Zooming - September 2014

Late summer and early fall is a time of transition…lots of changes to capture in photos. There are seed pods

And seeds.

Insects going about the business of feeding,

Mating and growing large enough to move to the phase of their life to overwinter.

The birds are through their nesting and getting ready for migration. There was a bright yellow mold that emerged from a knot in our deck railing after a rain.

And - last but not least in this collection of zoomed images - the bright colors of flowers and chard stems.

A New Year Begins - 2014

2014 01 IMG_5668.jpg

2014 begins today. It’s a human designation that it is today so whatever meaning it has is also ours.

I like to get up for the sunrise rather than stay up until midnight. This time of year it is very easy to get up well before the sun comes up and I was thrilled to find a dove in our oak tree when I went out to capture the event this morning. At first the dove was quiet, but then it started cooing at me. What a gentle sound to start the year!

The first light of the new day synchronized with the first day of the New Year reminds me of the potential there always is - to savor the moment and grow into a satisfying future.

In years past - I made list of things I wanted to make different. Sometimes I made a lasting change. One year I decided to learn to use my mouse with my left hand rather than my right; that was almost 10 years ago and I have made the change permanently. Last year I decided to have one last sprint of weight loss and get down to the weight I was at 25; I did it by September and have maintained it easily since then. I started gradually increasing my reading goals beginning in 1985 and now I’m combining reading with taking online courses since they are so freely available; learning this way is one of my favorite pastimes so I need nothing to push me onward at this point. Travel and visiting family/friends is another favorite pastime; no encouragement needed there either. The volunteer gigs I started in 2013 are still lots of fun and worthwhile…I won’t be making a change away from them in 2014.

So I am left with a generic goal of exhorting myself to live more in the present in 2014…to refrain from over-planning (which I sometimes have been known to do)!