Lessons in Life through Project 366

It's a new day, it's a new year, and it's a new concept. Last year, my new thing became my Project 366. I was introduced to this idea through social media scrapbook sites and by a fellow scrapbooking friend. The concept involved taking pictures every day of the year and selecting from the group a photo a day. But the project didn't stop there. Not only did I take and select the photos, I had to get them into scrapbook pages. My year's journey is near to wrapping up. I've taken all photos for the year, only missing a few days here and there, and I've digitally scrapped 48 weeks - I only have 4 more to do in order to wrap my project for the year.

2012's experiment taught me lessons in two very important concepts - patience and discipline. The discipline of doing one thing, every day,
every 
single 
day.
It amazes me to think that if I could apply this type of discipline to one other area of my life, what could I accomplish?

Discipline was the master of Project 366. To obey the call of the master, I'd often find myself, dead tired at night and already in bed, being called by the camera to find just one thing to give the day meaning. At those times, I'd crawl through the house, collecting objects and stacking them on the kitchen table to photograph. Those weren't always the best pictures, but they spoke of the practice of discipline. As I look back through my digital pages, they also speak about the routine of our daily lives, something that isn't always captured in our stories.

But if discipline was the master, patience was the much more illusive reward. There were days when the photo of the day came easy - our lives were busy, I remembered the camera, my girls were cooperating, and I'd have numerous great opportunities for getting that one photo to represent the day. Those became the days when patience supplanted discipline, and I earned the reward of the one perfect shot.

In the end, I've created a documentary of sorts - the story of a year in our lives. From the spectacular to the mundane, I've captured images that represent every aspect of the fabric we weave together into this thing we call life.  I'll take the lessons from this year with me as I move forward into the new year. I'll work on honing those lessons and learning new ones. This year, Project 365 (it's not a leap year) will hopefully teach me some new things. And maybe, just maybe, I'll add a new project to inspire and teach me, to engage me and allow me to explore, the story of our lives.