why eyeJunkie?

Snapshots in Paying Attention.

A life spent trying to follow Christ, understanding and living by the Bible… it's a joyful challenge. The Word of God is so rich and multi-layered that we can spend a lifetime digging for pearls and never exhaust its supply.

The pursuit of creativity through architecture/art school, and in my own disciplines, thoughts and spirit… it offers a unique exposure to ideas and challenges to traditional thinking. Melding the best of those lessons, and eliminating the dross produces a realization that good news and God's work can come from unexpected places – even places others might think impossible.

Kids… they grow up so fast. When our first little gift was born, we were struck by the thought that we can simply blink, and he'll be 17. We swore to ourselves that we would take advantage of every opportunity, lay aside every pseudo-essential to devote our full attention to: reading "Big Red Barn" for the umpteeth time; discussing at length the multi-faceted world of bulldozers, front-end loaders and all manner of motorized vehicles; perfecting the finer points of turning this, that and the other into drumsticks worthy of (now) two particular little drummer boys.

My, how it pays to pay attention – a lesson hard-learned in lives of clutter and a culture of the immediate and the entertained.

I've always described myself as an information junkie, even a student of culture. I thrive on gathering information, which helps me in my day job. And so, my first thought was to add my own brand of stickiness to the world wide web in the form of commentary on various topics of momentary interest – those oddities of news, absurdities of culture and the occasional review of books or topics that struck my fancy.

But, as I started to flesh out the idea of jumping into the blogNation, those snapshots sprang to mind. I realized that what really matters to me is not the information itself, but how it impacts; what it means to me and my way of living; how I internalize and prioritize it. I want to really see, not just look, not just allow images, experiences, or information to wash over me. And so, "info" junkie and the ever popluar "i" junkie became "EyeJunkie." It represents my efforts to live closer to the surface, to be intentional about how I absorb information. It's an effort to experience the world in a relevant way, to pay closer attention.

As a lifelong lover of words and books, I use the EyeJunkie blog as an outlet for poetry and other well-turned phrases. As a student of graphic design and the vernacular forms of advertising and expressing ideas, I also like to share the proverbial 1000 words with a few well-chosen images. And, I've spattered in some random thoughts, reactions and evaluations of things I see in culture, life and books.

Disclaimers.

This site is not about me giving advice. I'm not qualified for that.

This site is not specifically about living the Christian life. But, that's important to me, so it will inevitably surface.

This site in not a commentary on God's Word. Although, that is the only sure source of correct information, so I try to think about it alot and filter stuff through it.

blog | about my site | why eyeJunkie? | meet Haley | writing inquiries | my day job