My City

Snow falls like white confetti from the sky in celebration of the new year. It's the beginning of January in Fort Collins. The trees in Old Town still hold tight to their Christmas lights, like a child unwilling to give up their toy. Cyclists ride by, bundled in the single digit temps, on the way to their lives. I love this city. The smell of coffee and pizza, the sounds of cars forging through the snow, the sky wrapping the town up in it's grey blanket. This city is different than the others, not because other cities are worse or better. It's different because it's my city, my home.

As I walked viewing the city through my camera lens, I am underwhelmed by what is captured. I just can't get what I am feeling into a shot. I continue to shoot until finally I end up in a small local shop at the far reaches of Old Town. I walk in out of the snow blanketed outside world, and take off my gloves and hat. Once visible from behind my wintery costume, I am greeted by the owner. Our conversation went from toys made from rubber trees to human trafficking eventually to spiritual matters. Now its all back in focus, what I so desperately wanted to capture on 'film' has now captured me, the people of Fort Collins.

Walking back onto the snow covered streets with a toy made from an old rubber tree in my backpack, my soul is warmed by what God has led us to. My thoughts can't help but wonder what this city holds for our lives. I look down in the snow to see footprints and I wonder where they are going, somewhere interesting, to work, a coffee shop, or maybe they just lead home.