Friday reflections

Morning view of the pond. Processed in Photoshop and Picnik.

I was listening to the news while cooking dinner last night and one of the local weather oracles predicted that we would not see real winter temperatures for the rest of winter.  Welcome to seasonal purgatory.  I think Karma summed it up well in this post when she mentioned that it feels like November with no turkey dinner to look forward to.  In case you didn’t follow the link, it will also lead you to Karma’s February Photo Hunt.  Now you’ve had two chances to click.  What are you waiting for?  The more who participate, the merrier.  I’ve been lax of late in participating in some of the photo challenges.  I promise to do better this time around.  It looks like a fun list.

This is how it really looked with the sun shining on the trees at the back of the pond. No blues of winter here.

In this seasonal in-between, it’s a little difficult at times to find something interesting to photograph.  That makes this a really good time to sit down and sort through the archives, something I’ve been doing as part of my Letting Go theme for the year.  I have been ruthlessly deleting images, and strongly considering the possibility of not keeping any in digital format anymore.  Print them or let them go.  I’ll go from MaidinSun Photography to Ephemeral Photography.  Enjoy it and then let it go.

The"painted" version. Processed in Photoshop and Picknik.

I wish someone could explain to me why I hold on to photos that are so badly out of focus that there is little or nothing to be done with them.  They won’t even qualify as abstracts.  Maybe I’ll bring you a few examples in a future post if I don’t delete them all first.

Some of the blurred and saved I understand.  They are images of family and I’m oddly superstitious about deleting photos of family.  Even the worst photo of one of my granddaughters is a good photo to me because I look at it through the eyes of love.

They are beautiful no matter what, even in blurry photos.

Poking the hornet’s nest

Every now and then I find myself dealing with an email from a distant family member who insists on passing around non-truths related to things of a political nature.  The emails almost always originate from the ultra-conservative (Tea Party folks, for example).  I have yet to see one from the other side and often wonder why.  Morals?  Ethics?  Too busy living life to bother with such shenanigans?

After allowing myself to become stressed in a back and forth exchange with the distant family member who is my elder and ought to have better manners (which does not excuse me), I calmed myself with some reading and came across this quote:

When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot.  When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.  Pride leads to violence and evil.  The truly good gaze upon everything with love and understanding.

~ Dalai Lama

I try to keep an open mind when it comes to things of a political (or religious) nature.  I am not always successful because, like most folks, I have a set of values through which I look at life, the universe, and everything.  My views are colored by what I believe to be right and wrong and in between. Still, I listen, I observe, I try to remain open to the other points of view.  I am willing to change my mind.  Yet I continue to have difficulty understanding the lack of openness from those on the far right side of the spectrum.  Why, in the face of all evidence, would you continue to choose to believe something that is a half-truth or no truth at all?  When did facts become immaterial and beside the point if they don’t fit with your world view?  And on a personal level… Is my lack of understanding and willingness to engage in an argument that I know will not result in change just as hard-headed?  I think it might be, and that being the case, it is time I distance myself from all things of a political nature as much as possible in hopes that someday I can “gaze upon everything with love and understanding.”

I don’t have to attend every argument I’m invited to.

~ Author Unknown

I may have that saying tattooed on my arm where I can see it at all times.

My shadow self

That’s about it from the Bogs for today.  Thank you for joining me as I indulge in a few ramblings and reflections.  Enough of all things serious for now.  It’s Friday, the beginning of the weekend.  The weather is warm and sunny, and expected to stay that way all weekend. Let’s go out, have some fun, and admire the beautiful reflections on the surface of the pond.

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