As a photographer and artist, I try to constantly be on the lookout for places/things/people that inspire me to try new things-push myself farther. I often look at other photographers’ work for inspiration, it’s a great way to get the creative juices flowing. One of these photographers inspires much more than just by his photos-the eloquent way he speaks from his beautiful soul captivates me. I often go back and reread his blog posts and twitter/facebook updates over and over again. There is something that always reaches out to me-like a call to action to grow in some way. As the new year begins, I find myself wanting to reach out and grow in new ways, both photographically and personally. So when I sat down to start thinking about what goals I’d like to set, I went back to a post he wrote back in July that really motivates me to look at things from a fresh perspective.

From one traveller to another (life)
by Jesh De Rox

you are where you are.

let’s start with that. it’s true, after all, and denying it, fighting against it, pretending otherwise amounts to nothing more than a waste of these precious few moments of life we’re gifted with.

you are where you are.

and it is a lovely place to begin. even if it’s painful, even if it’s not where you saw yourself 10 years ago, or 10 months, or 10 days. it’s lovely because it’s what you have, and what you have is so much more than so many others are gifted with,,, more than you often give yourself credit for.

imagine yourself on a map. are you limited as to which direction you can go? certainly there are circumstances of terrain that may provide greater ease or challenge, but the vital truth is and will always remain that any direction is available to you.

even if it’s a direction you’ve never gone before, even if it contains unknowable obstacles,,, the power of choice rests or rises with you.

you are where you are.

and you, as the traveler, now have the privilege of deciding where to go from here. just as, where you have been in no way dictates where you must go, it is equally true that your past cannot decide your future.

yes, it can be scary to leave the paths you have worn, over so many years of dusty repetition, but when the roads you know don’t take you to where you know, in your heart, you must be,,, it is time to quit lamenting the fact and blaze off bravely in the direction of the undiscovered.

what a miracle that you have feet! what a miracle that they will take you in absolutely any direction that you tell them to go! you are blessed with a vehicle far more marvelous and sophisticated than anything the human mind has yet to or ever will conceive.

it is one thing to sit upon the sidelines of life and bemoan your fate, and it is another entirely to shake yourself free of mentally-cobwebbed ideas and start moving.

move!!!

move until your amble becomes a walk, until your walk becomes a jog, until your jog becomes a run, until your feet find their gravity-escaping rhythm and you take flight.

are you facing a fire? it is when you are stuck – motionless – that flames burn the worst,,, remember when, as a child, you moved your finger through the candle flame fast enough, it had no power to touch you.

remember the joy of that, the triumph in it, my friends, and move.

move until the air before you becomes a cool wind on your face, until the scenery rushes past in a celebration of your speed.

move until you find yourself in the clearing you are looking for. i promise you, it exists on the other side of whatever lies between you and that place of rest.

when caught in the frustrating mazes of life, we are often closer to freedom than we realize. a view from above adds the clear perspective we are blind to when we think only on ground levels.

when you cannot go left, and you are blocked from going right,,, when the way in front of you is too tangled, and you know you must leave what is behind,,,

go up, my friends, go up.

you will find there the far-view,,, drink in the picturesque scenery of hope that every weary traveller at some point needs.

you are where you are.

perhaps because you are learning things now that are seeds for blessings in days to come, for plantings you have not yet imagined.

you are where you are.

perhaps because you are accumulating experience that will someday be the common ground on which you meet the love of your life, your greatest friend, or your self.

you are where you are.

because the sometimes difficult, but ground-shaking truth is,,,
you are choosing to be.

we can’t always control where the winds of this life blow us, how far they might veer us from the flight-paths we’d projected,,,

but until the moment our last spark of life passes from this vehicle of our body and moves into the next,,, it remains our choice to rise up from wherever we are, no matter the obstacles, no matter the challenges, no matter the odds, and to move, one precious step at a time,,,

footprint by footprint, handhold by handhold, until at last we find our home.

i love you so much, my beautiful friends, i pray every day that the wings you’ve been keeping secret will one day be loosed.

until that day,,,

jesh *
posted with author’s permission

I hope you are as inspired and touched by his words as I am. And since I’d hate to leave you without a photo, here is one I went back to today and reworked from a different perspective:

If you have any ideas for future posts please let me know!
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