Feeding the Soul….
In keeping with yesterday’s theme of feeding one’s soul, I started thinking about what, if anything, I’ve done to feed my soul over the years.
In high school, I wanted to take a photography class. My dad told me not to. He said that photographers need to take pictures from all kinds of angles. and, because of my disability, I would not be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to kneel down, jump up, bend at weird angles, etc. He was both right and wrong.
And that speaks to Kurt Vonnegut’s point from yesterday‘s post… Who cares if you can’t do something with expertise. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it! There’s no right way to do soul work… There is only your way to feed your soul!
I did some journaling and some poetry writing. When I was in college I even had a couple of poems published in a different college’s poetry book… Long story…
Once I started working full-time, caring for my soul went on the back burner. About all I did was to try to get some reading in… Some good spirituality books and some trash romance novels just for fun. Spending time with friends was also a healthy thing that I did but I went many years not really creating anything.
I took a couple of painting classes with a good friend of mine. She progressed very well. I didn’t. On my last day of class I said to the lovely man that was our teacher… Jim, I believe that I have gone from “butt ugly” to “just awful!” And if I work very hard, I may someday reach “bad!” He laughed. Because it was true! Good or bad…painting wasn’t my thing!
Now, in the last couple of years, I’ve started taking pictures. And I was right all those years ago… I love it! I do everything on my phone. Technology has made photography so much more user-friendly! And my dad was right too…My coordination is bad. And I can’t always snap a picture from the angle that I would prefer. But it doesn’t mean I can’t have fun with it… I have over 6000 pictures on my phone to prove that I have fun with it… Well, that and because I’m not sure how to successfully move them to my hard drive! Sigh!
I might take 10 or 15 pictures just to get one good one. Some of them are tipped and tilted and look pretty goofy. And so what!
Again, thanks to technology, they are easily deleted and many are easily fixed. The point is not about expertise or perfectionism. The point is about enjoyment and fulfillment and feeding my soul! The point is about celebrating when I can tweak a picture and feel like I got an excellent shot! That’s food for the soul!
So today… On the second day of our month-long blog challenge… I would encourage you to think about how you might be feeding your soul. And if you’re not, I would encourage you to think about how you might change that. What could you do to brighten your day? What could you do to feel good at the end of that day? What can you do to feed your soul?
These are important questions because you are an important part of the universal whole. The universe needs you. And it needs whatever joy and beauty you can bring into it by feeding your own soul…
I’m glad you’re here!
Please visit my fellow NaNoPoBlano Challenge bloggers here: https://wordpress.com/tag/nanopoblano2020
With Angels and Elephants 
I love these photos. They capture so much of the movement of life. I had a similar experience with a painting class– amazing teacher, and real progress, and I still left pretty terrible at it, haha! 😀 Now I favor words and cooking when it comes to soul work. 🙂
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Glad you liked the pics! Digging through the crappy shots and finding a good one, even though it’s pure luck, gives me great joy!
Glad you’re continuing to fed on words because your words feed so many of us!❤️
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Love this! We as a society need to do away with only doing things if we are good at them. Also I like the photos you shared! 🙂
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Thank You! I can always see the shot I want in my mind’s eye. But I can’t always get my hands to cooperate! So, when I do actually get a good shot, it feels like a gift!
Thanks for your kind words!❤️
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This is probably one of the best self-care posts I’ve read.. Thank you..
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Thanks so very much! I’m so enjoying blogging with all of you!!❤️
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So glad you’ve reclaimed your joyful place. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder so that awkward shot can create a winner. I try to make the faces in my fabric art perfect but the stitching sometimes distorts the fabric and the faces. Guess which portraits get the most likes? Love the flow of your words. They touch my heart🌹
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Thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind thoughts! Your fabric art sounds beautiful! Post a picture or 3 here for all to see. I’d love to see your work.
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It is important to be willing to do things just because you enjoy them and like to do them. Even if you don’t take pictures from just that certain spot you can give a sense of what you experience and share the feeling and story.
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Exactly! When you do something solely for the joy you get then nothing else matters. Thanks for visiting ❤️
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Great photos! I especially like the second one, with wings outstretched. I think that birb was posing for you.
For soul nourishment, music is my key. I do other things, of course, but music is the one constant that smooths my own ruffled feathers.
As for getting pictures off of your phone, I use Dropbox- the dropbox app has a setting where when you’re connected to wifi it will automagically sync your phone’s camera roll. I periodically move the synced photos out of my dropbox folder on the computer to keep it from filling up, but this way the transfer of pictures is handled without me having to plug in a cable or run some random application. I would be willing to bet that there’s lots of other services that do basically the same thing, too.
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Wow, thanks for the advice! I’ll look into trying it. I’ve often said that I need to rent a teenager twice per month to help with this stuff!
So glad you’ve found the perfect food for your soul! I think soul care is essential to sane survival ❤️
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Lovely photos. “Feeding the soul” – we have to do this very often – as often as we feed our body.
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Yes! Especially in these crazy times! Wishing you peace. Thanks for visiting ❤️
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