Surviving the Unknown

Well, I ventured into the unknown, and survived. I still was fighting up to the start of the show, but my dad threatened me that if I didn't follow through, he would take things into his own hands and over ride what I decided, and I knew he meant it. My husband took things into his own hands as well, as he loaded it all into the car. What was this venture that brought me so much stress, so much doubt, so many anxious thoughts? I shared a booth with my parents at the Sportsman's Expo in Sandpoint this weekend, and I brought with me some of my photos to sell. Now, since I was not feeling well at the beginning of the week, the plans I had to make everything extremely perfect didn't happen the way I had intended and I rushed around like a crazy woman on Thursday afternoon and Friday trying to get mats and frames, and to make the photos look good inside those mats and frames. I was very disappointed with the matting choices I found, so some of my 11 x 17's did not get displayed. I had a lot of positive comments, and I sold 7 or 8 photos, which I am thrilled about. I still feel strange selling my photos. It was very weird for me to sit and have people tell me they liked my photos that were on display around me. I don't know why, other than I'm a fairly private person, and it's been hard enough for me to display my pictures on here, but to enlarge them and put them out on display for others to buy is still a very out of the ordinary process in my mind.

One of the men in my dad's men's group stopped by and was talking to me about it and I was expressing my feelings of how strange it was to have my pictures on display and how I had struggled with it, and he asked me if it was better to covet my gift from God....ouch!! That one hit me between the eyes and left a mark!! I was not coveting my gift....I just take pictures and enjoy it! A gift? Could it be? But, it's just taking pictures!! He said a few more things and the ouch went even deeper and I've been mulling those words over for about 30 hours now. I'm going to keep mulling them for awhile.

I had a good time, regardless of my photos. I saw a lot of people I grew up with, a lot of old friends that I haven't talked with in quite some time, and shared a lot of laughs, and even a few tears. Believe me, there is yet another story to come out of this weekend, but it will have to wait for another post. Those who read my blog who were at the show on Saturday and know what happened are now chuckling, but the rest of you will have to wait.