The Blog of C. Duayne Pearson

Life

Fatherly Patience: Choose Greatness

I’m reminded of a Facebook post my cousin shared years ago about a close friend of his. This friend was playing the piano during a church service, and his young daughter came up to him asking a question. Rather than putting his task first and telling his daughter to go sit down, he smiled and listened to her as he continued playing without missing a beat.

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Anti-COVID vaccine protests in France
Life

Fear & Confusion in the Time of COVID

One sign of a dangerously ignorant person is their unwillingness to consider, or worse, even listen to a different perspective. This is where we are, worldwide right now. I’m not speaking about those who chose to get vaccinated and go about their business.

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Collection of C. Duayne Pearson's notebooks in black and white
Journaling

The Notebooks

I don‘t have many regrets–maybe even less as I get older and reflect–but one that will likely haunt me forever is that I didn‘t make more photos when I lived here the first time, nor did I answer the call to photograph when I was younger and still living in the US.

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Physical Bitcoin, Ethereum & XRP coins in gold and silver
Life

Embrace Change

Today, I got my mother-in-law set up with her Nexo account and sent 10 XRP as her very first crypto holding. I was surprised to learn how eager she and my father-in-law are to invest in cryptocurrencies. They see the way the world is moving and are very dissatisfied with the financial products offered by traditional banks.

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Life

Patience

Today was a lesson in patience. I have a peculiar relationship with this virtue. On one hand, my ambition leaves no room for patience when it’s time to take action towards something.

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Thought

Own Your Own & Speak Your Truth

“Cancel Culture” is a real thing. I hate to even mention that term because I was nearly an adult before Al Gore’s Internet was used every day by the masses. Some of the ways in which humans interact now because of the Internet is very strange to me.

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Life

Don’t Break the Chain

This week I began a major overhaul of my habits in order to regain some much-needed structure for myself and my family. The family obligations (kids in particular) are what seem to derail any attempts at following a strict schedule.

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Black Canon AE-1 Program in Mannheim
Photography

Calling & Connection in Mannheim

Yesterday while at the mall, I picked up a roll of Agfa APX 100 on a whim while I grabbed some other things from DM. Being that it’s a drug store, there isn’t a wide selection of film, so I took what was available. That slow-burning urge to get out and shoot again has been calling me for a while, and it was time to obey as it’s something that is genuinely missing from my life.

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Gold background with Heart of Gold spelled out in Scrabble letters
Journaling

Journal Entry: 17 JUL 2019 at 06:13

One of the greatest feelings as a father thus far was Eliana calling me back to her room last night after I checked on Nilah while she slept. She called me back to thank me for teaching her about money, wealth, and giving from her heart.

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Thought

Subtle Signs

I’ve taken in a massive amount of information about consciousness, the mind-body-spirit connection, focus, The Law of Attraction, etc. over the past few years.

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Jürgen Doberstein Approaching the Boxing Ring
Photography

Photoessay: Boxing in Kaiserslautern

Those who follow me on Instagram and Facebook saw me share a few photos from the boxing event in Kaiserslautern that I shot on November 18th. Even as a long-time fan of the sport, I went in with zero expectations. I surely had no clue I’d be hooked after the first few frames.

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Life

Awareness

I posted this image on Instagram yesterday and something about the look on Nilah’s face struck me.

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Line chart written on an envelope
Life

A Short Life Lesson

Disclaimer: I read a lot of books and watch a lot of documentaries. I hope this was original thought as a result of the many

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Life

It’s a Girl!

The good part: we have a ton of clothes left from our first daughter.

The bad part: the word “sale” is so powerful that it might not even matter.

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Life

6 Months

I can’t tell you what the perfect family life looks like–I’m not sure if that even exists. What I know is that this is a window into our reality, and it feels pretty good. We’re gratefully looking forward to welcoming another life into it.

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Life

From Pain to Victory

After a lot of study and reflection over the past few months, I’ve realized that we leave a little too much to chance, attribute positive (and negative) outcomes to luck, and in a way use God as a cop out when we don’t fully understand something.

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Photography

Photoessay: Kaiserslautern’s K in Lautern Eröffnung

With Kaiserslautern being a small city, the mall is a really big deal in terms of job opportunities and stimulating the local economy. Any form of change has its detractors, but I think it’s mostly those who don’t want the city to lose its old elements of charm to rampant capitalism

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Life

Catharsis: A Husband’s Thoughts on Miscarriage

As a man, it’s particularly hard having to watch your woman go through an induced abortion. It’s troubling to witness her suffer through the pain of contractions knowing there’s no life coming forth, and there’s not a thing either of you can do about it.

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Canon AE-1 Program black on black 35mm camera
Photography

Revisiting Film with the Canon AE-1 Program

Film always has and always will intrigue me; nostalgia is the immediate thought which comes to mind. While I cannot completely translate the feeling, there is something hypnotizing about sifting through negatives and old photographs.

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Life

Fear As Motivation

The initial failure felt good in a way because I knew it was just part of the process of doing something new and not so safe; pushing past my comfort zone forced me to grow. I wrote down exactly where I went wrong (and the things I did right), so I could process that and remember for the next time.

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Photography

A Quiet Moment

She’s growing up fast. I’m fortunate enough to have a life where I can be here everyday to enjoy and capture the little things.

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Black and white portrait of legendary photographer Mr. Gordon Parks
Photography

No Pretension.

I chose the tag line “No Pretension” for good reason: confidence, humbleness, and humility should happily coexist in my life. It’s something I want to keep at the forefront of my mind regardless of the level of mastery I attain.

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Photography

Slowing Down

Pablo Picasso’s famous quote reflects my exact mindset these days: “Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.”

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