Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

Posted on February 21, 2015 by liontamar

A Shift In My Thinking

Posted on January 15, 2015 by liontamar

Just recently I have had a shift in my thinking when it comes to my son who is now 9; I think of him as a human being.

I know that might sound really strange, however bear with me and I shall explain.

When my Son was 18 months old he was diagnosed with VCFS and when he was about 5 he was diagnosed with having a moderate intellectual disability. When we were met with these diagnoses it was naturally heart breaking and yes of course I still saw him as a human being. It’s when you live through the reality that is presented before you it is only natural to be influenced by such things and for your mind to just cope with the situation.

Many decisions that we have made on his behalf have been influenced by his challenges and rightfully so. Many of the dreams that we had for him were either squashed or adjusted accordingly.

Fast forward to now and so many things have changed and we need to catch up.

Where did it start?

Back in June there was an opportunity for my son to be prayed for by Chris Gore.

Who’s he?

He’s some dude who has a healing ministry and he came to Shellharbour and invited all those with kids who have special needs to be prayed for. If this was a year earlier I would have said bugger off but somehow I was open so on the Saturday night an hour before the night session my son and a heap of other kids got some prayer. It was really special. The ministry team were polite and asked the kids permission to pray for them. It was a special time.

I did notice some little changes in him and have been rejoicing and thanking God for all the milestones. What having prayer meant for me, was my eyes for Zach’s future was immediately about hope instead of scary and uncertain.

So life went on and in the last term at school he started to struggle and was emotional everyday. It has been troubling and the teachers have been concerned for him as previously he was a happy child. Just prior to all this emotional stuff at school I had a dream that he was at a beach on a surf board. I witnessed him being pummelled by the waves and at first I freaked out but when I looked at him I could see that he was enjoying himself. I knew by this dream that he was going to be okay.

Last month we had a Worship Mob at our church. During that time my son began to cry at a particular song (which is not unusual at all). I nearly did my normal “roll my internal eyes and get annoyed” however, I looked at him and instead of seeing him as a disabled child having a melt down I saw him as a human being touched by God through the music.

It was an epiphany!!!

I took him to the foyer and let him have a cry in my arms. I told him it’s okay to be sad and just let the tears out as he said that he didn’t want the sad feelings. After some time he asked me why his friends don’t like him any more and then there was another bout of sobbing. After he had calmed down he then became really happy and I think it was due to him being validated and not told to calm down.

Ever since that moment there has been a shift in my thinking. It reminded me of those optical illusion pictures that has two images. For years I have been seeing the one image but now I see the other.

Just recently we took him to a psychologist and I was greatly encouraged by her words. she encouraged us to get him retested, get him into drama and provide more challenges for him. This holiday he has been going to his usual out of school program and he has been hanging out with mainstream kids and has no emotional problems.

I am starting to see his future in a different light, my eyes are looking up and I think he’s going to be okay. It’s time to focus on the other image that is in the picture.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Cover Art

Posted on October 27, 2014 by liontamar

I’ve been scrolling through some of my photo’s to come up with an image for this challenge and I couldn’t stop at one.

Here are a few

An interesting thing that I have noticed with these images is their simplicity and quietness. It would seem that I prefer a cover that has limited information and is focused and clear.

1 Peter 2:9

Posted on October 22, 2014 by liontamar

The other day I took a walk down to my local shopping centre when I noticed this tag

I was immediately struck by the prophetic nature of the image, so I took a pic and proclaimed 1 Peter 2:9 over the person who scribed it

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I want to clarify that I do not condone tagging or criminal behaviour, yet looking at this tag gave me hope for this city. God loves the people who live in this post code and lets not forget it.

A week after capturing the tag we had our band fund-raiser so that we can purchase equipment to record our songs. I had no intention of doing any prophetic art but after the prompting of one of our church members I thought, what a good idea.

As I started painting that night, I had no clue about what I was going to create until God reminded me of the tag.

The image down the bottom is a big symbolic hug. Not only does Jesus want to call this post code his royal priest hood but he wants to give it a big Heavenly hug.

I’m glad that I captured the tag, as today it was gone. It was white washed over and as we all know, tagging is naughty.

100 Days Of Happiness

Posted on September 24, 2014 by liontamar

Yesterday I completed my 100 happy day challenge and I was kind of relieved. It was a great thing to do and really wasn’t that difficult , I just had to remember to do it each day.

Here is the link if you want to take a peak of my 100 photo’s

I have decided that a good writing exercise would be, for me to let each photograph inspire some writing. I won’t do it every day, maybe once a week and will put each post in the 100 happy day category. I’m looking forward to this, as it will help me stay consistent when writers block tries to muzzle in on my creative territory.

If you want to take the 100 happy day challenge, I highly recommend.

This Is Me Right Now

Posted on September 12, 2014 by liontamar

How can I describe all the awesome stuff that this happening in my life right now? It’s kind of difficult to sit and reflect without wanting to jump up and scream and shout “I’m living the dream people, I’m living the dream”

Any way calm down

The pantomime is nearly here and it’s been such an exciting and fun journey.

and we made it into the local paper

I have also been approached to be a part of a youth leadership program where we get to play with mud

Watch this space people, watch this space

Another exciting thing which has emerged is the possibility of teaming up with other worshippers in this city who go to different churches

Worship Mob Shellharbour

How can I contain this excitement? I can’t. I think this meme says it all

Sketching Excursion

Posted on April 7, 2014 by liontamar

Today I decided to take my sketch book to the lake to see if I can do some preliminary drawings. I firstly tea stained the pages of my sketch book to get a different effect.

As a painter I have been very frustrated with the works that I have been producing of late and it’s obvious that I need to take a different look or approach to art making.

I’ve been inspiring myself by looking at works of art that make my insides sing; such artist include

It has been such a feast to my eyes and soul to ponder upon such works and I want to go and produce something that equally satisfies my soul rather than paint a whole bunch of stuff that annoys me.

Of course, I’m sure most artists go through these frustrating times and that’s where one needs to just keep pressing on.

Here is some images through photography that I captured on my drawing excursion.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life

Posted on March 30, 2014 by liontamar

When I step out of my house to walk down the street I look up and see this

evidence of suburban living are everywhere on the streets where I live

On my walk to the shops or garden, there is more evidence that a shopping centre is close by

I love where I live.

The Lake

Posted on March 3, 2014 by liontamar

Today I decided to take a walk around the lake. I often find that walking inspires me and makes me feel refreshed. It’s a time where I can calm my thoughts and sort stuff out. Along with being my main type of physical excise, I find that walking also assists in the creative process. I always take my iphone along and for the first time ever I dropped and cracked my screen arrrhhhhh. Never mine, I still got some lovely shots of the lake.