Set Yourself Some Boundaries

I have a thing for fences.  It’s been that way for quite a while now.  And by ‘a while’ I really mean years.  I can’t quite put my finger on when it started, or even why, and I certainly have no idea which was my first fence image.  I imagine I could go back through all my images I’ve ever taken and find the first one that involved a fence, but really, I am certain that I didn’t take that first shot thinking, “I have a thing for fences and I am going to make shooting them a life-long project.”  Nope.  I’m pretty sure that’s not how it went down, at all.  I have a suspicion that one day I realized that I’d put a fence into a landscape image and thought it looked pretty cool.  So I started including fences in more and more images.  And then I began looking specifically for fences.  And before I even realized it myself, I had become a bona fide Fence Spotter.  Some people like to spot trains or birds.  Not me.  I like to spot fences.

When I went on road trips I posted fence shots on Facebook.  The first time I didn’t post one there was uproar!  And so began The Fence of the Day.  Every day of every road trip there’s a new fence shot; and I have a whole herd of avid fence followers.  Is that the correct collective noun for fence followers?   Something starting with ‘f’ seems a better choice, don’t you think?  Flock, family, flange, flight, flutter, float, fling, fry, flamboyance, fleet, or fall, maybe? Let’s go with fleet, although I rather fancy a flamboyance.  I now have a whole fleet of fence followers.

In images, fences make great anchors for the whole frame.  They can add foreground interest that sets off the rest of the image like nothing else.  They give scale.  They add depth.  They give perspective.  Some shots would be nothing without the definition that a fence can bring to the proceedings.  I love the lines and shapes that fences make.  They can lead your eye and your mind around the image, drawing you to the focal point – stopping you from straying, getting lost or being confused.  Yep, fences are pretty darn awesome to photograph.

Fences are really just a boundary – a border, a frontier, an edge, a limit, a periphery, a guideline, a rule if you will – they keep us away from danger, they make it clear where it’s safe to go and where it might not be safe to go; stop us from going places that might be destroyed if we went there.  They show us where it’s legal to go and not to go.  They protect us.  Fences give us structure, help maintain order, define otherwise undefined areas.  They even give us something to hang on to when the going gets tough or the path gets rocky.  Yep, fences are pretty darn awesome things to have in life.

While I’ve been fence-spotting all over the place the last several years it has occurred to me that fences are an essential and brilliant part of life.  In much the same way as rules and laws and other such boundaries are.  Rules are the fences in our minds – the virtual fences that keep us safe, and on the right track, and alive.  They make life easier, more pleasant, and interestingly – more fun, not less.

Imagine living in a rule-less society.  What a mess that would be!  Think about raising a child without boundaries.  They would be lost – not knowing right from wrong, good from bad, love from hate.  They would have no conscience.  They would get hurt.  Their lives would be hard.  They literally wouldn’t know how to live successfully; and the chances are they would end up in an awful lot of trouble.  It would not be good.

This was quite the revelation for a girl who has spent most of her life living on the edge, or trying to get as darn close to it as possible.  A rule-bender extraordinaire!  Always the one climbing up the fence – if not over it – to see how far she could lean over and survive, to see what it’s like on the other side, to see if it really was dangerous over there.  A life filled with the teachings of experience, rather than the teachings of others older and wiser.  How ironic that this girl would fall in love with fences one day.  Or how timely.  They say that that when the student is ready the teacher will appear.

While I was fence-spotting in California last month I thought specifically about the boundaries of eating for optimal health, and how they make it so easy to know what will heal our bodies and what will harm them.  How by staying within the boundaries set out by Jonathan we can achieve the vibrant health and the slim, toned bodies that we want – safely and effectively.

I thought about how most of us were lost until we erected those virtual SANE fences in our minds.  We were wandering around not knowing what was right or wrong, what was healthy or unhealthy, trying every new thing that came along and never, ever even getting close to our goals.

Fences – real or virtual – are not there to chain us.  They are there to free us.  They free us by keeping us safe and getting us to where we want to go.  By making it clear to us the good from the bad, the right from the wrong.

So next time you are feeling fenced in by the rules of  truly healthy living, remember that the more you stay within their bounds the quicker you will get the health and fat-loss results that you want.  The more you stray from the boundaries, the longer it will take you to reach your goal, and the harder it will be for you.

How freeing is it to know the way, and not feel confused and lost all the time with regard to food and health?  How good does it feel to have boundaries that keep you on the right track without you having to second guess your path, instead of wandering along and wondering where you will end up?  How awesome is it to know – for sure – that every time you step over the boundary that you are in danger?  How much easier is it to make wise food choices when you know the rules and understand the consequences of stepping over them?  Isn’t it fantastic to have something to hold onto when the going gets tough and the path gets a little rocky?

It’s why we love fences around here.  Real and virtual.  Set Yourself Some Boundaries.

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