trees

I like trees. Or more specifically, I like winter trees, trees bare and naked, no leaves to hide their shape. It is only in the winter that a tree's true nature can be seen. Regal and pyramidal; slender and wispy limbed; sprawling and gangly; sparse and understated -- only when fall and the cold of winter have ruthlessly stripped the trees of their clothing can I really see them. I see the very top limbs, tiny and many fingered, grabbing for the sky. Or the neat, tidy pyramids standing firm and strong, waiting patiently and wistfully for spring to come. Best of all I like looking at those trees that have grown helter skelter, limbs twisting and turning every which-a-way, but always reaching upwards and onwards.

Only in winter do the trees show how alive they are -- the promise of the first fuzz of spring found in the last tenacious leaf holding on precariously.

It is winter trees that inspire me -- inspire me to photography, they make me wish I could draw, to capture their quiet energy and hope. Somehow, winter trees are the embodiment of hope.

yet again.

I hope that whatever this is that is causing me discomfort will simply go away! I am weary of having something come along just as I am beginning to feel good -- good about life, ready to accomplish things, excited about possibilities.

BAM! 

Feel like crap, again, pain and discomfort -- but not enough that it's really serious (for which I am thankful, really, I am), but enough that I just don't feel good. And that messes with my head.

Shit.

a moment in time

a sense of time, of being on the edge, peering over, anticipating the coming...

It is truly a historical day, and while the amazing - nigh unbelievable - event that will take place this morning is the event that will go down in the history books, what I feel taking place historically is a wave of grittiness, a sense of determined hope, a linking of arms of our country that says emphatically "we will not give in". 

We are saying we will not give in to despair or continued mudslinging or apathy. We will overcome.

And we're excited about this idea of hunkering down -- that's what so amazing and contagious to me. Excited, enthusiastic, ready to face our future with bright shiny faces. Nobody is saying things are going to be hunky dory in the morning, that things aren't really that bad off -- no, we know it's the long haul ahead of us, it may even get worse, for heaven's sake. 

But for the first time in a long time, that is not what we as a country are focusing on -- what we are focusing on is what we can do to get beyond that, focusing on how we each, individually and collectively, are responsible for our own lives -- we are not simply waiting for the government to do something -- we are waiting and raring to go and do that something ourselves.

That is historical -- a moment in time when a people (re)discovers their own worth and ability and potential -- a moment when life is sweet again.

Thank you, Mr. President.

waiting...

health issues....wanting to be healthy, yet not doing even those easy things that I know I should...simply feeling like crap....

It's hard to live up to my quote.