Senses, Emotions and Treasures

My wife and I went to Severance Hall in Cleveland recently to hear the Cleveland Orchestra.  It was a really good time being out with her and listening to great music by very talented musicians.  There is no doubt these men and women spent years and years and countless hours perfecting their trade by which we are the beneficiaries through our sense of hearing.  And just as the rest of our senses are able to do, hearing brings about an emotional response on our part whether a beautiful piece of music, a baby crying, or the horn of a train as it passes in the distance.  These emotional responses can be positive or not and different from one individual to another. Then there are the actors, or musicians in this case, who experienced a great emotional satisfaction for themselves in the beginning that put them on the path where they are today.   Their emotional satisfaction has grown to include their listeners for whom they are able to bring a little joy and a sense of wonder with their music and their chosen instrument they so love themselves.

By way of comparison, I find myself wishing I had taken up photography long ago.  In fact, I did at the age of 20 in 1980.  It was then that I moved to Colorado from Texas and my first purchase upon arriving was a car.  That's right.  I had sold my motorcycle to fund the move to Colorado.  The second purchase I made was a Pentax K1000.  I spent a lot of time in the mountains and took a lot of pictures in the three months I was there and found a real joy and satisfaction in doing so, even if I was the only one seeing the photos after they were developed.  Well, in my youthful exuberance, or foolishness, I didn't spend much time looking for a job and soon found myself broke and was asked to leave the place I was staying at.  And that was the beginning of the end of my photographic journey.  I drove back to Texas where I had a place to stay with my parents, got a job and was married a little less than three years upon returning.  Ten and a half months after that our first child was born and.....well, you know how it is.  Life happens.

Fast-forward 30 years and here I am, at it once again.  Soon after buying my first DSLR, which you can read about here, my wife reminded me of the pleasure I used to get taking pictures when we first met.  She was right but I had completely forgotten about that until she brought it up.  As I remembered that time long ago I wanted to find the instrument that started it for me.  Now, we've moved several times in our 30 years together and I looked high and low and found the photos I had taken, but no camera.  As I flipped through the photos the emotions came flooding in from a time gone by.  They weren't emotions of tears but of wonder and reminiscing which brought a big smile to my face.  Good times.

Well, between 2011 and 2012 I kept looking for that camera.  A treasure hunt, if you will.  I'd look in the same places again and again just knowing it was going to suddenly be there one day.  And then as I was cleaning a space in the basement I happened upon a small tote.  I don't recall ever seeing it before but instead of just pitching it in a pile and not giving it another thought, I unzipped it and pulled the cover back and was absolutely dumbfounded to see the camera with its original lens that I had bought 33 years earlier.

It appears to be in excellent condition, though I've not used it since finding it - but one of these days I'll have to take it for a spin if for nothing more than old times sake.  In the meantime, I thank God for the five senses He gave us that allow us to experience the world around us, the emotions we experience that testify to our humanity and the real Treasure that is His Son.