ISO 800 | 17mm | f 4.0 | 1/250 sec

Life is full of the unexpected, and every new day brings changes – change in purpose, change in perspective, change in motivations and attitudes.  Though a year may go by and only transition between four seasons, the seasons of our hearts seem to change almost weekly (or for some, possibly hourly).  One day we might be riding the clouds of success and living a bright and glorious dream, and two days later we find ourselves trudging through the dense snow-drifts of discouragement, trying desperately to keep from becoming embittered by the harsh coldness of despair.  I think we’ve all experienced days where the sun was shining and the flowers were blooming outside and yet there were storms raging and rains falling inside our own souls.

It would seem that we are often slaves to our emotions, which in turn are slaves to circumstances.  With so many ups and downs, twists and turns, and proverbial bumps in the road, it’s hard to predict what kind of a mindset we will be in at any particular moment.  Yet why is it that we allow such temporary things to direct our outlook on life and cause us to go in-and-out of depression (or despair, or discouragement) all the time?  Why do we allow ourselves to be trapped by the circumstances around us and permit the emotions of the moment to blind us to the beautiful realities of life that are all around us?

So many people are trapped in their own worlds of self-pity, grief, despair, frustration, and anger that it’s impossible for them to see or appreciate the good that is all around them.  They’re so focused, so overwhelmed by emotional turmoil caused by circumstances that they don’t even realize that they’re trapped, encased by their own misperceptions.  To them the whole world appears to be a desolate frozen wasteland, but they don’t realize that just outside their personal snow-globe is a world full of growth, vibrance, joy, and love.  You see, it’s all a matter of perspective, and often our perspective becomes skewed by the world we allow ourselves to live in, not a world based in reality, but rather a world distorted by our own feelings, emotions, and attitudes.

So what are you doing to break out of your personal snow-globe?  Are you content to remain enslaved to your own perceptions of the world and your surroundings?  Or are you willing to take on a new perspective and allow truth to guide your path?  This is the life God wants for each of us, and we’ll experience true fulfillment if we’ll only allow ourselves to be freed from the lies and misperceptions that try to ensnare us.  Step outside your own little world, it’s much more beautiful than you can imagine…

Below is the actual background image used in the final composite (separating this made it a lot simpler to make edits specifically to the background layer without affecting the globe).

Below is the mask also created in Blender from the same globe seen in the first image, just with its materials converted to a black diffuse material and the background set to pure white (this made it super easy to mask the globe in Photoshop).