landscape photography – Page 46 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Strong in the Storm

It the middle of a open field on the property where I grew up stands this lone Yellow Poplar. Now, I presume that quite a few people won’t understand why that’s a little odd. These trees do not resist strong winds very well. They tend to be found in clumps. Alone, this tree has no protection against storms. And yet, it’s been there surviving everything the weather can throw at it. I’ve seen it covered in ice, heavy snow and blasted with cyclone strength winds. This tree should have broken a very long time ago. Yes it’s got a few battle scars. These are reminders of the storms that failed as it stood defying the gale force winds.

Sometimes we wonder why the storm happened in our lives. There will always be a storm. But branches and leaves will grow back eventually. Like this tree our strength isn’t in the branches that can be broken. Our strength is in our strong roots than anchor us in the storm.

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.

Sunrise on Summerville Lake

Color Photography, Summerville, West Virginia

As a youth I spent a large piece of my life on and around Summerville Lake.

Wikipedia has all the statistics (click here) and there’s a funny story about how the government almost named it Gad Dam Lake after the ghost town on the bottom. (Read about Gad) . For me, the lake was a place to escape. There were boats that belonged to friends and eventually my dad got his own boat. Summers were spent fishing and swimming and trying to impress the ladies without falling overboard.

There are stories of catfish in the lake large enough to swallow you whole! Every fisherman in Summerville has a story about how they were almost the one who landed a monster. Some will even have broken poles and fish hooks that have been pulled straight as evidence.

Scuba diving is allowed on the lake however I was never certified.

I have swam from one side of the lake to the other. The lake is three hundred and twenty seven feet deep deep ( just under 100 meters). Young boys would see who could stay underwater for the longest time. This was a game that I was very good at winning. Now as an adult, a person has a fair amount of freedom, but if I could choose I’d be a kid on the lake for at least one last endless summer.