Mistakes Happen

“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” – Norman Cousins

The quote above makes sense to me. In life we have to forgive. The older I get, the more I learn this is true. People will let us down. If we think about it, every person we have ever known, every connection that we have, has let us down. If we live with unforgiveness then we will never have any meaningful long-term relationships. We need people, but we have to learn to forgive in order to have people in our lives. Does that mean we live in a constant cycle of abuse, no. However, no one is perfect, but other people do have something to offer to our lives.

When it comes to forgiveness, the person we are often hardest on is ourselves. We will often do something, make a mistake, and then play the scene over and over in our minds in order to relive the moment. This does not help us. I will often look back at photos I have taken, and think to myself that these look terrible. I wonder why I didn’t delete them when I first took them. I think to myself that I missed an opportunity to capture a great photo, and I wonder if I will ever get an opportunity like that again. I can be my worst critic. I know this about myself, and I am always working to learn from the mistakes I made, and try to do better next time. When it comes to photography, I tell myself that there will be another opportunity, and I know I will take that opportunity and do better. Forgiveness is all about realizing that next time will be better, and I am a work in progress. Just like my photography has improved over the years, so have I as a person.

I took these photos over at Fourth Ward Park in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this summer. The closer to the end of the year we get, the more I realize I have a lot of great photos that I have not posted yet. So, I have been going back looking at photos I took earlier this year. I took all of these photos in the middle of the day. In order to pull this off for the long exposure shots, I used my ND filter. It has multiple settings that help you capture that smooth water look even though it is a clear and sunny day. Click the link here, in order to learn more about it. I enjoy visiting this small park in Uptown Charlotte because it has a great view of the city, and it is a nice place to just sit and enjoy a beautiful day.