Freedom of Limitations

Freedom of Limitations - Originally Posted September 28, 2018

“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.” Marcus Aurelius

Oh my! My last blog post was in March! Here it is almost the end of September before I’m finally sitting down to write a post. I enjoy writing this blog and sharing, with those who choose to read, my current life and art connection. To be honest, in the moment, over the summer, I didn’t want to admit that things weren’t going well, that’s not fun to write about. I’m not good at asking for help or accepting it, thats a whole other topic! Life isn’t always sunshine and roses and I strive to live an authentic life, which means sharing when my game is off as much as when its on. Reflecting on a situation I usually find a nugget in those times, a lesson along this journey, that in the moment may not have been obvious. I’m ready now to revisit, reflect, and share my experience.  So, forgive me for my extended hiatus, I can’t promise it won’t happen again.

“Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities.” Terry Josephson

Everything in life, living or inanimate, has limitations. I’ve been thinking about limitations a lot lately, as in the sense that I want to choose to focus on what I can do rather than what I cannot do. Sometimes those limitations change over time for us humans. For me that change only occurs if I don’t focus on the ‘can’t’ of the moment, but rather on the ‘can’, maybe you are like that too. And baby steps, I’m a huge fan of baby steps. Recently a friend reminded me that limitations can also allow room for freedom. This made me think of children, how happy little ones are when they know the boundaries/limits/rules in their family or school – it gives them a sense of security to have a framework that they know and understand to operate within, a type of freedom. And what about our skeletons, as my friend pointed out, without a skeleton we would be puddles on the floor, but with them (and their limitations) we find the freedom to walk and do many other things that we could not do as a puddle on the ground. I love this idea of looking for the freedoms in limitations!

“I just don’t want to be hampered by my own limitations.” Barbara Streisand

Over the summer I had a little health blip, everything is fine and dandy actually pretty great now so no worries, but for 5 weeks it was all I could do to get one thing a day done…grocery shop, or take my daughter to a movie, or cook a meal…one thing not all three. I was in a pretty pathetic state. It was so hard to do anything but lay on the couch and sleep. In fact for 3 of those weeks I slept most of each day and spent a large part of the ‘waking’ hours still on the couch. Clearly I was experiencing new limitations. I was stuck on the couch and feeling limited. I had my phone and iPad and decided to work on my photography. Luckily I had already spent time in the spring walking around Hillsborough finding fun images with my lens and finding more in my garden, plus the folders of years of photos taken in many other places. The limitations I was experiencing were actually providing me with the freedom of time to enjoy focusing on preparing my photography to share. I could order everything I needed from my couch, delivered right to my door, to finally get those photography notecards ready to send to friends and to put in the HAC gift shop. So, without being conscious of it at the time, I chose to focus on what I could do rather than what I couldn’t do. I’m fortunate that now I can work to shore things up and get back to my usual good health. I’m extremely grateful that it wasn’t anything serious and that I’m able to return to my regular energy and good health.

“The human body has limitations. The human spirit is boundless.” Dean Karnazes

Lessons about limitations keep popping up in other areas of my life of course. I’m going to keep looking for the freedom the limitation provides in each situation. The great thing about us humans is that we embody our spirit within our physical form and because of that spirit can often overcome limitations. And when we can’t overcome them we can find the freedom the limitation provides. This whole examination of limitations and freedoms is another way of reframing a situation to focus on the positive and that is something I can really get behind. I hope you might like to join me.

 “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

Love and light always,

Shannon

UPDATE:

* Check out the tab for my Photography Gallery

* I will have several pieces of art hanging at Carrboro Town Hall October 2ndthru December 31st, reception information HERE

* Local friends, stop in to Hillsborough Arts Council Gift Shop to check out my photography notecards in person, I’m happy to have a nice variety in stock 

* I will soon be hanging my photography art at Mandala Yoga in Chapel Hill…keep an eye on my CURRENT LOCATIONSfor that information.

Photography Art Posters below are available via print on demand and coming soon to my SHOP tab.