• Family,  quotes

    Touching Hearts

    December 14, 2025

    “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”

    Maya Angelou

    It has been a lovely Sunday, sunshine to warm the soul and journal outside in the sun. The sun has set as I write this and the darkness descends upon us. But I wanted to update you on a short trip we will make. My dad’s graveside service will be on Wednesday morning the 17th at 9am in Follett, Texas. Sheree (my sister), Monica (my youngest daughter), and I are going to drive down leaving early on the 16th and stay one night in Perryton at the Quality Inn. We will visit with cousins and eat that evening at Clay and Jill’s house. At 9am the next morning we will gather around his grave site for a Celebration of Life and share individually something about how dad touched hearts, ours and many others. We will head back right after the service on the 17th. So, it will be a short trip down and back. I hope you had a wonderful Sunday!!

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  • flowers,  Photography,  Plants,  quotes

    Maya Knows

    September 19, 2021

    “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

    Maya Angelou

    Personally some defeats in my life knocked me down and I stayed down: defeated. Yet for some defeats I was able to get back up, try again, and more often than I want to admit, sometimes failed again. I remember when I labeled my defeats as who I was, a failure, and in many areas of my life. But, over time we do begin to grow up and with the help of others I’ve since learned I am not my failures. Each of those defeats has been a lesson in life when I pay attention and vitally needed for my growth. Maya knows what she’s talking about. Have a super Awesome Sunday!

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  • Badlands National Park,  clouds,  landscape,  National Parks,  quotes

    Badlands

    August 7, 2013

    My first, and only, trip to the badlands was in May of 2004. I spent three days camping there and shooting a few images but that was not enough time. The rugged beauty is breath taking. The openness with vast skies will cause you to look skyward. My evenings were spent looking to the west, watching the sun set and the clouds constantly changing formations. That was seven years ago so I’m think it’s time to make plans for another visit.

    Badlands
    Morning Sunrise in the Badlands

    “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

    Maya Angelou

    It was also one of my motorcycle tours on the BMW1150RT touring bike. I bought the bike after leaving Agilent in 2003 and spent the next four years in a semi-retirment  role and toured with it. I still have those desires within to get back in the saddle and ride.  Life changes  caused me to sell the bike and man do I wish I still had it.

    BMW1150RT
    My BMW1150RT
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  • Plants/Nature,  quotes

    Wild Columbine

    May 8, 2009
    Wild Columbine

    “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”

    Maya Angelou

    The above image of a Wild Columbine was taken at Blendon Woods Garden near the visitors information building. This beautiful woodland wildflower has showy, drooping, bell-like flowers equipped with distinctly backward-pointing tubes, similar to the garden Columbines. These tubes, or spurs, contain nectar that attracts long-tongued insects especially adapted for reaching the sweet secretion. European Columbine (A. vulgaris), with blue, violet, pink, or white short-spurred flowers, was introduced from Europe and has now become well established in many parts of the East. It is different from its cousin, the Colorado Blue Columbine, which I am familiar with in that it droops downward while the Colorado Blue Columbine  tips upward. It is a beautiful flower.

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