focus

I am a photographer, so please excuse the metaphor, but the high points of my life are like photographs.  Crystal clear moments when the composition is perfect and all of the right things are in focus.  If you have never used manual focus on a camera you should.  It is a different experience.  When light passes through an aperture it creates an image in light on the focal plane (that's where the film sits in a camera).  The image is upside down and backward and very blurry.  The blur is caused by an effect called circles of confusion.  A lens is required to focus those circles of confusion into a clear image.  Looking through an unfocused lens gives you only a hint of what you are about to see.  As you turn the barrel of the lens trying to line up the focus target the images becomes clearer.  The focus comes closer.  You feel a sense of anticipation, the image is coming together.

Right now I am living that moment.  The moment before.  The image is coming clear, the elements are in place and any second it will be time to press the shutter release.

Sometimes we wander through life seeing nothing but circles of confusion.  We have to select the right lens to bring things into clear focus.  There are many glass elements to every lens, all cut in different shapes, working together to bring clarity, let in the right amount of light, and crop out what you don't need in your photograph.

I finally feel like my Aspie son is in the right school, heading in the right direction, learning and growing.

Our family has found a church close to home where we immediately felt truly welcome.

My marriage is as strong as it has ever been and I am so happy in it.

My business and career is on a settled, clear path.

I have supporting loving friends with whom I can be open, honest, provide mutual support.  We all have differences and accept and encourage each other in our own paths.

These elements are in place and I can see the future coming clear.  Soon I will exhale and press the shutter.