Sitting on the bench…………

When I played high school football, that term meant you weren’t good enough to be a starter and you saw most of the games action from the bench. Later in life when I was a daily newspaper photographer, (the modern term is photojournalist), I used sit on the bench across the street at the court house and listen to the old guys swap stories, while they whittled wood with their Case knives.
Today I’m a long ways down the trail of life, and when I see a bench it brings a lot of experiences to memory. While walking around Bodie with Richard Small, and later with Mike Anskat, I saw this bench, and I worked on the shot for a long time, because it had a lot of meaning for me.

The bench is a place you go to learn, and grow. Sitting on that bench as a freshman in high school, I found out a lot about football, it wasn’t game experience, but it got me ready to be “in the game”. Sitting on that bench in Harlan, Kentucky didn’t seem at the time to be all that much of an education, it retrospect it was. God knows my heart and he knows the prayer I would like to pray, but no better than to, would be; “Father give me what I want, and please don’t make me wait.” God is to good to listen to that kind of nonsense. Waiting is simply necessary sometimes.

It is in the wait, that we learn what we are going to need when we finally, “get in the game.”
As a photographer I can remember many times being so frustrated because I didn’t think progress, in my work, was coming fast enough. Now, sitting on the bench of experience, I can see it was always coming at just the right pace. Most everything in life takes time, and that time makes us ready for what is coming. Time is the great healer, and the conduit for coming success.

God’s plan for your life is for you to have success, His kind of success, which includes joy, peace,
patience. How do we get patience? By learning how to rest and wait, and still have joy and peace. Trust me, it all works out for your best, God doesn’t make faulty plans……….

Blessings,

the pilgrim

* Photo Note: Nikon D7000, 24-120 AF-S VR f4 lens at F11 and 1/15th of a second,
ISO 200, polarizer and tripod. Zoom set at 92mm.