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Marcia lost her voice. Patrice lost her freedom. Ken lost his legs.
At some point in our life we will all experience loss of one kind or another. We may lose a friend or two as we go through grammar school. We may lose a sweetheart in our teen years. Our pets may pass on or run away. 50% of marriages end in divorce.
Some of us may experience the heart-wrenching loss of a child to disease, accident, or war. Most of us will have to get through the loss of our parents. We may lose our job.
How do we fill the void?
How do we make the emptiness go away?
How do we reassemble the pieces of our life so it all makes sense again?
It hurts. How do we stop the pain?
We’ve all heard the expression that nature abhors a vacuum. Weeds are a perfect example. Cultivate some plot in your yard for flowers or vegetables. No sooner does that empty space start filling. Not with the flowers or vegetables you planted but with weeds. That’s nature seeking to fill the void.
An empty table or counter in your home is the most attractive magnet for anything you hold in your hand that needs to be set down. Does anyone have a half-empty closet?
Nature wants us to be full too. That empty feeling inside is nature’s way of prodding us on. Our souls and hearts were meant to be full. Many times, the loss becomes a blessing in disguise. The loss was really just nature’s way of calling us to a greater fullness. Her way of replacing something inadequate with something more suited for our potential.
We often can’t see past the hurt though. All we feel is the pain. But as we begin to rebuild our lives we are drawn to this greater potential. Sometimes we can feel the need to do more or be more. Sometimes we are guided by forces we do not understand or are not conscious of.
While it may seem to take an eternity, eventually our emptiness is filled. Though we will never forget the loss, it becomes part of the new you. But does it have to take so long? Is there a faster way to fill the void?
As strange as it may seem, Adobe may have unwittingly found the solution in their newest Photoshop version, CS5.
One of this great new options in this photo editing software is a feature called “Content Aware Fill”. This feature lets you cut out, erase, or remove any part of your photo and then Photoshop goes to work to fill that area with new information calculated from the surrounding pixels.
Before “Content Aware Fill” the photo editor would have to fill that void manually, piece by piece by cloning pixels from the remaining photo or by replacing them entirely with some piece from another photograph. Editing the old way could take hours. With “Content Aware Fill” that time could be reduced to just seconds.
That’s great for filling the void in photos, but how does that relate to the void in our life?
Quite simply, we must do what the Photoshop program does. We must look at the parts of our life surrounding the void, the loss, and see what information is most relevant, most important to us. We must look at all the interests that make up our life and grab pieces of that to begin rebuilding.
During such crisis in our life it is natural to focus on the loss, on the void. To rebuild we must change our focus to what remains, to the whole portions of our life. It will happen eventually, but we can make it happen faster.
In my studies I have seen countless example where photography has been used to hasten the recovery time for people in loss. Marcia used photography to radically change her life after completely losing her voice in surgical complications. Patrice used photography to restore freedom to her life after she was called to care for her invalid brother. Ken used photography to relieve chronic pain and boredom after losing use of his legs in the line of duty. Many people have used photography as therapy after divorce.
Photography forces you to change your focus and begin to see the infinite beauty in all the wonders of this world. You’re naturally drawn to photograph the things you love when you get started, so it’s easy to forget your troubles. Your void begins to fill with beauty. You smile a lot.
Photography is life’s “Content Aware Fill”.
In order to become whole again, in order to become more than you are, you must do something. You must take action. Photography is perfect because it is simple. Everyone can take a photograph. Some better than others, but we can all do it. The more you become involved the more focused you become. You become focused on the good and the beautiful.
Photography forces you to get up and get out. It forces you to do something different. As your reward for taking action you will see things you have never seen before. You will meet wonderful people you’ve never met before. Right next to what you love there is more; and that is your Content Aware Fill.
When you need a new view, remember that your camera already has a viewfinder. Why not use it to see all the beauty you’ve been missing. Use your camera to quickly fill the void.
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Source by Robert Schwarztrauber
