22/31 July Challenge

22/31 July Challenge

I’ve shared a very heartfelt message in my video today, so I hope you’ll have a good watch. Which leaves me free to share with you the real title of this blog post: “Why NOT to Snooze”.

This morning I had my alarm set for 4:10am. The alarm went off, and I was very tired, so I did something that I never, ever do: I hit my snooze button. I am usually bolting out of bed right when the first sound goes off, so it was very odd that I didn’t get right out of bed today. Instead, I opted for five more minutes. I already know that five minutes doesn’t do anything or make me feel any better, but there it was. I did it. And now, I regret it.

In those five minutes (technically four, because I woke up one minute before my next alarm), I had a dream. A nightmare, more accurately. I have them all the time, almost every night, so it wasn’t unusual. Just ill-timed.

I dreamed that I was at the location for today’s shoot. Every few seconds lightning would strike nearby, and each time it did, a clue was revealed in that spot as to the recent murder that took place there. I read all of the clues as they were uncovered, lightning blasting all around the water I was standing in, until I realized that I was standing in the water with a dead body.

Cue wake-up.

Cue me frantically re-thinking my shooting location.

Cue me saying “drats” and getting in the car and going anyway.

I got there and had an awful sense of foreboding. In the span of one minute I was certain I was going to a) get arrested, b) find a dead body, or c) somehow drown in the 3 feet of water I was in and never be heard from again.

And then I remembered my camera sitting there and felt the rock hard, well, rocks, under my knees and I was drawn back to reality. I shot for only about two minutes before I got out of there, lest any of my premonitions come true. My dress kept sinking in the back and hitting my leg and I was certain it was a dead hand coming to grab me.

I blame this one two things: one is my dream. The other is the book series I’m currently reading about Necromancers. Either way, it was unpleasant. I was only able to giggle at myself when I got into my car, turned on A Fine Frenzy to make me feel calm and connected again, and I was driving away from my shooting space.

And then, I turned and saw a rainbow. Funny how these things work out.

Day 22, you scoundrel.

I’m off to work on some very special content for you that I can’t wait to share. Saturday brings diligent planning and homemade pizza and reading. Aside from that extra five minutes of “sleep”, it has been a pretty amazing one.

11 thoughts on “22/31 July Challenge

  1. Your creativity know no bounds, Brooke, and you unquenchable desire to create is the stuff of legends. The lengths that you go to in order to express yourself are truly remarkable. That being said, however, please be careful when you are out there in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes warnings are real, but it can be very hard to differentiate between those and unfounded fears. Keep up your amazing work!

    1. Howard, thank you, that means a lot. Indeed, there are times I need to step back and think more instead of going full steam ahead. I am trying to be better about that.

      1. Howard you are right, you do have to listen to gut feelings. I was at the skatepark one day (I ride freestyle BMX) it was really windy, I was the only person there and it just felt like a bad day to right. But I said heck with that and started riding, 5 minutes later I had knocked myself out and shattered three teeth! It would have saved me a big dentist bill if I had listened to my gut!

  2. I felt your terror reading that……wow freaky day!
    You’re braver than me, I think I would have chickened out of going there, but like you say it was so worth the effort in the end.

    I once dreamed the stone fell out of my engagement ring (a long time ago lol) and sure enough a few days later it did! Probably coincidence I guess in my case.

    This video leads onto a question I was going to ask about how vunerable you may feel on your lone travels to remote places?
    You always seem so calm and focussed on your shoot…….

    Beautiful location, fabulous dragonflies and a wistful image 🙂

    1. Freaky, yes! It really has been. And it’s all stormy and thunder-y today. Yeep! That’s freaky about your ring! Oh, universe 😀 I do feel unsettled sometimes going to places alone. There are times I know I haven’t been smart enough about it, but others where it feels much safer than it looks. Trying to get better about that 🙂

  3. Brooke, I’ve been so inspired by your July challenge. You truly are magical in so many ways. It’s interesting as you were talking about the many questions you get regarding ‘getting in dirty water’, I found myself asking a totally different question: How the heck does she find all these fabulous locations, how? This latest location begs for so many compositions. Not only would I want to do a shoot there, I’d want to plant a chair and just dream about ‘what ifs’. Thank you for inspiring and giving of yourself.

    1. Aww thank you Julie! That location was so great! I used to use the same locations over and over, but lately, and especially for this challenge, I’ve been trying to go to different spots and really search. I’ve done a lot of research, looking at Google maps, but mostly, just driving in directions I haven’t gone before. So refreshing and exciting!

  4. I love this image. You are indeed a great inspiration to us. This force that you have within you that makes you get up early, facing unfamiliar places is indeed special, inspiring and encouraging. I admire you! Yet, be careful with yourself in these adventures and, above all, rest. 😉

  5. Dang I hate it when the mind plays with you like that. For me it is when I am in the woods, and I hear something else, not a big noise just a twig snapping. My mind jumps to Mountain lion (we have very few of them in KS, but they are around.), or a buck deer which will rip you to pieces. When the odds of either of these happening is quite low, but that doesn’t stop our minds from running away with the idea.

    You go into the water for the same reason that I would try the same trick on my bike at the skatepark, even though hit had beat me down repeatedly…. Passion! Some one that doesn’t understand has just never been so passionate that every fear and pain vanishes.

    Beautiful photo. 🙂

    P.S.
    I hit my snooze button so much, it doesn’t work right any more! LOL It is pizza night here too!!!!

  6. I’m going through your blog posts just now,because I haven’t as of yet (shame on me!) and I feel so comforted reading about this. I’ve been doing fine on the irrational fears department lately, but sometimes I see bad signs in everything and get a really unsettling feeling. I once sat on the couch for 30 minutes just staring ahead of me, having this really gnawing sense of something really bad happening once I’d go outside, but then eventually I got my act together and went and ended up with two images I liked. So phew, nothing bad happened. I feel comforted in knowing I’m not the only one and it doesn’t make me an insane person for having these types of bad foreboding feeling thingies.

    I wanted to share something else, because it’s something you say very often and on my bikeride to work today I had an epiphany (I have them often) :p. It was pouring rain and I was thinking about these new images I’m making which are rather dark, and I realised I own my weirdness. Today, I own it, I have embraced the darkness I have inside, which I’ve Always tried so hard to fight off and I can make creepy things while being perfectly happy. I’m almost ready to share my images on instagram, because I feel like I’m almost there, creating for myself but ready to (hopefully) comfort others and share my journey. Sorry for the really long rant. Thank you, as Always 🙂

    Hope you have another lovely day ahead of you!
    Greetings from rainy Belgium 🙂
    Geetha Slock

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