Give Them Their Chance

This weeks featured image is called “Ripples”. It is a self-portrait by artist Brooke Shaden. On her Instagram post about the image she extols the potential of everyone: every artist, every creative, every person to leave ripples on in the calm glassy lake of life. I found the image to be incredibly inspiring.

During the fall season, I have the joy of interacting with tons of kids from early nursery school age up to high school. I do school portraits, I have been doing this for so long that I now have watched scores of kids grow from infancy to young adulthood. It is quite an experience with often mixed emotions. In all of them, I see so much hope and possibilities. In others I sometimes watch and wonder is the brightness of life dimming?

This image of my daughter Lauren makes me smile. It expresses all that is wonderful in her. Our family had been photographing portraits at an area school. Lauren and Evan were there because we were doing our family portrait as well.  The day was spent and we were breaking down for the weekend.  LaLa (Lauren) decided to ham it up a little. In her childhood, she often did that when I saw the image “Ripples” I thought of the picture of Lauren.

In the faces of these awesome kids, I see so much hope and aspiration. Their eyes overflow with sparkle, their minds are ripe with inspiration, dreams, and great possibilities for tomorrow!

Somehow life has a way of crushing all of that. Sometimes we don’t help.

I hate what drugs, addiction, and mental health issues do to people and their families. I believe every person who in any way takes advantage of the weakness of another human being should pay the severest price for their actions. I also think children should be allowed to make ripples in the world where they live.

Children should be allowed ….

To imagine

To be who they are

To be loved

To dream the impossible

To cry

To love themselves

To be who God created them to be

To make mistakes

To overcome pain

To laugh

To not be perfect

To be forgiven

To play

To express themselves without shame

To imagine

To be who they are

To be loved

To learn to cope with life

To smile

To wonder

To pray

To create

and To make ripples!

If we do not take the time and make an effort to help them do that, we are the ones that lose out.

If we do not take the time and make an effort to help them do that, we are the ones that lose out.