Then I got my iPhone, and while the pictures were nothing compared to the Lumix, they were pretty good, and you could buy some really neat apps that put some super cool effects on them, making them look vintage or lomo etc., and I loved that. So I stopped taking my Lumix with me everywhere and used the iPhone a lot, though I still used the Lumix on special occasions.

A few weeks ago, my brother brought my old 10D to the church, so that we could use it to take some high quality shots to go on the new church website. I was the designated photographer.

How do I say this next part… The moment I touched that camera, my heart began to melt. With every click of the shutter, I became more and more inspired, almost to the point of tears. I had forgotten how amazing that camera truly was. Just holding it in my hand lights me on fire. I remembered that this wasn’t an uncommon thing when I owned it. Practically every time I used it during the years that it was mine, my heart would race with excitement and inspiration. Somehow, when I bought my Lumix, though I really did like many of the results, this feeling slipped silently out the door, unnoticed and forgotten. I’ve never experienced that feeling with the Lumix, or any other camera I’ve laid my hands on.

So, as is my modus operandi, my mind has begun to plot a way to go back and correct what I now realize was a grave mistake. I’ve looked around and priced used camera bodies. It turns out that I can buy a used Canon 20D body pretty cheaply these days. The 20D was the generation that came after the 10D. I wouldn’t mind owning a 10D again, but any 10D body I could get my hands on would be far older than a 20D (by technology standards), and far more likely to break down prematurely. A 20D will be fresher, faster, and higher resolution, but will also be the same shape and weight, the same amazing magnesium body, and the same control layout as the 10D.

So I’ve put my Lumix up on eBay. I plan to raise as much as I can, and I expect to raise enough to buy a 20D body. After that, I’m going to figure out a way to get a Canon EF 50mm f1.8, which was my favorite lens. They’re not that expensive either, so if I don’t have enough left over from my Lumix sale, I should be able to scrape up something else that I don’t use anymore, sell it, and grab the lens.

I don’t suppose I could’ve known how big of a mistake I was making when I sold my 10D. But now I’ve learned my lesson, and I won’t make it again. I don’t care how bulky an SLR is. The results, and the experience, is soooo worth it.

If those who hurt could just forgive us, we could all move on and be at peace. To expect forgiveness is right, not only because we need to be forgiven, but because by desiring forgiveness, it surely means that we now see the wrong we have committed and the pain we have caused. It’s just as important for us to do everything in our power to correct our mistakes. This brings things full circle, and allows us all to grow up and move on together.

If we feel we have done no wrong, we should stand in the shadow of the perfect One, and seek the forgiveness of those who are hurt until we understand them better, and they understand us. We the People are tangled messes who can only be freed by love, and patience was never patience if it is ever given up on.

Unfortunately, unconditional forgiveness is often necessary, because those who hurt us may never have the courage, integrity, and patience to make things right, and because forgiveness shouldn’t have to wait on them to reach its fulfillment. When we can forgive unconditionally, we become the teacher, and the forgiven becomes our student, and the lesson becomes “How God Loves”. We also become God’s student, and the lesson becomes “How I Love You”. And what an amazing classroom that is. You won’t regret attending, not to be the bigger person (such a desire makes you the smaller one, ironically), but to learn the wonderful lesson that God wants to teach you.

It’s not that we should wait for the other to meet us halfway across the bridge before we take even a single step; this is how bridges get old and crumble to pieces before they are ever even used. Rather, both should have the courage to walk all the way across, for the sake of the lesson, for the sake of the One who loved us unconditionally; paying no attention to the action or intent of the other, but looking only to the example that God set, and loving them because He loved us, and He loves them; leaning not to our own understanding, but trusting in Him. This will assure reconciliation every time. This honors the One who died for us so that we could be together in love and peace.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing…Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to … set the Universe going.”

This seems to be the quote that this article points to as the nail in the coffin concerning Hawking’s belief in God, or lack thereof. I don’t know whether Hawking believes there is a supreme creator or not, but his quote does not clearly indicate that he does or doesn’t, only that he doesn’t believe that everything had to be set into place directly by that creator.

He points to the law of gravity as an invisible force with the power to invoke order where there is none. But did the law of gravity always exist? Is the law of gravity the supreme creator? The concept of a supreme creator can’t be avoided, bible or any other religious book aside. If gravity is where creation begins, then gravity is the supreme creator. If gravity didn’t always exist, then it was created, and so we are compelled to ask, what created gravity?

I haven’t read any of Stephen Hawking’s works, but I can’t agree with the title of the linked article, as it does not accurately represent what Stephen said in the quote they pulled from him.

Testing the pressure simulation in ArtStudio on my iPad.

If you’re an artist with an iPhone, and you haven’t discovered Inkling yet, you should search for it in the app store. It’s 99 cents, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with iPhone art since I discovered the Brushes app.