Redemption

It was 7 o’clock on a Monday evening and like every good worker bee I was sitting on the sofa at the end of my day’s work.

I might well have stayed sitting there for the evening before climbing off to bed but at the very end of the show I was watching, one character asked the other if they believed in redemption.

Now, that was enough to stop me in my tracks and I turned off the TV and just sat there for a while; not moving, just lost in thought. And so after a little while, I decided to head off to Lake Mirror to release the bad thoughts into the night sky and find some peace of mind.

So, I grabbed the camera (as always), along with the little glass globe that Morgan got me and a few wall tiles and headed off to see what I might be able to conjure up in the process.

At the end of this blog are a few pictures. The first two have been turned upside down, because with the globe acting like a lens, the image ends up upside down in the first place. The third one is as-shot and then the fourth shows my set up for the shot.

I was very pleased with the end results and while there isn’t really much variety to show off, I was really just looking for a single shot.

Hope you enjoy!

Anyway, back to the point of today’s blog. Redemption.

In a true religious sense, the concept of redemption is very much aligned to atonement for prior sins. It is the belief that a person who has committed some grave sins can actually find forgiveness in future acts.

On a wider level, redemption applies to any past errors that we have made and the belief that we can return from even the most serious of errors through determination and positive acts that restore our former position.

Like most of us, I have made errors, wronged people, broken promises, and hurt loves. It is humbling to see that in yourself but I suspect if you live long enough, then you get to witness your own failings on a giant screen in Technicolor.

Unless life cuts a person short though, we all get a chance to recover from our past and build a better version of ourselves that moves forward.

There may be those that don’t even recognize or acknowledge their past failings and I genuinely feel sorry for them. Because there is a wonderful sense of freedom that comes with seeing yourself as an imperfect soul.

Yes, it can be a source of self-pain and self-disdain. But once you have recognized the imperfections, it gives you a chance to redirect yourself and strive to be that better person.

Whatever the “sin” there is forgiveness. But in the first instance, you have forgive yourself. If you don’t forgive yourself, then how do you reasonably expect those you have wronged to do so?

And in truth, self-forgiveness should be earned. Not easily given. It should only come on the back of constructive changes that take you away from your errors. You have to be able to objectively step back a distance, point a finger at yourself and say “I am not that same person”.

If you can do that, then your life ahead becomes one of redemption.

In watching the sun go down last night, I resolved to move forward on a couple of things that inaction risked losing myself to. So I used the setting of the sun as a symbolic way of drawing a line in the sand and closing our the past.

Sunsets have that wonderful ability to bring closure to your day. And then if you are lucky (and you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t), the following sunrise gives you a chance to start all over again.

Yes, they are only symbols of closure and new starts, but most of what actually goes on in our minds are symbolic. We look for guides and reasons, signs and indications. This is how we plan our forward life.

Our past life, no matter how bad it played out, is our past life. Other than it got us to the point we are at today, it plays no part in how we move forward.

Troubled souls seek redemption in their future. Imperfect souls that accept the imperfection, find it.