What Holds Us Together
What holds us together isn't always visible.
This photograph has been with me for a long time.
I created it as a school assignment. Like most new photographers, I was learning by studying the work of others. That's what we do in the beginning. We emulate. We practice. We try to understand why something works before we find our own way of seeing.
I wanted this photograph to be perfect.
More than that, I wanted to impress my instructor.
When he looked at it, he said something I've never forgotten.
"It's not an original idea, but it's the best one I've seen."
I remember feeling disappointed.
It sounded like a compliment, but it also felt like I had somehow fallen short.
I didn't think much about the photograph again for a long time.
Years passed.
Life moved on.
When I made this photograph, I thought I knew exactly who I was.
Then one season became another, and before I realized it, years had passed.
I wasn't living someone else's life. I was simply doing what life required of me. There were people to care for, responsibilities to carry, and problems to solve. I kept moving forward because that's what needed to be done.
Then one day I looked around.
Things were finally better.
But something still didn't feel right.
It wasn't because my life was wrong.
It was because I had spent so many years becoming what everyone else needed that I no longer recognized myself.
I had to start changing.
Not because I wanted to become someone different.
Because it was finally time to become myself.
When I looked at this photograph again recently, I wasn't thinking about the assignment anymore.
I wasn't thinking about originality.
I was thinking about balance.
Back then, I thought I was photographing an egg balanced on two forks.
Today, I think I was searching for balance long before I knew I needed it.
The egg is what we notice first.
The forks quietly do the work.
Without them, nothing stays balanced.
Maybe life is like that.
The things that hold us together are often the things no one sees.
Our strength.
Our hope.
Our faith.
Our resilience.
The quiet work we do within ourselves.
Perhaps that's why this old photograph found its way back to me.
It had been waiting patiently for me to understand what it was really about.
Reflection
What has quietly been holding you together all along?