our back yard / Miss D & I on the crescent beach / out into the harbour from dinghy beach / a beautiful tangle / crow in flight with crisp blue sky / Nessie Ness / Cavallini October 2012 flora & fauna / miniature moss & lichen forest / a very long journey / napping Oliver / nasturtiums & geraniums
Sometimes I need only to stand
wherever I am to be blessed
Mary Oliver
I often feel very guilty for the time I waste taking photographs (this mornings upload - 181 images), the time I spend each morning before beginning my work day in iphoto & photoshop fussin' & tweaking, bumping up the contrast, here and there or subtley cropping this and that. I feel guilty daily about the time I spend here uploading & documenting my recent visual discoveries here on my blog. But this morning as I was doing all of the above I remembered (to remind myself) that I am consciously shifting my focus in life, shifting away from the things that trouble me & anger me. Shifting away from the things in my life that feel completely futile and often make me sad ... helpless & discouraged. I'm shifting my focus instead toward wonder & amazement & beauty & awe. All of it found so easily, daily, hourly and always at my fingertips.
Capturing all of this, savouring it, loving it, honouring it has become my new religion. This place is my church.
A wee noontime lunch break afterthought addition to this post - I was a bit of an REM
that's beautiful! "...this place is my church." I love it.
ReplyDeleteha ha! yes - it would've been the late spring of '89. i'd just joined the banana republic migration to MTL; and if my memory serves, I was renting your old room @ clark st! REM/indigo girls one week, Cowboy Junkies @ the spectrum the next. whoo - what a whirlwind!
ReplyDeletethx 4 the memories! - n
With your walks, photo taking, sorting and studying, you are also feeding your creativity, and every artist needs to eat regularly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your beautiful photography with us each day. I look forward to your posts and am reminded daily to slow down and really look around me.
ReplyDeleteLike that periwinkle in #9, a long journey but innate and guided by nature, so no doubt eventually successful.
ReplyDeleteI love your photo essays! Not only do you live in a beautiful world, you see it--don't take that for granted--and can capture its beauty better than most. Carry on.
Love the shadow of you and Miss Winnie. And the snail trail ...
ReplyDeleteI find such peace and beauty in your photos. I wish I could find something as creative to ease the sadness that has consumed me. I lost my dear mother this past June and it seems that everyday is more of struggle because I miss her so. I feel consumed with her loss more as the days, weeks, and months pass by. Unfortunately, I don’t have a creative bone in my body, so I will be content to enjoy your beautiful work. It looks to me as time well spent!!.
ReplyDeleteDear Galestorm - I lost my father when I was just 16 and have experienced other tragic "big" griefs later in my life the last was the death of my dog and best friend nearly 4 years ago - it devastated me. In hindsight I can see that being consumed by grief is healing, the enormous grief you're experiencing speaks to the enormous love you must have for your mother - and of how much you miss her. I especially love the simple truth in this May Sarton quote
ReplyDelete"There are some griefs so loud they could bring down the sky, and there are griefs so still no one knows how deep they lie".
Be especially kind to yourself now, patient & loving and perhaps you could unearth your creativity through writing about your feelings. Much love xo Susan