Kitchen Fun

I wasn’t going to include this practice in this first month. I thought, maybe I should hold off because it’s kind of silly. I came up with it one night when I was fooling around in my kitchen and never mentioned it to anyone. But yesterday, a psychotherapist friend sent me this gorgeous picture. She is one of a number of therapists who have recommended Photography as Prayer as an extremely effective way to bring calm and centering focus to people of any age. Her photo is of the inside of her egg cooker which she shot (I’m sure she was laughing) while poaching eggs.

Pretty silly but isn’t it gorgeous! My subject is something even more ridiculous. I filled a metal bowl in my kitchen sink with soapy water and began to make photographs. I shot from different angles, closer and farther away. I turned off the overhead light, propped a flashlight next the bowl and lit the bubbles. Any kind of light source will do. It’s a good thing I didn’t have any food coloring. Maybe you do. If not bubbles, pick something in your kitchen, like fruits or vegetables, pasta, even crumpled aluminum foil, and have fun with it. Spend 10 minutes or more. While you’re shooting, don’t let thoughts about anything else creep into your mind. Just let your creative juices flow. Be silly!

I hope you have fun doing this. I want to remind you, Photography as Prayer isn’t really only about photography. It’s about consciousness, designed to help you use your phone, a device you hold closer to your heart for more hours a day than any person or thing, to bring your attention back to yourself. The practices, even when you are having fun, are designed to help you hear your own voice, expressed not only with words but with photographs. If you haven’t already, download the Photography as Prayer app and share the beauty of your pictures or keep them solely for your own pleasure in your Prayer Book. Remember, when you focus fully with your camera on something that makes you smile or you find beautiful, and capture it, it’s your soul speaking.