photography – Page 5

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain you see their specks dispersing?- it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

Jack Kerouac On the Road

Some weeks.

Seem special. Every word is cherished. This is one of those weeks and it’s not even Wednesday. Every moment cherished. Every word treasured. It started Sunday with an adventure…….

How many of us have convinced ourselves we’re the only ones that had ever been betrayed, injured, humiliated. My hand is raised: Guilty!

Broken, often oblivious to the brokenness. Complicated. Confused. Come on!

Odd adventure. Stop. Breathe. Letting go. Surrendering to the possible. Passion!

“Our life is not given to us like an opera libretto, in which all is written down; it means going, walking, doing, searching seeing….We must enter into the adventure of the quest.”

Pope Francis, America Magazine, September 2013

Often, the comfort of what is familiar hinders our desire for the quest. My mother used to stay “a lady always knows when to leave.” That had become my life’s prayer. Knowing when and how to leave….is an ARTFORM. I’m splendid at entrances, it’s the exits I haven’t mastered.

Passion. Journey. Sunday I FINALLY remembered something I’ve known all along. None of the moments are about hurts or injuries, entrances or exits…..but LOVE! As much as we don’t like to admit it, we’re broken people…. At least I am. Love puts it right.

An adventure is good for the spirit, soul…peace of mind. Perspective.

So with renewed vigor, the adventure continues…

with Passion…..Today….Tomorrow….Color me GRATEFUL……….Music to Long By

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds….

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rarely at a loss for words, I was stumped for this week’s blog until today. Writer and photographer’s block!

Saturday afternoon I found myself at a women’s gymnastics meet sans camera. I’m not certain I would’ve or COULD’VE taken pictures. Oh, people were certainly snapping away. I even took one from my phone. Having never attended a meet before I didn’t know what to expect. By the end I was frazzled by the hustle-bustle-circus-like atmosphere of the event. I longed for quiet, peace, reflection~spent Sunday recuperating. When I was younger I liked the circus. Most of us grow. Up or otherwise.

When I first rediscovered photography I took lots of photos of clouds storing them in a folder labeled: “Up in the Air”. The click of the shutter quietened my mind, heart and spirit just as surely as any metronome ever did when I practiced the piano, singing or studying a score. The new vision was spontaneous yet consistent and comforting, like an old friend. I couldn’t place why until this week.

“While she danced without a net upon the wire….”

Decades ago, I learned that comforting dance with a camera. Mr. Gallien, my science teacher was inspiring, patient and creative. He built a dark room in the corner of the science lab so we could learn to develop film. He took us on adventures beyond the classroom, exploring the world through the lens. It was mysterious, magical and musical…red light, clicking of the shutter. “Up in the Clouds.” The journey from there to here……from clouds to circus has sometimes been circuitous. I’ve discovered I like spontaneity balanced with consistency.