Perspective

A few weeks back I noticed a quantum shift in the pictures I was taking. A "suddenly" "seeing" in a new way. Here's an example:
Taken early June:
Taken a week ago:
I've noticed that I can not frame a picture like I framed the iris any more. It doesn't "feel" right. Then there's the Antoine de Saint-Exupery quote in yesterday's blog (BTW - I you haven't entered the contest, please do). Two thoughts have been marinating since I first read it:

...only with the heart that one can see rightly... This speaks to me of seeing truth. Of seeing how a thing really is. Not just the character but also the essence of who a person is or what a thing is. That's what I see when I look at the geranium above - the essence, the center, the core and the heart of this flower. The place where everything about this flower springs forth.

...what is essential is invisible to the eye... We are bombarded on a daily basis with things to look at, some good, some not so good. But the essential is invisible to the human eye, it is only visible to the heart. I love this "seeing" with the heart. I want to grow in this ability...

It took me several weeks to even notice that a change had taken place, but I realized that this new way of "seeing" was an answer to prayer.

Several years back I visited the Georgia O'Keefe gallery in Santa Fe. I went to see her art work but also to "absorb" the way she saw. In this new way of seeing I am understanding her art better. While taking pictures at Alki a few weeks back, as I was looking at the places where the water was running back to the ocean, I was reminded of some of her paintings. I had read something in the gallery that said when she had been flying cross country and had looked out the window she saw the earth laid out below in miniature form. She began drawing 1'x1' sketches and those later became very large paintings. Looking at the little rivers on the beach, I understood what she had seen that caused her to draw those little sketches. And I understood where I had gotten that insight and that ability. Unfortunately the camera could not capture what my eye was seeing.

I also realized that this "suddenly" was an answer to prayer as well. I have been asking God to move in my life in new ways. To bring these ways on "suddenly". To one day be one way and the next a new way. I can not tell you the day or the flower when I went from seeing and framing like the iris to seeing and framing like the geranium, but it was there suddenly. From laying down the camera one day to picking it up the next and taking a different kind of picture. I am still open to more "suddenlys", and there are some very specific ones I have and am praying for.

Are you finding that you are experiencing "suddenlys" as well??? Do you need to ask for them? I'd love to hear your story.