Whither are we Journeying?!

Can you smell it?  Can you feel it?  Fall is in the area - a new season for us to continue our journey through life - with the camera and with quiet reflections.  I have always considered my time with the camera a photographic journey and a journey to self.  We notice the outer landscape and take the time to reflect on the inner landscape.  We always have choices but do we face them and act on them or do we consider ourselves victims to life's offerings?  I say NO WAY!  You know the old expression about when life gives you lemons - make lemonade!!    You can stay clean and pristine or get down and dirty and see what life has to offer.  Perceptions of reality!!
   Just yesterday I was called by the zinnias in the front garden.  Never did I realize that they turned as they withered yet stayed on the plant.  They have lost so much of the color yet retained a different kind of beauty.

They are a metaphor for Fall and the changes we experience - we never lose our beauty yet we ask to be seen in a different way!!  As I was standing there and looking, I heard a message to turn around and LOOK!  "Don't just look at the flowers Martie because there is so much more!! " The big old pine trees were asking to be seen - oh my goodness.  Look at this gift!!

Tall and straight and full of such unusual beauty.  Have you ever stopped to really look at the knots in the trees where the branches have been cut off?  Some of them look like blood and they are bleeding sap.  These trees had a zillion of these because our neighbors had cut off the lower branches.  Made me sad that the trees had been injured but ok that they were healing.  It's like how our body heals itself - sometimes while we are taking medicine and think it is the reason!  The photographic message - make sure to stop and be still and listen - then look and then turn around and look some more - up, down and all around.  There is beauty in the beholding.

Solutions Come From Quiet Thoughts

When I give myself the gift of sitting still - being quiet and reflecting - allowing my mind to clear and just drift along with the clouds - it's funny how possibilities arise.  I don't question that I love to BE STILL and SEE and really explore the openness of everything...and nothing.  What happens is that I listen to others - listen to what society says we must do to be 'right' and hang with those thoughts that are definitely holdovers from a previous time in my very own lifetime - maybe even back through other lifetimes!!

So discoveries...thoughts...open to ideas...just because 'photographers' take their pictures and then frame them and put them in galleries for sale, and I feel a need to be 'like them'...is that the truth?  I am rich on compliments but as friend Bob says, "Photography doesn't sell!"  Well some does but it is in the eyes of the buyer and can't really be predicted.  I have hung pictures in a gallery show with 21 other artists.  Can I go into the comparison of me with them?!?  NO NO NO...doesn't society often put us there??  I love what I do and will do more for me...to learn and grow in my own creative expression...
   For years I have been training individuals to know that the PROCESS is way more important than the PRODUCT!!  Hey Photoschmoozer...listen to your own words and enjoy the process.  Isn't that what learning and discovery is really all about?  Going within and seeing what your heart sees.  Taking your own journey and laughing and dancing with every step along the way!!
It's a journey...my journey...not to be shared.  Each of us has our own...yeah team!!

Each of us t

Each of takes the steps on our journey one step at a time.  See the steps are crooked, straights, higher, lower, simpler, more difficult...in the end we arrive where we need to be in each moment of each day!!

Today was BE STILL and SEE day group gathering at one of our local libraries.  It was - as always (well for the two meetings we have had) an adventure on Life's Journey.  We were 11 spirits - as different as night and day yet connected by a love of photography - beauty - joy and excitement for life and all it offers and the anticipation of what is to come together!   Although I talk about "NO technical talk", it can easily go in that direction because everyone is eager to 'take better pictures'.  That's admirable.  It's also a challenge to let go of that - and also the need to take pictures to sell them and make some money - and realize that taking the pictures is the PROCESS and as valuable if not more so than the final PRODUCT!!
    Contemplative Photography can be a concept that is challenging to wrap yourself up in - it's about NOT having a project or an end result, but just going out - being still - and observing the world around you.  It's a 'letting go' in a big way...don't label anything - just see!!  Don't go out to 'take pictures of flowers' - just go on a walk or go to your garden.
  Several of us talked about the camera's being a meditative tool.  It's that way for me ...it has a powerful settling effect to just walk with it and notice.
   One of the group, in order to understand  Contemplative Photography and wrap her head around it, made everyone in the group a copy of a Field Guide to Contemplative Photography.  What an amazing gesture on Emma's part - both to understand more what we are talking about and then to share with everyone the publication she found!  Gratitude for that!!
  The picture with this blog - Denise taken by Charlie - they joined us for the first time - she with her childlike curiosity (a kindred spirit for me!!) and he with his quiet sharing.  Like Bill and I, they are contrasts that fit well together.  On this day, they were off on an adventure to the ocean - the shore - the beach - whatever you might want to call it!!  Can you believe she shot more than 1000 pictures that day!?  I can because like Denise, I recognize that EVERYTHING is a moment in time to be seen - OH WOW!!

Clouds on my Journey

 I looked at clouds from both sides now...from win and lose and still somehow, it's clouds illusions I recall - and that I did as I traveled up Rt. 1 in Delaware after some full and wonderful days of visiting friends - old and new - visiting our friend the ocean - eating the most awesome mac and cheese - and just hanging out with friends.  It was a rest to be sure.  As I was driving home, I realized that I was following the clouds and was mesmerized.  It reminded me of coming home from the same place a few years back but being lost in the clouds and sunset and ending up in Cambridge, Maryland.  WHAT??? HOW???

 Today I stayed on the route but got so caught up in the beauty, colors and shapes that I fially just had to pull over and sit by the side of the road.  The cars WHIZZING by made me stop to wonder if anyone even noticed the gifts they were being given!?!?  My guess is not because they were in a hurry to get WHERE??  They are among the masses who have never realized that life in the fast lane is just that...and not to be enjoyed or treasured.  They are the ones stressed by the rush they are in...

For me, it's all about MINDFULNESS - stopping to meditate and ask for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health...and peace of mind and well being.  That's NOT too much to ask for friends - and the more you ask...the more you will receive. STOP and notice the wonder...I did and I am so grateful!!

SHOES~~ SHOES~~~ SHOES~~~ TAKE THE FIRST STEP!

COMING BY SPRING!!!  So many things are popping!  Remember I have shared here before about SHOES and my fascination with people's choices??  Well have I shared with you that I have close to 1200 pictures of feet and shoes?  Have I shared my thoughts about Unity and Diversity related to shoes??  Have I shared about my friend Tony and The Journey  (http://www.ijlife.com/ )  Maybe I have - maybe you have forgotten.  But I talked with Tony about shoes - and my photos - and his love of music and composing came front and center.  He is about finished with a song about SHOES - will combine my photography, his musical skills and the voices of some really fantastic musical artists!!  In addition, since I am Photoschmoozer and Art cards/prints are my 'thing' - there will be a line of Art cards - maybe they will be called Uniquely You - Express Yourself - or another name - watch for the launch in early Spring!!  Always keep your eyes and ears open for the synchronicities of life and talk to folks because who knows what will come of it all~~

Life is a Journey Toward Inner Awareness