Taken with Polaroid Automatic 100 on Fujifilm FP-3000B Instant Film
I knew a tree cutter in high school. He did it during his weekends to make extra money. There was one time when he told me about one of the most valuable lessons he learned from cutting trees.
He would spend hours up in a tree, cutting limb after limb, branch after branch. And when he slowly came back down, resting his feet on solid ground, he would find himself surrounded by leaves and debris. He would look around the yard at the mess, feeling overwhelmed. He told me all you can do at that point is pick a place, put your head down, and start raking.
I’m swamped right now. I have two weddings to process, an album to revise, loads of photos to retouch and Photoshop, a music show to process, two parties to edit, a long poem to revise, my 9/11 project to plan, a camping/photo trip to organize, a photo essay to process…the list goes on.
On top of that, I still think of the rest of the world…the people dying in Afghanistan, earthquakes, famine…even the people around me who are going through hard times. What is my role in all of this? Every day, I struggle to deal with it all, jumping back and forth between the urgent and the important. It’s all overwhelming at times.
So what can I do? Remember the tree cutter. Pick a place. Take a stand. Put your head down, and start raking. Just start raking.
Have a great weekend y’all!
I’ll be raking.