, as well.  Sometimes we have to pay attention to what we'd ordinarily ignore to truly appreciate what we have.  That maybe doesn't make much sense, but I know what I mean.

So then… what of our parable?  It talks of seeds falling amongst the thorns (as if that’s a bad thing, and perhaps, it is… but the thorns CAN be nice…)  I won't continue my thoughts, here, now... but if you comment enough, and leave enough feedback to show me that someone is interested in the subject, I'll follow up this post with another one... delving into my initial reactions and answers to the problem posed... and then my very different reactions and thoughts that were reached at the end of the retreat.  

But that'll wait for another day... for now, I hope you've enjoyed sharing my 'thorns' with me.  :)

An ebay experiment

I've never sold on ebay... I have bought a thing or two over time - but never have I sold.

But I wanted to direct some traffic back to my photobook's page on the blurb site, and so I thought I'd do something that I read about... which is to advertise/list prints on ebay. Provide a link back to the book's page, etc.

I can get 11x14's printed locally for a good price, for good quality prints. My objective here isn't to make money, but rather, to test the waters and learn a little about selling online.

With that in mind, I started my prices at 2.99 plus shipping - which wouldn't even be a break-even for me if they sold at that price. BUT it was something... A friend looked and advised - if I do ever sell anything, then sell more later - it's harder to keep customers once you raise your prices.

So I revised/listed my prints for a much more realistic price of $10 plus shipping... But again, I am not caring if I make money - my objective is to break even and learn the waters, so to speak, so I started looking for something that would be a worthwhile charity for Central Pennsylvania - and one thing I've learned is that the Central PA Food Bank is there for people - especially in the hard winter months and during the holidays...

Through scouts and other activities over the years, we've donated food before, but ebay has them as a charitable partner. So I put 10% of my selling price to go to that organization. The only catch? It's a minimum $5 donation.

So if I sell any prints at the starting bid of $10 - $5 automatically goes to the Food Bank, the other $5 is spread over the cost of the prints, the ebay fees, and so on.

In the end, I won't make anything.........

But that's okay.

If you are interested in purchasing a print from me, you can get it cheaper through my ebay page than through deviantart prints service. Right now, I have a handful of Harrisburg area shots listed - I can list special requests if you have any... and at this point I will gladly continue the partnership with the food bank - just to gain the experience and perhaps get some positive feedback on ebay - and learn the ropes, so to speak. :)

Arkansawyer on eBay

Central PA Food Bank on ebay.


Let me know what you think - and if you think a photo is worth $10 - $15 feel free to make a bid. :)

err. For those more serious ebay shoppers out there - my "postage" on the current listings was for priority mail to US addresses. Any suggestions on mailing large format photographs? Like packaging and priority vs parcel post, etc., etc. I am a 100% newbie at this... and again - looking to learn the ropes.

Photobook 6: Wildlife

Post six of a series of photographs I am going to use in an upcoming photobook. All of the photos in this series were taken by me in Dauphin County Pennsylvania and its neighboring counties, between 2005 and 2008. Occasionally I will also post paintings based on my photographs. The artist behind these paintings is my friend, Karen Oudeman, from Gouda, the Netherlands.

This is the the section entitled Wildlife. In my time in Pennsylvania I have been lucky enough to see many various creatures. I have just very recently photographed a porcupine and elk in the upper part of the state, and have seen black bear there, as well as here near home. However, in this collection - I am only including area scenes - and I have not had the luck to catch a bear with my camera.

However, there are many interesting creatures - from deer and ring-neck pheasants to many types of insect. I love to go out on lunch breaks to local nature centers in the hopes of finding some "nature" and sometimes I am successful. :) I hope you enjoy this collection - it does not do justice to the many diverse species of animals and insects to be found in the area.

The text on the section introduction page reads as follows:

Central Pennsylvania has an abundance of wildlife. White-tail deer are very common in the area, and one of my favorite pastimes as a photographer is to stop and photograph a deer as it stops to look at me (but all too often it runs off before I get the camera in place). Other mammals, waterfowl, amphibians, and reptiles are fairly common in state forests and park areas such as Wildwood Lake in Harrisburg. In Powell's Valley, ringneck pheasants are a very common sight. Various species of insects and bugs may be seen, from common bees and butterflies to the saddleback caterpillar. This area is an animal lover's paradise.




























All images copyright 2005-2008 James A. Wheeler or Karen Oudeman.

Contact me at arkansawyer@gmail.com for information on obtaining copies of any of these prints or information on the upcoming 160 page photobook, which will be a "coffee table" style hardcover book complete with paper sleeve cover, initially priced around $60 - which to my cheapskate pocketbooks seems high until I compare the cost to that of eating out at a nice restaurant, which for a family can quickly exceed the cost of this book, and is quickly forgotten.

The series so far:
Photobook 1: The Story
Photobook 2: The Church
Photobook 3: Farmscapes
Photobook 4: Country Living
Photobook 5: Waterscapes
Photobook 6: Wildlife

Photobook 4: Country Living

Visit the book's page here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/238062/

Fourth in a series of articles introducing my new photobook which is now on sale at blurb.com. The last section was Farmscapes and this is closely related. I live in the country - for a time I lived in places like Montgomery Alabama, Midwest City Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City), and Harrisburg - but those times when I lived "in town" tended to be short-lived. The old adage "You can take the kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid" fits me pretty well.

Country life, for me, is all about sunsets without buildings or other things to block them, foggy mornings, going fishing, etc. But in Pennsylvania, it's a bigger thing than just that. It's the covered bridges - many of which were built in the 1800s and are still in use today, or at least, available to visit. It's the old wooden ferryboats in Millersburg which cross the river, day after day, ferrying passengers and cars to the other side. It's sitting in the park at Millersburg, and watching fireworks exploding over the river. Living in rural America is the place to be!


Dauphin County and its neighboring counties are full of country scenes, from the covered bridges of Perry, Dauphin, and Northumberland Counties, to the ferryboats that have taken passengers across the Susquehanna River from Millersburg to Liverpool for more than a hundred years. On Independence Day fireworks light up the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg and Millersburg; in September, a local school remembers 9-1-1 with a tribute to all the people who lost their lives on September day. In the wintertime, snow blankets the ground with a soft cover. Amish settlements are sprinkled throughout the countryside. And when you look to the west in the evening hours, it is not unusual to see sunsets with barns or trees framed against a fiery sky. On any given day of the year, you need not look far to find something interesting to do or see. It is country living at its finest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images copyright 2005-2008 James A. Wheeler or Karen Oudeman.

Contact me at arkansawyer@gmail.com for information on obtaining copies of any of these prints or information on the upcoming 160 page photobook, which will be a "coffee table" style hardcover book complete with paper sleeve cover, initially priced around $60 - which to my cheapskate pocketbooks seems high until I compare the cost to that of eating out at a nice restaurant, which for a family can quickly exceed the cost of this book, and is quickly forgotten.

The series so far:
Photobook 1: The Story
Photobook 2: The Church
Photobook 3: Farmscapes
Photobook 4: Country Living
Photobook 5: Waterscapes
Photobook 6: Wildlife