Photo – A Present to Yourself

Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

I love this photo of me and my best friends from high school, Deanna and Jill. It was taken with my digital Canon PowerShot with the self timing method. I like it because it brings back a time when we were carefree. We always had quite a time together, goofing off, laughing, being light hearted, no worries. Deanna often picked us up in her parent's Cutlass. We shared birthdays, church parties, roller skating, music, sports (okay they shared sports, I cheered them on). 



One of my favorite memories of Jill is when our class was at recess playing baseball at the Udell school. We were in 5th grade (?) and I was playing shortstop and I caught a flyball. Now this is memorable because I wasn't athletic, had never caught a flyball, and have never caught one since. But I remember Jill running up to me and hugging me 'cause yeah, it was kind of a big deal.


Memories of Deanna revolve around going to her house after church. Even back then I wasn't much of a meat eater. Her mom, Marilyn, gave me banana, after banana, after banana 'cause I kept eating them. I remember baking in the Easy-bake Oven, blowing bubbles, making recordings imitating farmers.


We met this year 4th of July weekend at Smokey Row in Oskaloosa. It's a memory I've thought about a lot since then. We shared a little of the challenges that we have walked across, walked through, and came out on the other side as better, faster, stronger, more aware, and yeah definitely bionic.

Looking back I can hardly imagine that God would've dreamed up that I could have such enduring, life giving, beautiful souls for friends at a critical time growing up. I can hardly imagine that God knew in our mother's wombs the kind of friendships we would need.

This picture captures both who I am and who I strive to be. Happy, resilient, relational, goofy, spunky, loving, encouraging, caring. And that also describes Deanna and Jill. A 3-way mirror.
I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
      Before you were born I set you apart... (Jeremiah 1:5)
Seize the J

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