The Art of Rest

One hundred million years ago,  I worked as a makeup artist, wig fitter/stylist and solo hair stylist in a teeny, tiny salon.  I loved that job and especially the clients who were loyal to me.  I was working part time as a stylist and wasn't easy to get into most weeks.  At that time I had only two male clients.  One, kind of a creepy guy, was loyal to me for all the wrong reasons. I was married, but that didn't matter much to him.

The other is one of the most incredible photographers I've ever known.  He stuck around through my pink salon/makeup shop days because he's just a great guy.  After I moved to Alaska, I would sometimes run into him on vacations back to Montana.  When he found out I was living and working back in Montana, he fired his current stylist and returned to me...

"What do YOU do for fun Collene?"  The question was a scary one to answer back then, because my life was completely immersed in diaper changing, nap times and Well Baby appointments when I wasn't at work.  Dare I be so selfish as to dream a little about "me time".  My photographer client may have been the only one I talked to back then about my love of photography.  He was constantly encouraging me to "get out there and shoot"!  He was always irritated that on my visits back, I had nothing to show him, photographically speaking, of my life in Alaska.  (He was right to be annoyed, I sure am now, too.  I sense a vacation coming...) 

Last night, I was thinking about some of those conversations in that pink salon.  As I have been "getting out there and shooting," as well as editing shots of the kids from last summer, I've been extremely grateful for the gentle encouragement over the years from my client.

There is something incredibly powerful about being in nature, focusing on the details.  These concepts of life I'm constantly, restlessly, mulling are finding temporary comfort in the power of creation and capturing the beauty of those I love.  After a physically, emotionally draining day at work, I am somehow energized with a 2 mile walk with my camera.  Finding rest is becoming real to me as "...He makes me lie down in green pastures..." floats through my thoughts.

Thank you for ever encouraging me, my Fotogypsy friend!  Here's a sampling of what has caught my eye and made me smile this year: