Five Minute Friday / Focus

I have been looking forward to joining in with another of LisaJo's Five Minute Friday prompts this week. I like being given something specific (yet so varied and general) to write about. I would highly recommend having a go at this, even if you don't have a blog, just for the fun of writing about something that you would not have done if it wasn't for this.

Go

Living this life takes a lot of focus. Engaging fully with the present so often requires focus - a conscious channeling of attention to give our all to a task.

The memories and processes of taking photos flit through my mind - the tangible art of bringing things to focus and deliberately pushing others right out of focus. The soft blur of bokeh that can be so very beautiful as you swivel the camera lens out of focus, creating beauty in the blurry.

The start of a new school year brings with it a fresh need to focus on the new while remembering the old ways of doing things, shifting and adapting in accordance with the needs of the children that make up my class this year. Their dynamics gradually come into focus as I meet and greet them one by one and invite them to explore their new classroom environment. I watch as their focus shifts and settles, sometimes fleetingly on one activity before finding comfort in another; others seek the solace of familiarity, building a train track, down at floor level, giving the interlocking lines of the track their complete and utter focus. All the while, my focus shifts - both literally and figuratively - as my mind gets into gear with the push-me-pull-me effect of the tasks that need to be completed alongside the hearts that need care and compassion.

I come home and find respite and release in the lens of my camera that gives a degree of control over how I see things.

Stop.