It’s one and a half minutes long. Weeks and weeks in the making!

Condensing a 300-page book down to a one- or two-minute trailer is Hard, Exhausting Brain Work!!

Wish me luck!

My first two tries were, according to a couple of friends, “Not intriguing enough.” Okay. Then. Intrigue. Here we come!

He uses lot of interesting tools and techniques including different colored lenses. I thought I’d come away seeing the world through Rosy Colored Lenses, but sadly, no.

What I did come away with is a sort of clip-on goggle that reduces my peripheral vision!

Apparently, my brain has forgotten how to differentiate between Focus and Filter.

I can’t filter out all the activity in my periphery. My brain is full of visual noise. All the cars passing, the clouds overhead, the people walking by, the side of the room, paintings on the walls, a dog trotting past. It’s crazy to me that the brain/eye do this automatically. It’s crazy that so many things just work!

When I put on the googles, my brain sighed with relief. OH! I don’t have to pay close attention to Everything! I can just look forward!

The goggles make me look like Mr. Magoo.

There’s no way to hide them. I feel ridiculous in them.

The eye doctor says they are temporary.

I’ll wear them for a week, a month, or six months, and one day I’ll wake up and my brain will go CLICK! It will remember that the periphery is just that: peripheral. And on that glorious day, I can just discard the goggles and won’t need them anymore!

Oh, speed the day!

My new accomplishment this month is that I’m back to painting.

I got out my acrylic paints and a canvas and drew and painted a self-portrait.

It felt great to paint again! I haven’t held a brush since surgery. Seven months!

I don’t know why, but I needed to paint myself.

Like I’m trying to understand who I am these days. Trying to recognize ‘me’ in all the changes I’m going through.

It’s confusing sometimes. I feel like I’m living in a stranger’s body. I thought I’d be better by now. I though I’d feel more like myself.

Painting helps. It feels like me to create art. I’m thankful to be back at it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about focus and filter lately.

What things do I focus on? What things do I filter out?

I’m reading Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren. Here is one sentence that struck me.

“The tenacity of glory and goodness, even in this shadowed world of tears, trains my eyes to pay attention … to the light.”

And now, it’s back to book trailer work for me.

And maybe another portrait.

And maybe ... just maybe ... I’ll wake up tomorrow and be able to throw the Magoo goggles away. When that party day arrives, I’ll be sure to let you know!

Hope you are well.

Love always,

Jill