Picture Perfect

I still believe in magic and miracles. I believe that if I want it bad enough and wish hard enough it will happen. I still make a wish before I blow out my birthday cake candles. Sometimes, in the early evening you can catch me out wishing on a star. Star light. Star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may. I wish I might have this wish. I wish tonight.

Photography represents magic for me. If you've ever been in a dark room you know what I mean. You mix and mingle and get the chemicals just right. You set your negatives. You change the lighting, focus and burn the image. You bathe the paper, sliding it out of the wash and watch as slowly the image appears. It's magic. Pure magic.

After my first class I was hooked. I just knew that when I bought a house I was going to get an extra bathroom so I could make it into a darkroom. I needed to make magic on a regular basis but by the time I bought a house the world had gone digital. Thank goodness. While I still believe in magic a chemist I am not, nor is math my strong suit. In that class I never, ever managed to get the measurements right - in the dark!

I still think there is something magical about photography. Is there any other way to make time stand still? Any other way to truly capture a moment? Forever, until the end of time this Sea Gull will be chatting with me as I'm lounging on Cocoa Beach.

Years later I'll still remember the beauty of the roses from the rose bush long since plowed under by a careless lawn mower.







Or the bloom of the Hibiscus tree while it was still healthy and green before I left it in the cold a bit too late one fall.

And the day I caught someone sleeping in my bed still gives me a chuckle. Soon she'll have a hard time getting her achy legs to lift her up that high as she has more and more gray hair everyday and as she has been showing those tell-tell signs of an aging dog. Here for a moment she's just a sleepy-head who has decided that in my absence she's find right here in my bed. Here she has made the independent decision that my directive to stay off the furniture doesn't really count when you are extra tired and no one is around to tell you no.

It's still magic to me. So the pictures in my blog are mine. They aren't always picture perfect and they are usually shot on my no frills Cannon Powershot. They are usually, from my travels (my other true love). Not only do I find that the picture itself stops time, but the process of picture taking often slows my heart beat. It makes me notice my surroundings. It allows me to capture the moment and save it for later. Sometimes, although not usually, but sometimes it isn't even about the picture that comes out so much as the process of taking the picture. Admiring the beauty that surrounds me every day.

Today's Lesson Brought To You By Life!

Today's lesson is for me. Don't do other people's work for them and stay out of their business if you don't want to be invited into their world.

Okay, it's probably safe to say I'm a bit of a busy body. I don't mean to be just two things...1.) I hate watching people flounder when I know the answer and 2.) I hate not knowing the answers. Ugh! I will tell you this, however, from a disability perspective my colleagues never say oh that poor woman she has a chronic illness - poo poo. They are too busy passing their work off on me instead of doing it themselves! So today I helped with the company brochures, provided feedback to a student who isn't mine and I didn't even speak to (just spoke to the person who was SUPPOSED to talk to him) and put time in on a political campaign. Okay, that isn't fair I did agree to do that last one but please know none of these are my job. I do not get paid or promoted or even thanked for any of the above. Now I'm stressed and achy and whiny. So what's my lesson. Mind Your Business, girl!

I'm mixing my religions I know but one of the things that stand out for me about this day are the Taoism quote I sent to a friend. I admittedly was clowning him 'cause that's what I do, but I probably could stand to read and remember some of Taoism at the end of this day.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.

So instead of sending a scathing email to the co-worker who probably forwarded my email instead of actually talking to HIS student....

Instead of getting into an argument with the chick about the print on the brochures (which really is hard to read)....

and

Instead of even telling you what I really think about the rest of those yahoos, I'm going to remember that none of this was even my business until I made it so. I'm going to be soft and yielding. Okay, maybe I'll just settle for being a little less of a busy body.