I’m musing on shadow bokeh over on Mortal Muses today, so I thought I would share this companion photo of shadows in focus here. Light is such a wonderful thing, don’t you think?
Shadow Focus
Down the Road
Travelling toward the end of the year, one month at a time. Welcome November!
I think fall might unofficially be over here, given the amount of rain that has been pouring down outside for the last two days. We changed from daylight savings time yesterday, here in Europe, and darkness comes early again. In our home, we are welcoming the winter with lighting more candles and snuggling up to watch movies.
I will miss these lovely leaves but am ready for the dormant period, the quiet time. As I read in Simple Abundance this morning, “November’s beauty radiates from within.” Just like me. Just like you.
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I am musing on the energy of night over at Mortal Muses today. Come by and say hi!
Potential of the Day
Yesterday morning, on my walk in Parco di Monza, I saw this. Such amazing light and mist, and mystery. It seems an infinite path, you wonder where it ends. What a difference a day makes, the intense rain of the previous day contributing the moisture for the mist in this otherwise sunny morning, making this image possible. A moment where you can sense the potential of the day.
Would you believe that this is straight out of the camera, and a point-and-shoot camera, no less? This supports my fundamental belief that it’s not the equipment that makes the photographer, it’s the eye. I keep coming back to this quote, “The best camera you have is the one you have with you.” I keep my Canon Elph with me at all times in the park, so I’m armed for whatever inspiration is shown to me. And lately, things are shown to me often. I must have just started to see it in a different way, because I doubt the park has changed substantially in the year and a half I’ve been here, but my enjoyment of it has deepened substantially and it’s become a wonderful source of inspiration.
Speaking of inspiration, have you been keeping up with the 9 Days of Inspiration on the Mortal Muses sites? If not, go right now and read this post by writer Cara Lopez Lee. Her words are incredible. And while you’re there, look around and leave a comment or two on the different sites to win some of the cool giveaways (including a set of my postcards – I have more on the way!).
I hope you have an inspirational day! The potential is there, in every day.
Words for Breakfast
Yesterday, it rained. And rained and rained. I seem to recall that last week I wrote the words, “When life gives you rain, take photos anyway!” in more than one place. Well, here was my chance to live up to my words or to eat my words. I decided to live up to them, as words for breakfast don’t sound too nutritious. My shoes were soaked and people might have thought I was crazy, but I had a big grin on my face and I managed to get this image for the “Fall Color” prompt in Picture Fall.
I realized with yesterday’s rainy situation that this blog keeps me honest with myself, if nothing else. I mean, if I’m going to write about it here, it would be false to not follow my own advice. I think you would eventually see the truth of the matter, feel the hypocrisy come through, and abandon me to my own devices. I would be writing in my own little dream world.
Since I would rather be connecting with the real world, with real people, I’m going to have to assess myself honestly. Flaws and all. Thankfully, so far, I haven’t had to eat any of my words for breakfast.
Special Place
Today I am musing on “where i live” over at the Mortal Muses More Musing site. Come by and see more about this special place near our home in Italy, and then look around at all of the other wonderful posts from people around the world about where they live.
If Not Now, When?
I love this field of flowers under the trees in Parco di Monza by our home here in Italy. They are long gone now, they are only around for a brief time in the spring. As fall approachs and these trees are about to change their color and lose their leaves, and the bed of flowers has become mown grass. I met my intention to photograph them this year, since I missed them the first spring we arrived in Italy. Who knows what next spring will bring, my last spring here. Maybe there will be freak weather that prevents them from blooming, and this will have been my only opportunity. I’m glad I caught them while I had the chance.
Capturing these flowers is part of what I am calling a “no regrets” year. With limited time left on my work assignment in Italy, we return to the US next July, I have made a personal resolution that I will go home with no regrets. I don’t want to sit down, years from now and say, “I wish I had done… whatever… while we were in Italy.” Sure, there will always be ideas I have later, places I will see in pictures later and wish I had visited while I was here, but this “no regrets” year is about what I know now. If there is something I want to do now, I am doing it. If there is someplace I want to go while I’m here in Europe, I am going. If there is someone I need to meet (all these wonderful online friends!), I’m going to make every possible effort to meet them in person.
I know that the pace of travel and activity and spending (!) I currently have is not sustainable long term. In a way, that’s the beauty of this situation too, it isn’t long term. There is a definite end, so I don’t have to keep anything in reserve. I also know that even with this intention I have for the year, I will not be able to go everywhere, do everything, meet everyone on my list. But I’ll be so, so much closer to it, and I’ll have no regrets.
I have actually been blessed by having this limited time, in a positive way. To have my eyes opened without having something like a life-threatening illness for me or a loved one. It is easy to see, how in the course of our ever day life, how we put things off. We say… We’ll go visit that place next month, and it turns into next year. Let’s get together for coffee sometime, and weeks go by. I should really look into that organization, and before you know it the event you were interested in is over. Life picks us up, swirls us around in the every day, and we lose our hold on the tether of our intentions. Before we know it, we’re swept along and away from what we had planned.
Think about this in your every day life. Is there one small thing you want to do, one place to visit close by that you’ve been putting off, one friend you want to meet for coffee but haven’t found the time? Do it. Have your own “no regrets” day or week, living in the moment as if you have limited time. Because the reality is, we do have limited time. It’s just not always so obvious, as it is to me right now.
And who knows, you might just find that you have spring flowers to enjoy, come fall.
