Tag: Fayette County West Virginia

Saturday Morning Sunrise

Color Photography, West Virginia

There are few pleasures of life that are better than greeting the sunrise. The crisp mountain air fills my lungs as the golden light washes over me. It makes me feel energized. The rest of the world fades into the background. My whole world at this moment consists of nothing but the three rivers which join at this point, the mountains in distance and the morning sun. I will hold this moment in my spirit for the rest of the day. The Shawnee say that it’s bad luck to make camp where three rivers join but I respectfully disagree. This place is blessed by God. Today will be a good day. I take one last deep breath and climb back into my truck. I only have a moment to enjoy the view but the moment will be all I need.

Image taken in Gauley Bridge West Virginia on February 3rd 2018 on my way to my day job.

Little Blessings

Color Photography, West Virginia

One of the blessings of my Appalachian home is that there’s always some little treasure to find. I’m the guy who always seems to be drawn off the pathway to examine whatever might be in bush. Insects, small flowers, animal tracks and odd shaped stones are irresistible to me. There are little treasures everywhere. We just need to slow down and find them.

The image above was taken in Jodie, West Virginia, Fayette County.

Crossing Over

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing, West Virginia

There are many crossings in this world. Places where one leg of life’s journey ends and the next one begins. Human beings are a funny lot. We dream about moving forward into adventure but don’t want to leave the familiar behind. We can’t wait to graduate from school but spend the rest of our lives in nostalgia.

I occasionally pull out a playlist of music from the 80s and play the roll of a silly middle-aged man for my twenty something and thirty something coworkers. I recount the days and tell the stories of the times that formed who I am today. It’s entirely for entertainment purposes. The truth is that our glory days are ahead of us not behind us. We need to take the next step if we want to achieve our full potential. We need to trust the bridge and cross over into that new territory.

The image above was taken at Hawks Nest State Park in West Virginia.

The Quest For Simplicity

Color Photography

I spent most of the day listening to the soundtrack of my youth. Specifically, Simple Man by Lynard Skynard. It’s an anthem for young men of my age group who grew up in rural Appalachia. The lyrics speak of valuing the truly meaningful things in life like love, family and time spent experiencing life. I’ve considered the concept most of day and decided to add a few thoughts.

A trophy is meaningless if it wasn’t earned. No struggle means no victory.

Never confuse lust for love. Lust goes away eventually. Love will carry you for a lifetime.

Don’t confuse a simple life with a life of poverty. It’s okay to have stuff but don’t value your stuff to the point it rules your life.

Don’t spend too much time climbing the ladder. The best thing you can ever give your family is you.

Don’t mistake complaining for a plan of action. Simply pointing out a problem won’t make it go away. Learn how to see the roots of the issue and put action into resolution.

Don’t confuse quality of life with quantity of life. This one is a little hard to nail down. Everyone has their own idea of what quality they admire. One person might want to travel to exotic localities while another just wants to care for a family.

I guess my point is that it’s good to examine your life and ve sure that you’re not being so busy building a life that you miss out on living. The noise and pressure of voices on tv and such trying to define what our goals should be can get a little overwhelming. It’s good to push them back and make sure we actually value those opinions.

Be Still

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

If you haven’t guessed by now my dear readers, I really crave quite places and time to think and reflect.

Our modern world is full of artificial concerns, pressures and deadlines . Sometimes we just want to collapse and think about nothing. The word amusement literally means to stop thinking. However, I believe it’s more fulfilling in these quiet times and places to push back those modern world concerns and contemplate deeper levels of thought. It’s not that our world suffers from too much thinking, we suffer from the lack of free thoughts.

It’s more than just learning the structured teachings of learned masters. It’s more than equations and mathematical prowess.

cogito, ergo sum ( I think, therefore I am) – René Descartes

The popular phrase was one that we learned at a very young age. I have forgotten if it was in history class or literature class. But it wasn’t until recently that I began to realize the full implications of what seems to be a simple concept.

If my thoughts are what makes me then what happens if my thoughts are not my own? What if I allowed my thoughts to be influenced by distraction from the media, or peer pressure, or any number of competing ideas? Like a virus, some ideas can come in from a outside source and replicate themselves in our hearts and minds. If our thoughts are no longer our own then we are no longer ourselves. We become a copy of whatever ideas are planted.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” – Proverbs 23:7

This is why it’s so important to be able to take time and contemplate the ideas we are exposed to. Our minds have a natural filter that must be cleaned and refreshed on a regular basis. If bad ideas are allowed to linger for too long without active examination they can be absorbed by the subconscious and work their way into our hearts.

Take charge of your quiet time and don’t get so busy that you forget to check your filters.