Unearthing the Calling

Some people get out of bed and get their day on, going to work knowing it is exactly what they are supposed to do. 

Not me. I need an archaeologist and an excavator to unearth what's buried beneath this thing I do called work. 

It's not the knowing what I'm supposed to do. It's getting to it and knowing how. 

I'm not super motivated by money. I LIKE money. It's necessary to my existence. But making more doesn't make me want to be promoted within a company or do a desk job that allows me raises or experience in the field I work in. 

Art, in all of it's forms, that motivates me. Reading. Writing. Music. Sculpture. Painting. Photography. Etc..... THAT motivates me. That's what I want to be IN. I want to be immersed in art. I want to immerse others in it. 

It always makes me cringe just a wee bit when someone asks me what my long term goals are. "Where do you see yourself in five years?" "What do you see yourself doing ten years from now?" Ummm....retiring? I'm almost 56. I really don't have any long term plans for myself sitting behind a desk. 

I work just to pay the bills. 

What I really want? An art gallery. A soft place to land. A place for art, artists, art lovers, and the people who love them to gather and celebrate creativity. THAT'S my long term goal. And if I don't get digging into this now, I might miss it. 

Please don't be offended if you are one of those people who is motivated by money, or wants to retire from the same place you have worked for 17 years, or are happy being home and excelling as a homemaker. Good heavens, what kind of person would I be if I disregarded who you are called to be? THAT's what you are built for and hallelujah, you found your way! I love it that people can be so committed to their work that it works FOR them, not against them! 

You see, I was one of those who wanted a little bit of everything. I saw life as a tunnel, not the way that it narrows at the end and a pinhole of light meant you were close to the end. I saw it the opposite direction. I am coming in through the pinhole and having to light the whole dang thing up along the way, but do you see that huge sun-filled opening at the end? I'm running towards that, baby! 

I knew when I was called to be a photographer. I had my littlest girl, sitting on my lap and my other two daughters beside me. We were on the Durango & Silverton Train and I was in AWE of the beauty of the mountains. I kept saying, "Wow, if people don't believe in God, they've never seen this." And that's when I heard it. The call. "Show them." I took out my camera and started shooting photograph after photograph. My call was to show them His majesty.

©CherieElainePhotography2019

The passion has been burned into me ever since then. There are times when I feel like I've failed, but its not over. I'm unearthing the calling every time I pick up the camera. And I am unearthing the calling of others every time I find an artist that I want to participate in my gallery. 

Do you know what it takes to excavate a mountain to run a tunnel through it? Explosives. Bringing the side of the mountain down. Boring through it with severe and painful force. Dragging the insides of it out. Rebuilding what's been removed so that it is safe to share with others. And lighting it up so that everyone can safely see. And it can take YEARS. 

Unearthing a calling can be like that. Some of you found your mountain and got the work done early and have moving freely and safely through it since. I didn't. It's more like I've found the mountain but I'm digging the tunnel one spoonful at a time. Man, sometimes it hurts! 

But just wait until it breaks through the other side. 

So. Much. Beautiful. Light.  

Love you!