What's in a Name?

Naming things has never been a strong suit of mine. When I was little, I often called my stuffed animals with simple, descriptive names: Mr. Black Bear (a black bear), Brownie (another bear that was brown), Mayor Seal (a stuffed seal who was the mayor of my stuffed animals), and so on. The same goes for my photos. I often name them "Timp 1," "Timp 2," and so on.

I know. I'm sooooooo creative.

When it came time to choose a name for my calendar, I honestly didn't know what to call it. So I did my usual thing when coming up with ideas: I brainstormed. I wrote down a bunch of things that I thought would be okay, narrowed the list down, and then sent my ideas to the production manager so she could see what upper management liked. (A pretty good system, I think. I may apply it someday when I have children. Bless my poor (future) husband's heart! haha!)

"God's Wonder" was the winner.

Have you ever looked at something you created and thought, "Did I really make this? It's beautiful (or amazing or pretty)"? I know I did when I first started doing HDR photography. It thrilled me to see how something that started out looking pretty unoriginal could turn into something so pretty. A few times I sat back and said, "Wow! Did I really just create that?" Those moments of awe—those moments of wonder—filled me completely, and I wanted to create more. These moments inspire me and help me to feel happy.

And maybe that's how I thought up this particular title. I feel that nature is God's way of showing His love for us. He takes something that can be unoriginal and plain and turns it into something that is wonderful to behold. He sees the potential there. Perhaps He sees all of His creations (including us) in this same way. We can all become part of that moment of awe, that moment of wonder. We can all feel God's wonder.


"God's Wonder" is available on amazon.com and booksandthings.com. Check it out!
http://booksandthings.com/God-s-Wonder-2016-HDR-Photo-Wall-Calendar.html

The Dinner Group Dilemma

The other day as I was pondering about my blog and my inattentiveness to it, a brilliant idea came to me: "We should name our dinner group!" You see, my dinner group is amazing. Twelve individuals  meet together four times a week to share a meal, social, and have a great time. My food budget hasn't been overdrawn since I joined. I get to talk and eat (for some, eating is the most important part) and be entertained that takes up about an hour of my day. It's pretty fantastic.

So the thought of giving a name to the dinner group appealed me. I mean, if I'm going to blog about my everyday life, then I better be creative with something, right? And it got my brain churning.

It could be named Stan's Dinner Group, because Stan was the founder. But he moved to New Mexico quite a few months ago.

Nate's Dinner Group could work too, but Nate shot that one down quicker than you can say no.

I came up with some funny animal names: Hungry Hyenas, Fitful Flamingos, Thirsty Tigers, Wallowing Minnows, and so on.

As I invited other dinner group members for their opinions, it was clear that no one had thought of naming the dinner group before. And that I was probably the only one who really cared. But since I'm writing this blog, I wanted to call the group something. (Maybe it's just me and my tendency to name things: my car is named Gizmo, my iPod Touch is Peregrin Touch, my Macbook Pro is Bernie, and sometimes I call my camara Flashy.  Yeah, it could be just me. I do draw a line though. My work computer is just computer.)

This is what we decided (among the few who cared): TDG

TDG, or The Dinner Group.

Hmm. It's practical. And descriptive.  It works, I suppose. I think I'm going to shorten it to DG though. It's faster to type.