Category: Final Focus

One day the lens of retrospection will come into focus, and we will see clearly the beauty and redemption that was woven into our darkest days.

Those times we most struggled – when our faith was tested, our hearts were broken or we felt lost and defeated by the harsh realities of life … we couldn’t see all the light that illuminated us then because we were so consumed by the shadows.

We have heard it before, but we don’t always understand until we face it ourselves, but our most transformative experiences are rarely lovely or radiant. They are dark and painful and exhausting. 

But on most occasions, we are found and forged in these moments of pain and suffering. Our resolve and resilience are fortified in the valley of darkness and despair. It’s here we unknowingly develop our potential, our character and integrity. 

Our faith is often found on the crucible of conflict. 
And that really is beautiful … Even if we can only ever appreciate its beauty and redeeming effect on our lives in retrospect. 
People don’t always tell you that the Road to Redemption is often found in the Valley of the Shadow of Death … 
But it is. 

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

In fact, it’s littered with so much uncertainty it’s really best not to form any preconceived ideas or make too bold of assumptions about what the future holds. Because the truth is…  You. have. no. idea. 

You will walk through things you never thought you would.  You will find yourself in situations for which you absolutely can’t prepare. You will be forced to make hard decisions you never thought you’d have to make. You will make false friends and feel the sting of their ulterior motives. You will be humbled and have your heart broken. You will try and fail and face unexpected consequences and disappointments.  You will lose people you love and thought you’d get to keep forever. 

But you will also find love and unshakable friends. The right people stay, and the wrong ones will go. You will find grace and forgiveness are the best gifts you can give and receive.  You will learn grit grows best in tough times, and trials really are the best teachers.  You will find light in dark places and compassion in the eyes of hard faces.  You may find your broken heart held together by unexpected hands and mended in ways you can’t really comprehend. 

And just as soon as you start to assume you’ve got a solid grip on your life … 

It will shift and surprise you all over again.

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

– Mackenzie Free –

Childhood sure has changed a lot over the last 40 years. In fact, it’s been almost completely rewritten over the years.

If a great childhood, by today’s standards, is now defined by expensive toys, designer clothes, lavish vacations or a million pre-planned, carefully curated, activities … my kids won’t have one.

But I will give them a childhood filled with simplicity, freedom and boredom.

I’ll give them the gift of simplicity … the opportunity to slow down, unplug and enjoy life. We threw away nearly all mainstream toys years ago and realized less really is more. Kids really don’t need the constant bombardment of “things” to be content. Too much ‘stuff’ creates imagination stagnation. It stifles their creativity.

I’ll give them freedom … to roam, to play and get dirty. I will give them the freedom to climb trees, play in the creek, catch fish and poke ant hills with a stick. Freedom to get bug bites, bloody knees, splinters, holes in their clothes and to learn lots of lessons the hard way. I’ll give them the freedom to be kids.

And I’ll give them boredom …  perhaps the best gift I can give them. Because a great imagination is born from boredom. And a great imagination gives way to ideas and innovation as they grow up. So, I encourage boredom often because their best ideas will be found there. I let them wonder, wander, try and entertain their own ideas.

The best gift we can give our children is their childhood.

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

Sometimes the ‘Amen’ must come before the prayer.

Sometimes we must have full trust in the ending before we’ve even begun.

As in the garden, we plant and sow good seeds and then we whisper up, ‘Amen’

(which by definition, means ‘so be it’)

Our prayers come later…

Often paired with our productivity.

Our diligence, perseverance and tired bodies become a part of the prayer process.

We dirty our hands and cleanse our souls out in the garden.

And often find that forgiveness, too, can grow out there in the dirt if, like the proverb says, we try our best to “plant kindness and gather love.”

But we won’t always get it right…

…in the garden or life.

Growth isn’t always what we want it to be.

Some things suffer blight, drought or grow weak by insufficient light.

But we learn from our mistakes,

trust we must let go of what we cannot control, press on into a new season, plant again…

…and whisper, ‘Amen.’

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

We wake up and before we know it, it’s over … the day. … the season. … the year. The life.

Unavoidably, it will all come to an end one day, and we will have no choice but to reconcile with the life we created, the choices made and how we used the time we were given.

But that’s not today. We still have time – to make revisions, right our wrongs, try again. But there’s a trap we often fall into the older we get … We begin to adopt the “old dog” mentality. This false belief that we’re past the point of revision … that ‘we are who we are’ and can learn no new tricks. Thus, we’re forevermore limited by the choices we have already made. We buy into this ridiculous notion that once we reach a certain age, we’re beyond modification because our true selves, and life plans are drawn in permanent ink. We’re not. They’re not.

The overarching narrative of our lives can always be revised. We can’t change the past, but we can always refine ourselves and change the trajectory of our current lives at any time.

I believe we were created under the idea that we never stop ‘becoming’… we should, by all accounts, remain under constant revision until the bitter end. The work of being human isn’t meant to stop until we do.

We are complete upon our last breath. … Never before.

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

Did you know it was once rumored that the streets of Boston were nothing more than paved cow paths? 

This was proved a myth, of course, but it’s still an interesting thought. 
And, giving consideration to the trajectories of our earliest transportation system, it does seem almost plausible.

Because that’s the thing about cow paths … they always lead somewhere beneficial to the cow …To shelter. To safety.  To water.  To greener grass … or the farmers feed lot.

They aren’t just mindlessly meandering. There is a means and method to these wayfaring passages.

The “cow path theory” in the modern business world has given these well-beaten paths a bad wrap by associating them with a mindless “follow the leader” approach to managing employees. 
But despite the negative connotations associated with these paths, they are actually inherently intelligent “maps.” 

These “paths of least resistance” aren’t aimless … they are instinctual. 
They follow the natural slope of the land to help the animal conserve energy. Through woods and tall grass these well-beaten paths offer an unobstructed view of what lies ahead to keep them safe.

They also give insight into their interdependent nature.  They trust the path the way we trust a map. They inherently trust that the trail carved out for them by generations before is good … so they follow it. However, if the map or path no longer agree with the ground, they adjust, and a new path is formed.

Personally, I think we can find a deeper understanding to the overall design for our lives, too, through these cow paths. 

Generally speaking, we can and should trust the rudimentary path our parents and future generations have charted out for us. Our lives are all different, but the same. They may look different, but they should be pointed in the same direction with the same eternal objective in the end. 
Their life journey will never be our journey, but they have left behind guides and signposts for us to follow to keep us from wandering too far off course.  They have carved out a preliminary path to keep us on solid ground and keep us pointed in the right direction. 

But as times change and the earth evolves, if we should ever find the map no longer agrees with the ground we’re on … don’t rewrite it entirely or abandon the map completely … just adjust it a bit and carry on so the next generation will know the way and can follow our path down the “narrow road.” 

(Which, in my mind, looks a lot like a cow 
path)

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama