Pamela Jo Bowman

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.

Frank Tibolt

This last year we had a client celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. They planned a celebration in the White Mountains with 50 of their closest friends. We were to spend the weekend capturing the three-day event and provide a video to the participants to commemorate their participation. Prior to the event, we were asked to assemble a video about their married years for the opening ceremony. We scoured their photographs and home movies for images that revealed the core of their relationship … and with the new age for video recording, most people have an excess of footage! They were not an exception.

I came across a piece of footage that touched me deeply. I found myself in tears as I watched this interchange between life partners. I imagine the moment took place on a lazy Sunday morning or perhaps in the late hours when the world is locked behind the door.

They were in the privacy of the room they share together. You never see the husband. But he holds the camera steady and attentively, for what will be a 10-minute long narration. As he was filming her she turns. I can see in her eyes the determination, but I also sense her vulnerability and her need to just be heard. She asks.

“Do you want to hear a story? I have this story in my head. Do you want to hear it?” The man apparently nods because she looked at him and smiled ever so slightly then sat on their bed and delved into this story, this idea, this thought without reservation or fear or doubt.

My tears flowed as I witnessed, what was to me, the raw intimacy that exists between trusted individuals who are sharing more than time and space, but their most sacred parts of themselves, their thoughts, their feelings, their souls.

Sharing self. Amazing.

‘No message is the utmost message, for what we tell is done.’ Emily Dickinson

O.K. I’ll let you know up front, I never cared for the girl’s poetry. It was just a tad much for my liking.

So, now as I am researching out her life and unfolding who I think she was and, now, words cannot express the awe and respect I have for her genius. She was brilliant.

Her writings eloquently convey her thoughts and those thoughts then expand my thoughts. They also inspire me to think and believe that I too can share my thoughts and touch others.

And so can you. If that is what you want.

‘Adulation is inexpensive, except to him who accepts it. It costs him Himself.’ Emily Dickinson