Center of Interest

          It’s been a long time since I was up at three in the morning with an urge to write. I wouldn’t call it writer’s block; it’s more like life intruding on my passion. Little things like the dog scratching at my hand right now and wanting to go outside are expected and relatively easy to fix.

          I got up and took her out for a look at the full moon. You probably didn’t even know I was gone. Trying to earn a living and maintain relationships while getting lost enough in ideas to write them down isn’t fixed as quickly or simply. It is my experience that life rarely cooperates. Life is always challenging; always demanding more from us than we are comfortable giving. If you’re not careful, you might end up far away from home in a remote canyon wondering, “What am I doing here?”

          There’s an old bumper sticker that explains this phenomenon. It’s not appropriate to repeat it here. Bowels move, it’s important that our values do not. “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

          I was watching a lesson on painting composition yesterday and was impressed at how art does imitate life. All the elements of a painting are designed to serve the “center of interest.” The center of interest can be a house, a mountain, anything thing at all. It is the thing you really want to viewer to see. Life must not dictate what we treasure. Rather, life must be wrestled to feed the true treasure of the heart. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”