This being Saturday morning and we being in our church, I was thinking ahead to Sunday and the chorus from the hymn "Blessed Assurance" popped into my head:

  This is my story, this is my song
  Praising my Savior, all the day long.

"This is my story, this is my song." My story. My song. Praising my Savior. I can think of no better and no simpler statement of the relation between spirituality and living and for me, spirituality and art. Fanny Crosby's hymn was speaking sweetly and clearly. She was not saying "The received story" or "Someone else's song." We all have our own story and our own song. It is our job and our joy to live it creatively and with purpose.

I was going to name this essay "This is my story, this is my song" but there are already too many titles with that name and we don't need another one, at least not from me. "My Story, My Song" is not as common a title and that is what I chose.

I've discovered that my photography and my spirituality are closely tied. This essay will explore that relationship and is intended to help me see where it all might go. A fellow in an old cartoon says to his friend "How would I know what I mean until I say it?" I usually don't know what I mean either until I photograph it or write it.