Waiting and Watching

I went to the Riverside wound clinic this morning for a check-up and a discussion about managing the wound on days when it seems to get worse rather than better. It happens when infection starts to creep in again, and catches me by surprise. I'd rather be well prepared. Pain and discomfort in my perineum when it occurs is attention grabbing enough. I don't wan't it controlling my life. 

A week after the antibiotics finished, thankfully the wound has been less trouble, and I'm feeling better than I have for a couple of months, despite the chesty cough. Time will tell if my immune system begins to regain its strength to resist infection in the run-up to the operation. Monday next I'll have my chest checked to ensure that I can be included in the surgery list. How to be patient and not anxious as I wait is the challenge.

Using my new Olympus OMD E-M10 with its two lenses has made me think about working with the opportunities and limitations of different lens sizes with my Sony DSLR. Most of my photography has been done with zoom lenses of different capacities. I have an Alpha 50mm prime lens I've hardly used since I bought it at a bargain price. It has no zoom ability as it's a fixed lens, a different challenge So, for a change I took my Alpha 68 and the 50mm lens out with me for a walk this afternoon. 

In order to frame the picture you want to take it's necessary to move around a lot more to find the right position. It takes some thinking about as a zoom lens allows you to stay in one place and use the zoom to frame the photo. Going against one's habitual patterns of movement and usage is quite an exercise! Does it give any better results? Hard to say. But the choice of a lens can influence the choice of subject, if you're out as I often am, with no project to work on, just looking for things of interests to observe and record. That's most of my photography, other than landscapes, townscapes and buildings. 

It get me thinking about contemplative prayer, moving beyond pondering to being quietly attentive in God's presence, using words only if necessary, listening, looking, enjoying just dwelling at the threshold between time and eternity. To get there we have to learn, within the limitation of our abilities, to reason and reflect, to listen and look, open to discover afresh what is before us. Art, music, poetry, literature draw their creative impulse here. Likewise prayer, inspiring us to become a whole person fully reflecting the image of our Maker.