I was busy doing something the other day and I stopped to realise just how far I’ve come in the last year or so. And I don’t just mean business wise. I mean that now without too much thinking or EFT, the emotional freedom technique where you tap on points around the body to release fears, I am volunteering to get into situations that even just last year, would have had me running for the hills.
It’s too easy when you’ve never suffered from depression and anxiety or low self-esteem to sneer at people who have or are suffering. Yet, it is also understandable that people who have been lucky enough not to suffer, look at someone who is suffering with depression and see them smiling or laughing and think how can they have depression. That was the mistake I made once with a family friend, now though I understand from my own experience, when you are suffering you have good days and you have bad ones. It’s the stringing together of the good ones that helps you to recover.
I have just been with a group of people this week who are in a similar situation as I was a few years ago, though through group work they are making small yet hugely significant strides in their recovery. One of them said something that struck a chord. I’m going to paraphrase him. “A couple of years ago I was in hospital, now I’m able to come here every week and be with people who are suffering in similar situations to me and feel comfortable. I’m starting to feel more confident, yet sometimes the differences are so small I don’t always realise how far I’ve come on this journey.”
I emphasised with him just how important it is to notice these small steps along the way, as remembering how far you’ve come helps you to keep moving forward rather than standing still or going backwards.
Today I’ve just come straight from doing a careers day at a local primary school. With just twenty minutes per group of children, (10 groups in all), I decided to undertake the challenging task of creating a television programme, with all the children playing the roles of TV production team and then using the photography, on disposable cameras to, create a story board.
In practice, I have to say it was challenging to get it all done in that length of time and my groups were always late to the next career talk as we were still finishing off. I wonder if by the third change over if the other business instinctively knew any children coming in late were ‘the photographers group!’
It was good fun and the children had a great time, I definitely saw a lot of potential editors and researchers with some great vision, and best of all whenever you work with children, some great imagination. I had practiced part of the presentation a few nights before with my boyfriend, who acted the part of a very irritating child, butting in all the time with questions, until I was asking through gritted teeth for him to please be quiet. Thankfully the children I was with today were much better behaved!
Sometimes life is like learning a language; you don’t look at a dictionary and think about how many words you have yet to learn, you celebrate how well you can already communicate with the locals with what you have learnt.
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Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.