Tag: featured art

Goodbye 2017

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

The old year is fading away like the last few minutes of the setting sun.  I’ve spent the past few days listening to talk about New Year’s superstitious.  If you’re to ensure a prosperous New Year there’s a laundry list of do’s and don’ts.  Does it work? Well,  that depends.  Ceremonies formalize intention.  It helps us focus on actions and actions bring results.  

I can’t tell you what your 2018 goals should be.  I  can’t tell you what you should leave behind in 2017. What I can tell you is that resolutions without actions are just another wish list.  

I plan to spend the last day of 2017 creating a playbook for 2018.  Each entry will include a goal,  actions that will be needed and a blank page for adjusting the actions.  

My 2018 wish for you is that your plans are actionable.  🙂

The Orange Story

Back and White Photography, Christmas

One of Christmas traditions that my family practices is peppermint candy and oranges.  Every year my grandfather would buy a crate of oranges and bag them up with peppermint candy to hand out to friends and family. This was the thing he looked the most forward to every year. The story behind this gifting tradition goes back to the Great Depression.  He came from a large family and during those times almost nothing was bought from the store. They played with hand carved wooden toys. They wore handmade clothes.  The food was raised and harvested at home.  An exotic fruit like the orange was a luxury.  But his father would splurge at Christmas and there was enough money for each child to have one orange and a large piece of peppermint candy.  One year one of his sisters had just finished peeling her orange and dropped it into the dirt. My grandfather couldn’t allow her to go without Christmas and gave her his orange.  The simple act of sacrifice became an expression of love every year.  The true meaning of Christmas is sacrificial love.  The original gift that was given was the child in manger who grew up to hang on a cross and restore to us that which was lost. 

    Entwined 

    Back and White Photography, Thoughts and Musing

    We grow as one.  

    We live as one. 

    We strive together ever upwards.  

    I will carry you to the sky, you will keep me rooted in the earth.  

    We are more than friends. 

    We are more than lovers. 

    We are one life,  one path, one determination. 

    We are entwined. 

    Golden Dawn on the Kanawha River 

    Color Photography, travel

    This image was also taken the morning of October 28th 2017.  The building on the left is the hydroelectric power plant that supports the local foundry.   The Kanawha Falls seen here are part of system that incorporates a manmade dam with the natural beauty of the falls.  The light in spot doesn’t always cooperate with the lense but this time the sky made up for past disappointments.