Let me embrace each dawn as gift. Let me walk the hours of day unafraid With grace and faith unbounded.
Let evening find me close to those I love Warming my soul by the fires of their laughter.
Let me sleep believing tomorrow will be a blessing.
Steven Charleston, Spirit Wheel
We had our first snowfall last night. I awoke to a heavy fog and mist this morning. There was a dusting of snow on rooftops and frost on windshields. I agree each morning is a blessing whether a brilliant sunrise or fog and mist. And, my walk through today will include lunch with my oldest daughter, Christine, reading a new book and journaling time. Seems to be that kind of day. Happy Halloween!
The most interesting parts of the natural world are the edges, places where ocean meets land, meadow meets forest, timberline touches the heights.
Galen Rowell
I have been interested in horizons for many years and never really thought of them as edges, where a sky of clouds or stars meets the land, water, forests, prairie and those lovely song birds. Maybe the edges are the most interesting thing for me in my horizons. Could it be that is what the birds are singing about, those edges?
This morning we have no visible edges on the horizon. Nor are there any dramatic clouds as we had yesterday afternoon in the above image. Instead a fine mist and low clouds sits over Pineridge Natural Area, while the city is shrouded in mystery. Even without the sight of those edges we know of there existence and if we are courageous enough, venture towards them. What discoveries will we find? And those song birds continue to sing reminding us there are edges to discover, maybe even urging us on.
Pineridge Nature Area today on a foggy and misty morning
My restlessness this morning took me to Pineridge Nature Area to joined up with the meadowlarks, Canada Geese, barking prairie dogs, a perched hawk, again. I pretty much had the area to myself. I’m not sure restless is the word or not but that’s what I’m going with. Seems I have been a restless person for many years. Why? I ask myself that simple question a lot. I remember the awareness I had the first time I grabbed my backpack, headed out the door and realized I had no particular place in mind. I was just wanting to go. I journaled about this almost nomadic impulse this morning. I feel much of my seven years working as a flight attendant was rooted in a form of nomadic life, as almost each night was a different city.
For many years my daydreams have revolved around traveling in a small RV, solo. My parents spent a few years living as snowbirds as did sister and brother-in-law. They all enjoyed it. Yet, what I’m speaking about is living nomadically, no home to return to after a couple months on the road. It would be home. However, I am not in a good financial position to live the nomadic life in a class B van. It would require selling my condo, purchasing a used RV and investing the balance of my home equity. Am I willing to take such a risk? Just throwing some thoughts out there.
Yes, I’ve been playing around with Lightroom on some images from the past, adjusting colors and any other slider I can find. I’ve been asking myself, “Well what does this one do?” and then see what happens. When it’s an ooops, I type command Z to get back to where I was and try the next one. I feel a bit like a kid.
I’m not sure how it happened. I was working through some images from 2009 taken at Inniswood Gardens when I discovered these two images. It seems I did very little with them at the time and most likely because I had shot a lot of images that day. It was a cloudy, overcast day with light rain and I’m in this beautiful garden, why not. For some reason I found the only keyword I had entered for either of these images was Inniswood Gardens. There was no keyword for dragonfly or plants or leaves or rain. Nothing. How the heck am I suppose to find them without keywords, unless I’m just browsing? I suspect slothfulness or skipped them because other images were more appealing to me. I could have skipped the dragonfly because it is a bit out of focus.
I think this a Clubtail Dragonfly. Forgot to ask when I took the photo.
However, this time around they caught my eye. They also reminded me of those rainy, overcast days that provided such wonderfully diffused light while I lived in Ohio. It also reminded me of how often I came home with wet pants (from the knee down) when it was raining or just rained. I played with them a little, and for my taste, I like the way these two images turned out. My post processing included exposure, tone and contrast. Pretty simple actually. Why I did not play with these five years ago, I don’t know. But, five years ago something within urged me to press that shutter button. I must pay more attention to the urge.
Delicate Flowers
Oh, and these flowers? Well, I’m going to throw them in because I have the urge too. 🙂
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” Henry David Thoreau  (1817 – 1862)
 Take in the power of Thoreau’s words to inspire. This “dream” theme still bounces around inside my head. It seems my dreams are so far out there and at other times simple. Our dreams are in the distance among the fog and dimly seen, a vague outline. But, as in this image, when we move forward into the fog and mist we will see clearer our dreams. We may have obstacles to climb over. What dreams will we find in the mist?
