Old Mill Rogersville, TN

This is a shot of the old mill in Rogersville that I took during some of the snow that we have had this year. Most of the snow fell the night before but I was blessed with some good snow flakes falling while I was taking this photo. This is one of those scenes that makes me really love photography.  It’s like when you play golf and you are just about ready to give up when all of a sudden, you hit a perfect golf shot. It doesn’t matter if you hit it by mistake or if any one else saw the shot, what matters is that you hit it. So instead of quitting you keep playing.

My photography is sort of like that. I want every photo I take to be world class and to touch all who see it or at the very least, bring a smile to their face. Truth is though, not every photo can do that.  But then, I score one like this. It may not impress anyone else, but I really like it. This is one that speaks to me and one that I can look at and say “I took that photo”.

You don’t have to love it, but I do hope that you like it.  See ya later.

Hey, I know that it’s been a while since I posted anything, but it’s been cold and we had some snow on the ground and I needed new tires for the truck and so forth. I hope those excuses work cause they are really all I have.

Things are going along pretty good since I retired. I have learned though that life had slightly different plans than I did but we are making adjustments and trying to move forward. No plans to give up yet.

This last week was full of news that kept everyone going what with the NFL playoffs and the drama at the University of Tennessee with their football program. It did balance out at UT with the basketball team making positive and sometimes giant steps. I hate to see the football team go through another year of learning a new coach and such, but in the long run I think we will be better off with Dooley than Kiffin. Maybe it’s because Derek is a southern boy and I just feel better about that. Or maybe I just like someone who speaks with their actions on and off the field rather than their mouth. I never did like Lane cause he seemed to think that bad publicity was better than none. One thing I did like that I heard Coach Dooley say was that he didn’t demand respect, he was going to earn it. I can get along with that attitude. I feel good about UT football and the direction they are now headed in. GO VOLS!!!

The sun is out. That is the title of this post. Almost everybody in the world, or at least those that  I know, seem to breathe a sigh of relief whenever they step outside and find the sun shinning brightly and feel the warmth of the rays. Especially after a long cold winter spell that has kept people inside and froze them when they went outside. I stepped outside this morning and the first thing I noticed was that it was warm. The sun felt good on my face and a little breeze was blowing. So physically I got a little boost just from stepping outside. But I also noticed that mentally or spiritually or emotionally or what ever you want to call it, also got a little boost. The brightness of the day seemed to help lift my spirit and give me cause to be excited about the day and what ever it may hold. My senses were awakened and I thought about being outside, maybe getting the bike out, going for a walk, enjoying the day and all kinds of other activities that had been put on hold while I had been hibernating due to the cold. In other words, I was alive and aware of being alive and looking forward to enjoying life! All because I stepped outside into the sun.

That’s also a pretty good description of what it feels like when we come into a living relationship with God through His SON and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Until you receive Jesus as Lord and ask for forgiveness of sin, you will never experience life as God intended for you to experience life. In John 10:10 Jesus is contrasting the difference between Him and Satan, whom He calls a “thief” in this verse. Jesus said “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly”. Jesus didn’t mean that you would have lots of stuff and that all of your stuff would be the best. Some of the richest people in the world will not have a thing to do with Jesus. They trust their money. Jesus was talking about having life and having a more abundant life. For certain, a believer in Jesus has life as well as a non-believer who also has life. What did Jesus mean? I believe that Jesus made reference to how we see and live life.  We begin to be able to separate the beginning from the end and for the first time in our lives, we begin to grasp the meaning of life. We begin to realize that what we see as life now is really only a journey to another place that is eternal. A person who is a believer and follower of Jesus not only has this life, but He is assured a place in heaven with Jesus where he can and will live forever. Contrast that with someone who rejects Jesus and when this earthly life is over, they will be cast forever into Hell where they will be eternally separated from God. They will not cease to exist, but they will have no life as they will be subject to the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Existing in total darkness and in total torment forever. They will never have the opportunity to “step out into the sun” and be refreshed. All hope is gone. But with Jesus, you can have life, and have it more abundantly. It’s your choice. Abundant life with Jesus or eternal death and separation without Jesus. Now that’s something to think about. Have a good day and know that God loves you and He is working to help you make the right choice. Choose Jesus today while you can!

Yesterday I attended the grave side service as we buried my uncle, Jess Vaughn. He and my dad were brothers. I took this photo while standing there and as you can see, it was a cold dark day. Just looking at this scene sort of makes you feel the cold of the day. It’s easy to tell that it is in a cemetery because of the grave markers. The snow only lends validity to the coldness of the place. Sometimes if we are not careful, this is what our heart can become when we suffer heartbreak and loss in this life. But there on the top of the hill is a tree that just seemed to speak to me as I stood there. Being a lover of photography, sometimes I see things like this and then it’s almost like I hear the commentary that goes with it. (I know and confess to being weird. Just pray for me) This is what I heard as the ceremony took place. This scene with all it’s dark and cold, dreary look is only temporary. The tree at the top is a beautiful reminder that new life is coming. I thought about how I expect this tree to put forth new leaves and show new life when the spring comes. The snow will melt, the grass will grow and the tree will have new leaves and all will be right with the world. There will even be new flowers on the grave stones.  I’ve seen it happen countless times when the dead of winter gives way to life in the spring. But, isn’t that what happens when someone dies? Especially someone who has given their life to Jesus. They have just began to live life fully and freely in the presence of the Lord. I thought about it like this. When we die, if we have been born again, our life leaves the cold dark, dreary existence that we have known and we start to live the way God intended. In His presence, free from sin, free from guilt, free from disease, free from death, free TO live. Maybe our problem is that we don’t view this life as the cold dark place that it is, we only see what we want to see and we try so hard to make it look so good. Jesus said in John 16:33 “ These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." To be sure, my life has had and will continue to have good times. But I have also had lots of bad times. Sometimes I joke about how that just as I seem to claw my way to the top of the mountain, a rock slips and I tumble back into the valley. Life is like that with all the ups and downs. Just like Jesus said, in this world we will have tribulation. This world can seem at times to be cold and dark and dreary just like the photo. But if we allow the words that Jesus said to bring us peace, then we start to view things like Jesus wanted us to. Just as I fully expect the tree to bring forth new life, I fully expect to see Jess, mom & dad, grandpa, granny, my son, my wives, and all the other family members and friends who have gone on before. At least those that have put their faith in Jesus and went to Him for forgiveness.  I also expect that the moment I die will be the same moment that I begin to live. For Jesus also said He had overcome the world. So if I am with Him and He is in me and I am in Him, then I too will overcome the world. Take the best day ever that you have had, remember how you felt. How great that it was? Now try to imagine how it would feel to actually live after you have overcome this world with Jesus and there will never be another cold, dark, dreary day at the cemetery. Thank you Jesus for giving me another visual reminder of what you have in store for us. Not many people may have seen life in that tree on the hill in the snow at the graveyard, but I did. To all who read this I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. And I hope you know the reason that I can say these things. His name is Jesus.  May God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Just sitting here relaxing and noticed that we have no presents under the tree. I remember when the kids were here we waited until the last minute to put presents under the tree to keep them safe. Guess old habits are hArd to break.

Well it’s official. December is here and the Christmas season is coming down the road. Only 24 more days till Christmas. Makes you wonder where the time has gone. I can’t help but think about all the people running around and making their preparations for this big day. Parties are planned, gifts bought and even folks who don’t seem to be able to get along can stop for this one day and not fight or quarrel. It’s kind of mind boggling when you think about it. Especially for me. This day is a day to give gifts, spend time with friends and family and all the other things we do, but it is also time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ. I’ll give you that we can’t say for sure that Jesus was born on the 25th of December or even any day in December for that matter. But, it is still the one day set aside that celebrates the birth of Christ. I don’t think Jesus minds if we have the wrong day. After all, it was over 2000 years ago when Jesus was born. And we do tend to rewrite, re-remember and distort the facts over time. So when you think about that, it’s almost certain that we have the wrong day. I also know that not everyone celebrates this day for the same reason. I do think though that for most people, whether they are religious or not, they connect Christmas day with the birth of Jesus. Some don’t but that is to be expected.

I wonder sometimes though how much different this world would be if the same number of people making plans for Christmas were making preparations for Christ’s return. It would make a difference if just the one’s who attend church and worship Jesus on a regular basis would live and act like they expect His return daily. We would find ourselves focused on reaching the lost, helping the poor, sharing the love and less on how we decorate or the gifts we exchange. Just think about it. If you knew for sure that Jesus would return tomorrow or even today, how much different would you have planned your day? Less time would be spent worrying about paying the bills from Christmas shopping, global warming, what to wear, who to see, and etc…. I am not talking about the idea that the world would end on his return and that it is all over. What if we looked forward to His return with anticipation? Excitement? How about the radical idea that we watched the heavens looking for Jesus and we worked to get things ready for Him simply because it would please Him? Doing the work that He started until He returns for His glory. Like I said, I don’t think Jesus would mind if we celebrate the wrong day, I do think He is very concerned that we do things for the wrong reason. The best advice I have is to surrender your life to Jesus and don’t allow anything else to be number one. Then live and work and look for His return.

Merry Christmas and look up, for our redemption is near.

Last Monday, Mark DeWitte called and asked me if I wanted to have some fun Tuesday night. The first thing I asked was what we would be doing. Then he told me that Hawkins Today/Grainger Today, a paper Mark works with, had a couple of press passes to the UT men’s basketball game in Knoxville. They are doing shots of Skyler McBee, a player for UT who is from Grainger County. Mark and Jim had planned to go, but Jim couldn’t  go, so did I want to go and take some photos. Now, I love taking photos, blood runs orange (UT) and this fits my list of things that I can say I did, even if it is just once. I can’t post any of the photos here or anywhere else because they can only be used for the newspaper, but we got there early and I got this one with my iphone. I found out that the photographers come in early and stake out a spot on the floor. Look on the orange/white checker board squares and you will see their gear already in place. That is also where I got to sit. On the floor under the goal is where I ended up.  That is the only drawback to this. You have to sit on the floor the whole game. You can’t stand or sit on your knees. Your butt has to be on the floor at all times while you are down there. You can get up and walk around but you have to leave the floor area if you do. But that is a small price to pay for all the fun that I had just taking the photos and being there. This was the UNC Asheville game and UT won big. At halftime Mark joked about how “close” the game was and I had been so busy taking the photos that I didn’t even know the score of the game. The final score was something like 129-42 or something like that. It was a blow out and I had a blast. I have to say though, one of the high lights of the evening didn’t come from UT. It was fun being there, sitting on the floor under the goal was cool, taking photos along side the professionals was pretty cool too. But one of the coolest moments came when Mark asked me if I wanted to stay for the press conference after the game. We could have gone into the room where the coach and players come for the interviews that you see on TV. That would have been cool also. But, here is the cool part for me, I was able to tell Mark that it was up to him if we stayed. My exact answer was “whatever you want to do. You are driving and I don’t have to get up early in the morning.” That felt so good to realize that I was not on a schedule but could make my own schedule as I go. This retired thing is good. I don’t make much money at it, but it is good. I sent Mark the photos and when I got today’s paper, they had used one of my photos. Under the photo it said “Photo by Dale Vaughn”. That was cool also. Mark was right. We had some fun Tuesday night.

Well actually I can’t really be back simply because I haven’t been anywhere. There just isn’t enough time to do all that I want to do. I really thought that when I retired time would not be a problem. Boy was I wrong. I hate to but I probably need to have some sort of schedule. Now I have something else to do. Gotta go for now. See ya later.

It’s now October 2009 and I am officially retired, or un-employed, I haven’t figured out the difference yet. Anyway, it feels weird but good, scary but exciting. You get the idea, two sides to this and every coin.

While I was doing some of my new honey do jobs, I mean new duties, the particular task for the day was grocery shopping. Having my list in hand I took the challenge. I was not prepared for all the obstacles though. First, why do they have to spread out all the things all across the store? Why can’t they be grouped together in a more user friendly way. For instance why isn’t the pet food in the grocery section? That’s where all the other food is located. Why discriminate against the pets. Or rather the pet owners, making them walk all the way to the other side of the store. And why can’t all the foods be arranged by meals. They could have a breakfast section, lunch section, dinner section, or around here supper section. This would make it easier to find what you want. If you need breakfast food, just go the breakfast section. Supper would be found in the supper aisle. This would be so much better. After all, the tater chips are all on one aisle, if you don’t count all the other displays that are posted in various places around the grocery section.  And if all the wandering around don’t get to you, then you get to move to the checkout line.

It should be against the law to use your cell phone while simultaneously placing your groceries on the food belt at checkout. And worse is to be chatting about nothing while trying to use your check card. To be fair, if you can multi-task this may not be a problem, but most of the time I seem to get behind the single taskers. The ones who can talk but everything, and everyone else, has to be suspended in time and space while they chatter. This same problem is seen at red lights. People get so caught up in their conversation that they don’t even notice the light has changed. Just sitting there in their car talking up a storm, even using hand gestures and completely forgetting where they are.

And how about this. What if the grocery stores had a policy that if you had to wait more than five minutes in the check out line, your groceries would be free? All the carts could have bar codes on them that a scanner could read as you roll your buggy into line. This would record the time and start a timer. Five minutes later, if you are still standing there, your groceries would be free! That would be cool and I bet they would have more cashiers handy. There must have been a huge sale on cash registers for them to have 20 checkout lanes and only three cashiers. Every store I go into seems to have this same problem. Lots of places for customers to line up but not very many cashiers. 

All in all though, the shopping trip went really well and I even learned a few things. The only other thing that didn’t make sense in all this is that after suffering through the shopping, the very next thing my wife and I did…………….go out to eat. This kind of made all the shopping stuff useless. But Theresa said that we needed all that stuff.

Have a good day and know that Jesus loves you. He proved His indescribable love when He died on the cross. See ya later.

Hope you are having a good week. I have been busy working on some of the wedding photos we shot last week. And just trying to define my space in the world now that I am not working a regular job. It seems strange not to have to think about getting up and going into work. Then I remember that I won’t be getting a paycheck and strange becomes scary. Then I remember that God is in control and I have acted in faith as best as I could, so the scary becomes peaceful when I focus on God.

One thing that is going to take some getting used to is that for the last few years, I have been trying to do better about saving money. This was to help me to be able to retire. Now that I have retired, I have to start spending some of that money that I worked so hard to save. Granted that is according to plan, but it still is a 180 degree turn and those are always awkward. Still life goes on. It does seem that you would reach a stage where you didn’t have to adjust and learn new things. Come to think of it, that would be dead, wouldn’t it?

I was proud of the UT Vols last week when they played that other team down south. I didn’t expect them to win, but like most people I thought the score would be pretty embarrassing. They held their own though and came away with out too much damage. I know that the talk now is that the Vols played to not lose rather than playing to win. Seems to me that they had to go with what they had. I can’t believe that any coach on that level would not play to win if they had the means to win. Kiffen has the same problem that Fulmer had and he coached the same way. But they should come roaring back this week. GO VOLS!

The question on my mind today is “Do our prayers change the mind of God, or do they change us?” I was in a discussion on this a few days ago and I felt then as I do now that God does not change his mind. In the scriptures, several times they say that God repented that He had made man, and so forth. Most of these words in their original meaning give the idea that God was sorry. But to say that He changed His mind is another thing for me. One of the points used was when Moses interceded for the children of Israel. God was ready to destroy them but Moses prayed and most people think that God changed His mind. The way that hit me is that God did not lead His people out of Egypt to destroy them. Rather His plan was to deliver them. When they became disobedient again, (like us, over an over and over) God was left with no choice. Until Moses interceded. Then God could show mercy and grace and continue on with His plan to deliver the children of Israel. All of this was in accordance with His plan to deliver them and to teach them about His holiness. So in my mind, the prayer did not change God’s mind, but it did bring the people back into God’s will. Good question though. And I don’t claim complete 100% right about the answer. I have learned though that when I pray about something I need or want, the longer I pray the more I find myself asking for God’s will instead of what I started out wanting. So the prayers seem to change me more than they change God.

Have a good week and may God bless you.

Well, it’s official. Yesterday was my birthday and now I meet or exceed all the requirements for early retirement. Except of course, MONEY! I have realized that no matter how much savings you have, it will never be enough.

A friend of mine has started a new business adventure. His name is David Richards and we call him “Big Time” as most everybody around here has nicknames. If not, just wait a few minutes and someone will tag them with a new name. Anyway, Big Time has got a side car frame that has been outfitted with the same hardware that you find in the back of a hearse for the caskets. He can set a casket on this frame and then the unfortunate person in the casket can get a true last ride to the cemetery. Unlike the ones that pull a hearse trailer behind the motorcycle, this one puts the casket out in the wind, just like a motorcycle rider is used to.  He plans to offer this service through area funeral homes when the need arises. We certainly hope no one in the near future needs this but I am just trying to help Big Time get the word out about his new service. You can view some more photos of Big Time’s rig here and also find his contact information.

I have a wedding to shoot today at 5:00. Tennessee plays that other team today at 3:30. Guess I will miss the game but that is not entirely bad. My heart says GO VOLS and I really think they can win. My head says be careful Vols and I ain’t to sure about winning. I will still be a true, died in the orange, Tennessee Vol fan no matter what. Right now I have to get my camera and everything else ready for this wedding. So I guess this is all for now.

Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ and look up, for our redemption is getting closer. He is coming back…..SOON!