Tag: inflection

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.

Final Hour

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

Tonight’s blog post is going to be straight to the point. I ran into lifelong friend today at a restaurant. We decided to share a table and take time for a visit. The conversation eventually came around to dealing with mental health issues. As a medical professional she posed the question, “What if I told you that you only had one hour to live ?”. On the surface that might seem to be pretty bleak perspective. But, it’s a question that makes you examine your priorities. You see, whatever it is that you would spend your last hour on Earth doing is the thing (or things) that are the most important to you. Everything else is secondary.

Nobody is promised that they will live into old age. Every hour that passes could be our last. But the odds are that most of us will live for at least a while longer. We can either let that time slip away until there is nothing left or, we can fill each passing hour with as much of the things that are truly important to us as we can grasp.

And one more thing. Those things that are beyond our control. Let them go. You deserve to be happy. Don’t let yesterday’s regrets prevent tomorrow’s joy.

The image above was chosen for a reason. It’s the intersection where I had my life changing accident. I was given a second chance to appreciate the here and now. Just a few feet away from this spot is my crushed and broken pickup truck. Today, I’m giving you the green light. It’s time to leave the broken things behind and continue the journey.

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.

The Lost Art Of Being

black and white photography, Thoughts and Musing, wildlife

I watched this bumblebee working on the thistle and became enamored with the simplicity of its life. She isn’t in a rush to complete a quota. She isn’t distracted by all the activity of the other insects. She’s just being a bee and doing what she was born to do. She seemed to take pleasure in her small uncomplicated life.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~Lao Tzu

I sometimes wonder if the reason why everyone is always in such a rush is that we have left our natural purposes.

Somewhere, deep down inside we all know who we were born to be. It has nothing to do with jobs, social status or the expectations of others. It’s the thing that you do that causes you to lose track of time. When you look up and you’re amazed at how much got done without effort.

When you are just being what you were truly meant to be. That’s what happiness is.

Let The Light In

Color Photography, encouragement, Thoughts and Musing

Sometimes when I’m talking to friends about things like fear of the unknown or just fear and doubt in general I’ll pose a riddle.

“I was afraid of the dark, but then I became the darkness “.

For the first time ever I’m going to publicly give you the answer.

When you are in a dark place there is fear and anxiety. You can’t perceive the world around you. What’s out there could be bad. It might even be very bad. You’re fear comes from your mind filling in the unknown with projections of worse case scenarios. The flight or fight response kicks in. Adrenaline surges through your blood and your ready for the unknown.

But why become the darkness? It sounds scary. Doesn’t that make you evil? No, not at all. Because a person who is in darkness casts no shadow! In order to become darkness one must become a shadow. In order to become a shadow one must leave the darkness and move into the light. If a person who is in the light is casting light, the the light is being reflected instead of absorbed. The truth will set you free but only if you drink it in make it a part of you.

The Light shines for everyone but not everyone steps out of darkness to let the light in.