Louise-R-Shaw

Random photo

2012-02-10T16:16:00.000-08:00

Just because I was uploading this to my website, www.capestocanyonspress.com/italy.html, I thought I'd also drop it in here. Just because it's such an amazing place and you'll all want to put it on your list of places to go or to go back to.

Hat's off

2012-02-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've heard the most amazing stories this week, of people who've been through hardships most can't imagine, and come out optimistic and even thankful. My hat's off to Laura and Jared and Chris and Jarom and his wife and Tyson and Landon and all others who don't give up and who keep looking up. And smiling.

La neige

2012-01-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

J'ai une ami de France qui m'a dit qu'elle regarde mes blog de temps en temps et aimer bien mes photos et mots. Je suis tres heureuse de penser que les choses que j'ecrit et les photos que je met ici vont toutes loin. D'ici a France.

A mon ami: Merci pour votre mots. Merci pour votre gentillesse. J'espere d'apporter les choses bonnes et belles a tout la monde! (Et pardonez ma francais!) (Vous pouvez me dire si j'ai torte et peut-etre les meilleures mots!)

What a way to start the day

2012-01-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

I think the old saying goes: Pink sky at night, sailor's delight; pink sky at morning, sailor's take warning. Sure enough, the weather turned for the worst after this morning sky, but since I'm not a sailor, no one should mind that I took delight in it anyway. Unless you're a poet.

Happy at the holidays

2012-01-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

I don't normally post personal photos on this blog, but am making an exception because there are not only beautiful places in this world, there are beautiful people. I'm grateful for those that are in my world and thank them for making the holidays beautiful too.

The best job in the world

2012-01-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

I have the best job in the world.
Why?
Because this morning I got to go to at assembly at an elementary school and hear people from the Utah Grizzlies hockey organization teach about the importance of setting goals and teamwork and believing in yourselves.
And because last week I got to learn about Kwanzaa and even before that I got to hear the Governor tell about the new budget.
And sometimes I get to go to Antelope Island for the bison round-up and sometimes I get to ask educators who work with disabled students why they do it and sometimes I just drive around taking pictures of interesting people and beautiful places.
And sometimes I don't have to go anywhere or see anything, I just get to write about what I'm thinking about and why I'm thinking about it.
And then I get to share it.
And if you want to be shared with, subscribe to the Davis Clipper by calling 801-295-2251 or go to www.davisclipper.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

December 16, 2011

2011-12-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

What a way to spend a day.

New view of the moon

2011-12-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

How awesome to wake in time to see a lunar eclipse. Another amazing sight in a world -- and beyond -- full of amazing sights.

Something about a sunset

2011-11-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

One night and one morning

2011-11-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

One night in September there was a fire on the mountainside in Centerville, just about five miles north of here. If I was worried, I didn't have much cause compared to the people who lived just blocks from the blaze. But they spoke calmly with me about the times there had been fire in the past, about fire break road that kept the fires from their homes, about their call to prepare for evacuation, about where they'd put their sprinklers if they did have to evacute, about the people fighting the fires, about their confidence that everything would be all right.
Sure enough, everything was all right. And the next morning, from my home, there was a rainbow.

More gifts

2011-10-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

These from an afternoon walk in the valley of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Mountains, valleys, trees and waterfalls warmed by the sun. And so were we.

From photo to feeling

2011-10-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Traveling for fun is much different than traveling for photos, though one isn't necessarily done to the exclusion of the other.

The few times I've been on a dedicated photographers' excursion, the schedule revolves around sunrises and sunsets and locations have been scouted out beforehand for best angles and light. And when I read about photographers who actually make a living at their trade, I learn they spend weeks on assignment in one place, waiting for the right conditions, the right sky, the right animal movement, the right emotion.

But when traveling as a tourist, with only days to explore one incredible location and only hours to explore another, you take what you get whenever you're there to get it.

That's why stumbling on a viewpoint with an incredible sky just at the moment you're there, is a gift. It's not something you could have planned. It's not some place you could go back to again and again for the right conditions. It's just there when you are and you only have to capture it and take it home with you.

I am grateful for the gift of St. Gallen, Austria, one morning last September. I hope from these pictures you can imagine them real and see what we saw and feel what we felt. Then it will be a gift for you too.

Good enough to eat

2011-10-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

I could give you mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, cows with bells, sheep with bells, views from trams, views from boats, views from cars, views from trains, views from hotel rooms, views from behind waterfalls, views of lakes, rivers, churches, pipe organs, Austrian villages or Swiss chalets.

Instead I'm giving you grapes.

But because they're colorful and grown along the borders of the Danube and kissed by sunshine, I hope you'll love them.

Ten years later

2011-09-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

We spent our Sunday evening with others in the neighborhood, enjoying the music of the Utah National Guard 23rd Army Band. Though the day had been warm with only a few clouds, just into the concert a strong wind kicked up and things started tipping over and flying off. And then the temperature dropped and people started using their blankets for warmth as well as for seating. But the band played on. They played music that celebrated and mourned the good and the sad that came from that dark day in our nation's history 10 years before, Sept. 11, 2001.

When I looked at this picture the next day, I noticed that despite the sunbreak, all in view from the angle I was shooting is dark. All except the American flag.

Floating

2011-09-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Franklin saw the first flight of a manned hot air balloon, according to Kent Barnes. And that flight took place years and years before winged flight. Balloons can change direction by flying at different altitudes since the winds at different heights go in different directions. They can go aloft thanks to hot air, though if it's already hot outside they may not be able to carry as much weight. Some balloons use gases like helium and can stay aloft longer. They can be 70 feet tall and hold 65,000 to 105,000 cubic feet of air. Barnes pilots hot air balloons, owning several of the 3,000 in America. He's passionate about the hobby and you can tell by his smile he is still having as much fun as the people he welcomes into the wicker basket to float just above the earth for a spell.

At the beach

2011-08-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Normally I would include the end of the surf in the photo as the foreground that finishes the shot. But this time I didn't include the line where the water meets the sand for one very good reason. That's where my toes were.

Fog and foreground

2011-08-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

The morning started out socked-in but in only a few hours the sun took over. But by then I was long gone, enjoying the rays in spots farther north. This is San Diego socked in. And it isn't just to show that bad weather doesn't mean bad photos, it's to show what a difference foreground makes. One foreground, or two, or none, you, the photographer, choose. In this case, I can't decide. I like them all.

At the fair

2011-08-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

More fun than the roller coaster, real life at the county fair.

To my senators:

2011-08-09T07:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee:

You did not represent me when you voted against the imperfect but necessary debt measure.

You did not represent me when you refused to negotiate or compromise with other leaders in our nation who were trying to prevent the loss of confidence in America that has resulted from your ill-advised actions.

I am not a member of the tea party. I am reconsidering my affilition with Republicans.

America wasn't built from hard-headed refusals to compromise and close-minded demands.

Getting re-elected, Senator Hatch, shouldn't be more important than doing what's right for the country.

Being stubborn, Senator Lee, isn't more impressive than listening to all sides and considering all solutions.

Extra! Extra!

2011-07-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

They've been around a long time.
Informing people about what's going on and giving details and insights and asking questions of those in power and sharing the answers, telling stories about people and things of interest and running photos from places you couldn't quite get to but would like to know about all the same.
Newspapers provide a vital resource.

Keep reading!

And subscribing! And telling advertisers you read!

This is one industry we can't afford to lose.

A tree and a lesson

2011-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

At first it looked like the tree had managed to grow from a crevice in the rock. We'd seen it happen in other formidable spots in Southern Utah, and it always brought a comment or two on the amazing resilience, the fortitude, that would allow a little seed to become a big tree on so little water and so little space.

But then we saw that it wasn't growing from a crevice, it was growing from sand way, way, down at the bottom of a deep, deep divide in Bryce Canyon. It somehow found enough water and managed enough nutrients from the sand and grew until it reached the sunlight too.

You can learn a lot from a tree.

Happy Independence!

2011-07-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

Stormy weather

2011-06-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

Who'd of thought grey skies could be gorgeous. It happens often at the Oregon Coast, where people have been known to go just to watch the storms.

We've been blessed with beautiful weather on many trips -- even those in mid-winter, but this short excursion brought clouds and even a bit of rain.

That made me appreciate even more the little plaque made by a company called "The Signs of the Thymes," that I saw in the little gift store in the little town just a few blocks east of the scenes you're seeing above.

It said: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

May we all do just that.

New view of old favorite

2011-06-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

For six years, we lived just 15 minutes from the Columbia Gorge, along the Oregon/Washington border. For 15 years after that, we drove it annually, usually in a hurry to get to a destination 700 miles away, or tired and wanting to be home after the return trip. Last week, we got an unexpected opportunity to take a spontaneous drive through the gorge to Multnomah Falls in late evening. The sun made it absolutely magical. Yeah for unplanned. Yeah for spontaneous. Yeah for magical. Yeah for the Columbia Gorge.

From the Rose City

2011-06-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Looking back, moving forward

2011-06-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

This one didn't make the cut for the paper -- my personal cut that is. The light was too dim for just the right sharpness.

But it tells a story and I like it.

Here it is for you to "read."

Remembering on Memorial Day

2011-05-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, those who fought in World War II, those who served in Vietnam, each of them and many more contributed to what we in America enjoy today. Our holiday this weekend is in their honor, and their memory.

A smile

2011-05-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

There are few things more sublime than the smile of a baby. Maybe they don't understand a whole lot just yet, about talking or walking or all that other stuff that will come soon enough. Maybe they can't express the hows and whys of what they're feeling. But that smile tells you that right then anyway, things are all right with the world. And when you win one of those smiles, you just have the feeling that everything's all right with you too.

Nature in NYC

2011-05-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

He told me that the sign at the entry to the park said don't feed the birds so he stayed outside the fence that framed the park and did just that. He was especially enthralled by the white pigeon that came to enjoy his crumpled up Ritz crackers.

He told me he was a Leo. I watched him share more than he ate.

He found nature in urbanity. And he fed it.

Staying young

2011-04-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Sweetest story of the week: The couple that went dancing on their first date in 1947. He told her he'd rather dance than eat and she fell for him. I met them at a big-band dance show at a local high school and heard the rest of their story. She told me about all the dances they'd go to every week in the early days. They told me they always closed the place. I asked if there were places now, besides this annual show, where they could dance. She told me they sometimes go to a dance studio in town. He said they sometimes dance in the kitchen.

Hooray for dancing in the kitchen.

New life

2011-04-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Light

2011-04-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

'Twas light proclaimed the Savior's birth
At death the dark earth mourned
And those who lived across the earth
Knew signs by prophets warned.

A star new to the heavenly skies
Told saints He walked and healed
Then days of darkness, fear and cries
His death to them revealed.

Tho' distant now I find my life
From days He blessed and taught
I know He lives from signs and light
I know He's there when sought.

'Tis light that fills my soul with peace
To kneel alone in prayer
The worries, cares and fears release
When I, through Him, can share.

'Tis light that fills my days again
When I to scriptures turn
To read His words to women, men
And of His kindness learn.

The world is dark when daily tasks
Distract me from my aim
And thoughts regress to things long past
Regrets or doubts or blame.

But when I turn to Him and seek
For answers, mercy, more
My world is bright, my hope complete
A calm and joy's restored.

'Twas light that tolled the Savior's birth
'Tis light will bless each day
And while we learn and grow on earth
That light will show the way.

- Louise R. Shaw

Are you cuter than a fifth grader?

2011-04-16T10:20:00.001-07:00

My favorite shot of the week was of these fifth graders writing answers as they played a local version of "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" with leaders from counties throughout Utah. They answered quickly and confidently most every question posed, from "What is the system that keeps the three branches of government in line?" to "What is two squared times 11?" to "What is a homonym?" County officials deferred to their answers every time. And wisely so.

Inspirations

2011-04-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

These are the plaques with thoughts I have around my home office:

Live out loud!

Do one thing every day that scares you. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take -- but by the moments that take our breath away.

And... look to this day for it is life. in its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence, the joy of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty... today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. look well, therefore, to this day... -- ancient sanskrit proverb

These are the things I believe.

People and passions

2011-03-31T19:40:00.000-07:00

One of the real joys of working as a reporter, is the chance to meet people who are passionate about what they do. Maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's a profession, but they know it inside and out and they're good at and they want to share it.

My thanks to those who answer my many questions and share their many insights, who enlighten me and help me enlighten others.

Those who follow their passion, whether it's music or sport or politics, can inspire us to follow ours.

You know what this means

2011-03-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

March in Utah

2011-03-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Heavy rain turned to heavy snow overnight Monday and blanketed the city in white. The good thing about snow in March is how fast it melts. And how soon the roads are dry. And how close Spring is. At least we like to think it's close.

Incredible moment

2011-03-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't take this picture because I'm in it. That's me on the left, massaging the nose of a horse that just a few minutes before was wary of me, and I of him. We became friends after working together and reading each other's body language and being sensitive and non-threatening and communicating. We bonded. We trusted. It was one of those incredible, breath-taking moments in life. Build trust. Bond.

Big Island, Hawaii

2011-02-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

On the Big Island of Hawaii, you can find rocky lava cliffs, green sand beaches, black sand beaches, white sand beaches, big turtles resting, little whales jumping, colorful flowers open to the sun, the lively town of Kona and quaint town of southern-most Na'alehu. You can drive to the top of Mauna Kea, where observatories search the skies from almost 14,000 feet, you can watch sunsets and sailboats, you can go deep-sea fishing, you can snorkel among fish of all colors and sizes and shapes, you can sit under an umbrella in the rain, you can watch the waves curl and crash or be in the waves with your boogie board as they curl and crash.

I hope you do.

Favorite picture of the week

2011-01-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

It's been melting here in the valley. This week anyway. They had room for a picture page in our last Clipper edition, but this one didn't make it. My choice. It didn't fit with the others. I headlined the pictures: Warm, wet weather brings brief break. There are sure to be more snow pics on the horizon. And soon.

Ski day

2011-01-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

The fellow on the lift from Seattle was surprised that January 15 was the first day this winter that we'd been skiing. Us Utah people should be up more often than that, surely. But alas, life and colds and work and weather limits even those of us who live within an hour of seven or eight resorts. These shots are from our first outing.

It was a day that looked gray at the start, but that in fact had a mix of sunshine as the clouds danced in and out and about the mountains.

The trees at the base were green, those further up had dobs of snow, those at the top were encrusted with frost. I tried not to stop too much for photos, but here's a feel for the atmosphere.

Anyone who can guess the resort from these photos wins ... my respect.

You can do it

2011-01-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

"Where are my scientists?" came the question to a room full of second graders.

Every hand went up. All 60 of them.

"Where are my mathematicians?" Same hands. All enthusiastically raised.

"Where are my artists, singers, painters and and dancers?"

It was Dr. Jackie Thompson, educational equity coordinator in Davis School District, who raised the questions and who got the unreserved response again -- all hands went up saying they could do art and music and whatever else she suggested.

"Who has dreams?" she asked at the end. And there were those same hands.

I watched, astounded. Every last child in that room believed they could be anything and do anything. They had total confidence in themselves in every area of their lives and their interests. They knew whatever needed doing, they could do it. Whatever options were open, they would take them. And succeed.

Ah, to be in second grade.

Second grade comes, you recall, before junior high and high school, when those interests and that confidence are sorely tested.

I remember one great disappointment from high school that rocked my world. It showed me that some things just plain were out of my control and sometimes I was just going to fail.

I recovered. But something was lost. Something that a lot of people have in second grade but don't have 10 or even five years later. Confidence, maybe. Perhaps faith. Surely hope.

I greatly admire people who still believe they can reach any goal.

Our country's president had that aura about him as he headed into the most difficult assignment anyone could take on. When this November's elections sent the message that he'd failed, I feared he would lose hope.

He's only worked harder.

That's my hope for all of us as we begin a new year.

Don't tell yourself you can't set a resolution because you've set one in the past and failed. Just make up your mind that it's something you want to do and do it. Don't think that because someone didn't give you what you'd hoped to get that you should give up all together. Just look for a different way to make that something happen. Don't tell youself you can't do something because it's too difficult or otherwise impossible. Just work harder and watch yourself succeed.

Believe in yourself. Become what you want to become.

In other words, be like a second grader.

Dueling cameras

2010-12-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Photographers and reporters were everywhere a few weeks ago when sixth graders from Hill Field Elementary in Layton were invited to decorate a the tree in the Governor's mansion.

While I caught the photographer across the room in this shot, he caught me too -- and his shot ended up on the front page of the Deseret News on December 2.

The Governor's at the right, in between addressing the kids and holding the ladder for those who decorated the upper branches and giving them a tour of the mansion -- a very gracious host.

Forgive the gap between entries. A new grandbaby and a son's wedding have been getting priority.

Merry Holidays!

A week in the life

2010-11-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me last weekend if I was enjoying my job.
My answer -- a yes -- was woefully inadequate.
In the week prior (OK -- let me include 10 days for effect) I'd followed bison around while visiting with people who'd come out from Pennsylvania for the action. I'd photographed people voting and people counting votes and people protecting votes and people celebrating the votes they'd received -- in a day where work started at 9 a.m. and ended at midnight. I'd learned about school district programs and successes. I'd photographed beautiful fall colors, I'd listened to the gory details of the job of forensics specialist. I'd wept with a Vietnam veteran while he told me what it meant to be honored after all these years. And then I wrote about it all.
Yes, I'm enjoying my job.
Here's a taste of my October 29 to November 6:

More pictures that I've taken from Davis County events I've attended in the course of my work, can be seen at http://daviscountyextra.blogspot.com/.

Knowing it's there

2010-10-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

I know some very dear people who have some very dark clouds in their lives right now.

For some, it's been stormy all day. For others, a perfectly blue-sky day turned into a dark, dismal storm without much warning.

I took this picture just a few weeks ago just a mile or so from my home.

It tells me that even when there are dark clouds -- really dark, threatening, dismal clouds -- there is sunshine just behind them.

And whether that sunshine comes out now or tomorrow. Whether the sunshine comes to you or you go to it, whether you have to wait or whether you are surprised when the sky suddenly opens up, it will bring you warmth. And beauty. And peace.

Just know it's there.

NY's finest

2010-10-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

We got to see New York's finest in action when we visited last month. First, the men of the NYFD when they showed up at our daughter's apartment building to check out the smell of gas.

They made quick work of the problem -- a stove left on in a main floor apartment, and after watching me watch them run in and out with their picks and shovels while my husband and daughter ran up and down with boxes and suitcases, one was so observant as to figure out what I was thinking.

"Your daughter will be fine," he said reassuringly.

Second, the men of the NYPD, as they blocked all passage from anywhere too near the UN during a summit of 20 nations that included an appearance and remarks from the President of our very own nation. The police very effectively, though politely, kept us riffraff away from the limosines with the motorcycle escort and guest vehicles and ambulance as it hustled into the UN complex.

Effective and polite are the words that come to mind in both cases.

Thanks guys.

Where in the world?

2010-10-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

The fun thing about these pictures is that they were not taken in Europe. They were taken in a city settled by Europeans, however, and you can tell. It is a great heritage and it is great to have benefited from their architectural and cultural traditions as we've developed our own.

Any guessses on where these sights were seen?

The ice cream man

2010-10-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

One of the absolute delights of working as a newspaper reporter, is the chance to meet people from all walks of life with all kinds of stories to tell:

The teacher who just graduated and got a job teaching first grade at the school where she went to first grade, with her first-grade teacher just down the hall.

The farmer who turned his farm over for a conservation easement and opens his corn rows and turkey pens up to schools so city kids can see where their food comes from.

The young man who wanted to be on the city council since he was seven and earned the spot over more experienced competition and works 26 hours a week to help his city.

The woman who turned a pile of rubble at the end of a parking lot in her apartment complex into a garden with the help of kids in the complex (and then got evicted -- but that's another story).

But today I want to tell you about Gordon Christensen.

I first met Gordon when I sat next to him at a Veterans' Day event last November. First he handed me a poem typed on blue paper and cut with serated edges that said something like, "it isn't the journalist who gives you freedom of speech, it's the soldier..." I thought to myself, he doesn't know I'm a journalist.

But that wouldn't have mattered.

Then he gave me a clothespin with a tiny washer glued on it and told me it was a washer and dryer. Then he told me about the ice cream social he does every year to celebrate the creation of the ice cream cone and how it started in his yard but now is a city-wide event. And when he found out my daughter was born on the same day as his ice cream social, he gave me an envelope filled with poems and stories and a $2 bill and told me to give it to my daughter. Then he gave me a quarter with something of significance stuck on it, which sad to say I've both lost and forgotten. (I tried once to throw away the washer and dryer thinking I would never see this man again, but while it was still in the garbage can I got assigned to do a story on a young man that turned out to be his son and since I had to call Gordon up for a couple color questions, I thought I'd better be able to report that I still had it -- so I pulled it back out. It's safe in my drawer again.)

The next time I saw the older gentleman -- a proud veteran -- was at a Memorial Day event, when he told me he liked the story I'd done about his son, but wished I'd included his daughter-in-law's maiden name in it so her family could get some credit too. And he reminded me about the ice cream social.

So I was thrilled to be assigned the ice cream social just last month, where I saw him in action -- seated on a chair off to the side of the event that now included live music and a car show, as well as his traditional free ice cream. Kids got their cones and then wandered over to where he told them about how cones started.

Here's Gordon in action:

When I talked to Gordon between readings, he pulled a copy of the story I'd written about his son out of his shirt pocket. He told me how he liked to show it to people, but he'd have liked it better if I'd included his daughter-in-law's maiden name. It was cut with serated edges.
And then he gave me a dime with a pin glued on to it. "It's a dime-and pin," he said, making it sound like "diamond pin."

I still have it.

From the air

2010-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

I promise one of these days I'll have more time to write. For now, a look at Syracuse, Utah and the Black Island Farm Corn Maze and the Wasatch Range ... from ... you guessed it ... a helicopter. A helicopter with no door on the side. Yes.

Another day at the office

2010-09-04T15:43:00.001-07:00

Do I have the best job or what?

Mini miracles

2010-08-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

As if it isn't miraculous enough to be able to fit 1,000 pictures on a little one-by-one memory card and put them on your computer in seconds and have little tiny pictures of each photo for you to pick from and tweak if you're a tweaker and send out to friends and print for mementos -- but then you can get word that someone on the other side of the world is enjoying them too.

This is a miracle beyond words.

It's a new miracle. One that wasn't around 20 years ago and that makes those of us who were around 20 years ago drop our jaws at the wonder of it all.

So to celebrate I'm putting more pictures from my little one-by-one memory card that are now one of thousands and thousands on my little-bit-bigger-but-still-surprisingly small computer, and I'm disseminating them to the other side of the world.

These are pictures that I took on the other side of the world. In greeting and as thanks.

Good to the last shot

2010-08-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

My faithful friend finally gave out on me. We've been together for exactly four years. It was in August of 2006 that I took the first shots with my digital SLR Canon, after trying out a digital point-and-shoot Kodak for eight months and after being one of the last to admit I had to switch over from film.

The life expectancy of these early SLRs is 40,000 to 50,000 shots and we made it to 58,464, the last 10,000 without autofocus, but still making great automatic exposures of everything from flowers to oceanscapes, from people to fireworks.

I'm fiercely loyal to something that's served me so well, and it still sits on my desk with the black finish worn in spots and the dust showing in a few corners. Though it won't turn on anymore, it never let me down. Even the last shots before the error message came up and the LCD blanked out for the last time, were keepers. Shown above, a few of my last thousand-or-so pictures. Below, just out my bedroom window on an August morning, picture number 58,452.

Walking at night

2010-08-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's just about impossible to get a good picture of people walking at night. Even my fellow gallery photographer who just bought a many-thousand-dollar camera that can reach ISO (sensitivity to light) numbers of 100,000 or something astronomical says so.

Still, I had to try.

I tried with a flash, without a flash, with a tripod, without a tripod, with a high shutter speed, on automatic, with close-ups, with distance shots, with a Nikon and with a Canon.

But the most important thing wasn't getting the picture. The most important thing was the walking at night. They were doing it, as others around the country have been doing it, to raise money to fight cancer. Many of them had friends with cancer, many of them had family members, some of them had survived the devastating disease themselves. The little votive candles in bags along the way honored those who couldn't be there and wouldn't.

But spirits were high and determination was evident as they walked and walked, doing something -- anything, to try and help win a war that's seen some victories and wants to see more.

I honor those who are fighting the fight. Those who raise money for it and those who fight it with everything medicine has to offer and every hope faith can bring.

Keep walking.

Caught

2010-07-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have looked at these pictures many times, but only just now -- a year later -- noticed the bee making a be-line (bee-line?) for the flower.

I could not have caught that moment if I'd tried.

Rather, it caught me.

Happily ever after

2010-07-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

It has to be a first. And I congratulate the writers of the recently released movie, Knight and Day, for breaking the mold.

For once, in a romantic comedy/adventure romp, the wedding went ahead as planned. No flattened wedding cakes, no musicians with emotional problems, no brides changing their minds at the last second, no embarrassing in-law speeches, no lies being admitted in front of the masses, no ruined dresses. Whew. And yeah.

It was the dress part my daughter and I were worried about.

Early in the movie, Cameron Diaz tries the bride's maid dress on, gets several compliments, then manages a chase scene or two without a spot of dirt. Still, when the bombs are dropping and everyone's running for cover on the island, we know it can only be bad news for the dress, which we'd earlier seen her tuck into a black handbag.

And while our husbands were watching the action ("what handbag?"), my daughter and I were watching the black handbag with the dress as it escapes with its owner in a helicopter and ends up someplace in Austria.

I can't tell you more without seriously affecting the many surprises in the plot, but I'll just say the short wedding scene was such a relief I didn't mind the destruction that followed every other place they went and every other vehicle the two touched and every other person who might have been a threat.

Weddings are ruined way, way too often in movies. And those of us who've been in them or who've tried to make them perfect for those we love have a hard time seeing the humor in their ruination.

Seriously, did any woman anywhere laugh when Matthew McConaughey crashed that beautiful wedding cake in that movie about girlfriends? Or why couldn't Sandra Bullock have come clean with the family before she was at the altar in that movie about US/Canada work permits?

I'm all for drama, but let's give the 50 percent of the audience who thinks weddings are dreams come true a little breathing room. Sigh.

Speaking of weddings. I attended a perfect one just last Saturday.
Congratulations Maria and Rich!!

The picture tells the story

2010-07-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't ask the girl sitting on the floor with her crutches about what happened. But I think I know. I think that maybe just the day before, or maybe just a few hours before, she was one of the girls standing in front of the windows and dancing. And maybe she slipped or maybe she landed wrong or maybe she was hurrying somewhere too fast and tripped on something or someone she didn't see.

But she didn't go home. She's still there, watching, learning, waiting until she can join in the kicking and cheering. And in the meantime being disappointed.

I've tripped before. Not maybe the kind of tripping that requires crutches, but the kind that means something you tried to do didn't work. Maybe even you failed.

So you have to sit and watch other people who maybe weren't so clumsy or unlucky, and hope you learn what they're learning, even though you're sitting on the floor.

And then you get up and do it all again. Because it's no fun sitting on the floor. And even when there's always that possibility that you're going to tumble again, you know you just have to get up and dance.

Perspective

2010-06-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

Perspective is something you get from observing. From looking all around you and reading things and talking to people and hearing what is being said and noting what is being done.

But perspective can change when you go to a different place or look at things through different eyes or hear different views.

That happened more than once on my trip to France, when observing and hearing and noting and talking opened up new ways of doing things and new ways of seeing things or in other words -- a new perspective.

Just one example:

My fellow students taking morning French classes were from Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy and Hungary. Thankfully, most already had a second language down and that was English, so we occasionally reverted to conversation in English when we wanted to communicate faster on more complex subjects.

One friend from Austria asked me why we in America make such a big deal out of personal issues. Tiger Woods' infidelities had just surfaced, and private indisgretions of public officials had recently made big news.

We don't discuss our public officials' private lives, she taught me. There is an unwritten rule among the press that you just don't go there, she said.

Her perspective made me wonder about the perspective I had grown up with and seen and heard and read and felt was normal all my life. It made me wonder if perhaps there might be better ways of doing things than the ways we're so accustomed to we don't even question.

It's good to go someplace besides where you've always been. It's good to see things through others' eyes -- even if they're looking back at you.

Clearing out

2010-06-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

I hope someone found the perfect shell I walked past on the beach. I didn't pick it up myself. Nor did I pick up the colorful rock or the broken sand dollar (above) (which also has beauty, as you'll know if you read my first book, "In This Together"). (These book references are my weak attempt at marketing. But if you're interested, the books mentioned in the two most recent posts are available at http://www.capestocanyonspress.com/) (see, there is hope)

It's probably the first time I've left those little treasures to others and there's a reason.

It's time to divest. To unload. To clean out. To lighten up.

I've been collecting over the years. Not just shells and rocks, but pottery and paintings and cards and games and books and old receipts and office supplies and magazines and cassettes and souvenirs and napkins from showers and frames and state quarters and vocal and piano and violin music and little lighthouses and shirts and vases and cute jelly jars and such.

Fortunately, each new house has generally increased in size, so things could accumulate without becoming a safety hazard.

But it's time. Because I'm over 50 and all this stuff is making me feel heavy and causing me to wonder what my children would do if they inherited it, which wouldn't be pretty.

I have a hard time clearing things out for a number of reasons.

1. I remember where I got them.

2. I remember when I shared them with my children.

3. They're cute.

4. Someone gave them to me.

5. Someone might want them.

6. I'll need them as soon as I give them away.

The first thing to go were the signatures from my first book -- the proofs before printing began, which had been rolled up for 12 years and 2 moves because someday I might want to look at them again. Or maybe someone else might want to. But 12 years proved me wrong.

So now they're in the recycle bin, where they hopefully will remain until Monday when the recycle truck comes by.

Not everything that heads towards the door actually makes it out.

But my newfound resolve, which will be accomplished in baby steps over years, baby steps like not picking up a new shell and not holding on to something that has not been needed forever, will be possible if I just tell myself:

1. Clearing my house will clear my head.

2. Giving to charity will help someone have something they might not otherwise afford.

It would help if someone out there could think of a few more reasons to balance out the ones for hanging on. I'm still a little weak in the knees about it all...

When the testing stops

2010-06-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

A young woman I admire surprised me about a week ago when I asked her about school.

Those of you who've read my memoir about substitute teaching, "Keep the kids away from the power tools," know how often I have been surprised by comments from young men and women.

It keeps happening.

When asked about how the last weeks of school were going, she said something to the effect that there wasn't anything to do now because the testing had been completed the week before. Nothing to fill the last week. Testing was done.

Can I just say here what I didn't say then, that: YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A TEST TO LEARN SOMETHING.

I hope it's the students and not the teachers with the no-test-no-need-to-learn philosophy. I hope the teachers manage to find information so interesting or facts so fascinating that the kids maybe just start learning for the fun of it.

And then keep learning, not only when the tests are done, but when the classes get out. And not only when the classes get out but when the graduation is behind them. And not only when graduation is behind them but always.

You're never too old. You're never too smart. Learning can be done anytime and anywhere. Just for the fun of it.

Signs

2010-05-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

There are little signs of oldness I'm seeing in myself.

You don't want to know what they are.

You've heard about them.

Those of us my age are even older than the president of the United States and that hasn't happened to us before.

But when I see people who I'm just sure are older than me, and see that they're still active and still having fun and still in love and still enjoying the moment, I know that you can have signs of oldness -- with style.

That's what I hope to do.

I don't even know these two people, but I like them:

Imagine

2010-05-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Imagine waking up to a sky this colorful. Imagine seeing a wave this big.

Imagine tasting oranges this sweet.

Imagine listening to music in a setting this perfect.

OK -- I didn't taste the oranges. Just couldn't. But everything else was beyond belief.

Little moments. In the sky, on the sea. With people, with the things people create.

Little moments. Big treasures.

Life.

New eyes

2010-05-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

I'd already walked from Notre Dame to the Marmotten Museum, which is miles and miles. And when you count the time wandering around gardens and cathedrals and museums along the way, you can add even more miles and miles.

So I took the subway to l'Etoile (Arc de Triomphe) and then headed east on the Champs Elysses.

And for a minute, I wasn't thinking of taking a picture.

For a minute, all I could think about was finding a place to sit down.

So I found one and sat down. And then I thought of taking a picture again.

And that was thanks to one of the museums I went to. It hadn't been on my list, but a tip from my professor in Antibes brought it to my attention. It was past the Louvre and across the way from l'Orangerie, just at the northeast corner of Place de la Concorde.

It was called Jeu de Paume and it had some unusual contemporary art and some old black and white photographs from Paris and the Cote d'Azur and New York and cities west.

It was the old photographs that were most interesting to me. They were taken in the 1930s by Lisette Model, of people in the act of living. And there was a quote on one of the exhibit walls that most struck me. It said something like, "You can see what people are like inside by looking at them outside when they don't know you're looking."

The quote was actually much better stated than that, but that's the gist of it.

I've been an avid candid photographer for as long as I've been a photographer, but mostly in the family setting. I liked thinking of it more broadly and as I sat on a bench across from the Promod store, I found fascinating people to photograph without giving up my seat (but having to move over a couple of times so more weary travelers could share it).

Here they are:

Thank you, Pierre. And thank you, Lisette.

Ups and downs

2010-04-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

There I was, giving directions to the Picasso museum to a French woman -- in French.

It was a little victory.

Another one came when the taxi driver in Nice told me my pronunciation was better than most Americans and then asked why I was learning French anyway because most people from the US are too practical and business-oriented. That may not have been a compliment to some, but it was to me.

That might have been it in three weeks.

Two sweet moments mixed in with a bunch of embarrassing ones like the time pretty much a whole busload of people knew I was hopelessly lost after a woman finally understood where I was going because I said it IN ENGLISH because no one could understand my French and she hollered for the bus driver to let me off in between stops because I was very far from my destination and getting farther by the minute.

I won't list the other times. It would take too much space.

But two victories are enough to give hope. And the other moments were enough to provide motivation.

And what could be more fun than learning a new language and traveling in a foreign country and asking directions -- and giving them?

Sending messages

2010-04-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about travel -- as about life -- is meeting people and enjoying their take on things.

One of the interesting people -- and everyone was interesting -- I encountered on my most recent expedition to France, was in a place I least expected.

It was my last week abroad and the only museum in the area that wasn't closed for repair that I hadn't visited yet was a little spot off a little rue called Le Musee de la Carte Postale.

No Chagall, Matisse, Renoir or Picassos here. Those were in the surrounding neighborhoods and towns.

But in the two hours I spent in the two rooms that make up the museum, I learned history, culture, art, science, humor and anthropology. I learned about inventions, politics and careers as well, courtesy an interesting gentleman with a passion that was contageous.

With few exceptions, the cards were over 100 years old. He had the first postcard ever printed, the first card with a photograph, the first cards with color. He had 100 cards of early Paris, cards with flowers, cards chronicaling school children, cards featuring everyday life for women, cards about men, cards with families, cards with flourescent coloring, cards with moving parts, cards with surreal art, cards that pop-up, cards with mini records, cards with mini bags of salt from the Great Salt Lake (still being sold) and mini bags of copper from the Kennecott mine (no more), cards from Russia, cards from Japan, two-dimentional cards that require a separate contraption to look through and cards that -- when collected as a series -- make up a puzzle of Napoleon. And he had them much better organized than this list.

And I could go on.

There's something about being around someone who delights in something so much that he's made it a life's focus, that's inspiring. And there's something to respect about someone who then wants to share his passion with others every Tuesday through Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. for 3.50 euros.

So if you're ever in Antibes with a few hours to kill ... don't miss the chance to enjoy a whirlwind tour of science, art and culture from someone who collects it in antique postcards.

But don't just enjoy the postcards. Enjoy the collector who shares their histories, their politics, their interpretations. Sometimes there's as much to learn from the messenger as the message.

Temporary home

2010-04-17T13:58:00.001-07:00

Three weeks is almost long enough to feel more like a local than a tourist.

Probably not long enough for the locals to consider you anything more than a tourist, but it might take years for that, if ever.

Still, I started feeling like a local the morning I walked to school in the rain with my umbrella along with students of all ages, and the afternoon I sat in a sun-drenched courtyard next to a centuries old fountain and had a salad with goat cheese, along with those who seemed to know the menu by heart.

Here are a few views from the first couple of 21 incredible days in Antibes:

Heading to school on a wet morning.Lunch in the courtyard.Grocery shopping.

Afternoon entertainment.

After sunset stroll on the ramparts.

First photo

2010-04-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Monet painted this spot. Victor Hugo called this a city where all glows, all flowers and all sings. Picasso lived and created in the castle that's part of the tower at right.

Antibes (pronounced On-teeb) is truly exceptional. It was a feast for the eyes, for the mind and for the soul.

More of the Cote d'Azur to come...

A bientot

2010-03-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's been over 30 years since I first began my French studies with two years of college-level instruction in the north wing of Old Main at USU. It was a small class, less than 10 students who made it through those two years, and we got great instruction from our professor in pronunciation and literature, though I don't remember a lot of conversation -- something likely unusual today.

In those 30 years, I've kept trying to learn, considering my language study a bit of unfinished business.

I've listened to tapes, I've filled out workbooks. I've taken community ed classes, I've hired tutors. I've bought grammar books, verb conjugation books, learn-French-in-10-minutes-a-day books. I've read from novels translated into French, I've listened to CDs while driving, I've invited college students over to converse, I've listened to movies in French.
Of all the hobbies and projects and interests that have come and gone in my life, this one can't seem to go. I loved my geology classes at USU, and my history classes, even my physics class was fun for one semester until trigonometry got involved. Each of these interests I have successfully put to the side over the years.

But not French.

I don't know where my interest came in the first place -- was it the Christmas music of Gisele we grew up with? Was it loving the art of Monet and music of Debussy? Was it a French name? Was it a love of the castles and cathedrals of France? Was it the beautiful sound of the mellow language?

I can't say I really understand why I haven't given it up on it yet either -- is it because I want another excuse to travel there? Is it because learning a language makes me more sympathetic to the struggles of those new to America or those who converse with tourists in multiple languages? Is it because I want to show that Americans really are more broadminded than some people think? Is it because I want to delay Alzheimer's and would rather not do crossword puzzles?
Whatever the reasons that led up to it and have kept it going, this passion is about to take a new plunge -- studying French in France.

Call it reaching out towards a goal. Call it fulfilling something on the bucket list. Call it an adventure. Call it craziness.

I'll see you later...

Around the corner

2010-03-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

Guide books seem to be rather a necessary evil. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them.

Yes, it's good to know if a museum is closed on Mondays or the road to the beach is only accessible by jeep, but I'd rather not know about the hike that goes across private land and might be trespassing but you should do it anyway. Or the hike that requires you to climb a 20-foot rock wall with a rope before getting to the stream you have to swim through to get to the waterfall -- or at least I'd rather my husband not know about it.

Everybody on the Big Island recommends a particular guide book, and it has helped us tremendously in finding good beaches and even knowing where on each beach to find the best snorkeling. Imagine our surprise when it recommended Costco pizza in the restaurant section.

Sometimes it's almost scary the detail and accuracy involved, and leaves too little to be discovered. In looking for a lunch spot on the north end of the Big Island, we read of a bakery that got a low ranking because the selection was limited and the people were unfriendly and it closed for an hour at noon. We spotted the bakery and, since the book was a few years old, decided we'd try it out anyway. Sure enough, the selection was limited, the people were unfriendly, and the sign said it was closing for the lunch hour.

Sometimes we see everyone with the guidebook tucked under their arms eating at the same restaurant, and sometimes we have to eat at that same restaurant. Because it says to. And you just get in a habit of following the recommendations. But sometimes we go for something different.

And that's the secret to using a guide book. Use it but don't let it use you.

Talk to fellow travelers or better yet-- locals -- and see what they like to do. Try a restaurant not listed. Catch a sunrise in the very spot it recommends a sunset. Wander around the corner to see what you can find on your own.

It's the secret to more than just travel.

Here are a few discoveries from our last trip. Things not mentioned in our guide:

And no, I'm not telling where they are. You'll have to discover your own surprises.

Somebody's gotta say it

2010-03-06T08:16:00.001-08:00

It's not such a bad thing to pay taxes.
Really.
I know, we're all walking around saying how awful it is we have to pay all these taxes and how the government is taking such a huge chunk of our money and how it's going to get worse.
But look at what we're getting for our money:
Thirteen years of school per child.
Police protection.
Roads around town and across the states.
Fire stations with all the latest equipment just down the block.
A military.
A space program.
Libraries.
The Smithsonian museums.
Head Start.
National Parks.
And yes, federal leaders looking out for our best interests.
Yes.
Do you know how many people in the world don't have those things? Those protections?

We Americans have been known to be a very generous people. Trouble in Haiti -- we're there, or our money is. Trouble in Europe in 1940? In Afghanistan in 2010? We're there -- or our money is. Not to conquer, not to control. To help and to free.

My guess is if our neighborhood didn't have fire protection, for example, and someone came to us and said: would you contribute to buying a fire truck so we can protect ourselves -- my guess is we'd give willingly. And if it turned out our neighbor couldn't contribute as much because he made less and had medical expenses besides, we'd be willing to pay more than an equal share.

So, taxes are just that. Contributing to a general need in relation to your ability to contribute.

And if our government comes to us and says: we had to help some businesses to keep the world economy from collapsing, wouldn't we be willing to pitch in and help?

It's easy to see it as an outsider. Take Greece. The government is trying to control its financial problems by lowering expenses and raising income, and the people are in revolt. Can't the people see that the government has to do that for the country to stay solvent?

Can't we see it?
Come on, America. Let's get past the petty, pouty, "give me this and give me that but don't make me pay for it" mentality.
Let's be willing to contribute to the whole. And let's do it with grace.

Shared experiences

2010-02-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

I will never know what it's like to fly a commercial airliner from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Or to captain a 43-foot fishing boat in the waters off the Big Island. I'll never be an Israeli living in San Francisco or a loud but friendly Kentuckian wintering in Hawaii. I'll never work in Hilo for four years and then move to Kona or drive for two hours in the middle of the night and then hike for another before dawn to catch a perfect shot of lava at sunrise.

That's why I love to talk to people who have done those things.

I learn about automatic landing capabilities and layover schedules, about using mackerel for bait and about squeezing lemon on a papaya. I learn about vog and skin problems and photo techniques and favorite haunts.

I'll never be a lot of things. But I hope I meet a lot of people who are.

All the news that's fit to print

2010-01-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

First, you must all know my bias:

-- I have a degree in journalism.

-- I worked for a newspaper up until the day my first child was born.

-- I am working for a newspaper now that my youngest child is twenty-something.

-- I start every day reading a newspaper.

Second, you should know why I believe newspapers are the best place to get the news:

-- They select the news based on its substance, not its video.

-- House fires and car accidents are on B3 rather than being the lead stories.

-- You can choose which articles and/or sections to read in detail and which to skim.

-- You get more than 3 minutes per story.

-- Two words: Local news.

--More words: City council meetings, school board boundary decisions, high school football games that you think might not be interesting but that should be. As well as the stuff we all know everyone reads: murders, violence, arrests. Plus the features on latest studies, successful students, awards, and on and on and on -- every day.

-- The ads are less intrusive and can be easily avoided.

-- Reporters don't have to be cute.

-- Less pervasive teasers.

-- More in depth information -- and you choose how much you want to know of each topic.

Finally, you should know that I consider one of the biggest tragedies of this economic turndown and electronic upswing the loss of so many newspapers.

We need the news. We need to know about what the city council is doing and what new businesses are in town and what's happening at the high school.

We need reporters. They'll tell you the things the government won't volutneer in case we might object. Permit me a common feeling held by members of the press: they're the fourth estate. They keep watch over the other three.

We need newspapers. We need to get more than the ranting of pundits on cable and the joking of comedians on the network and the rudeness of anonymous posters on the Internet.

If you agree with me on any point, please consider:

-- Subscribing to a newspaper.

-- Buying something from someone advertising in the paper and letting them know you saw the ad in the paper (yes, it comes down to money).

-- Paying for the news you read on-line when asked.

You'll be glad you did. We all will be.

(Pictures above are from some World Ward II editions of a newspaper in Kaysville that went out of business years ago.)

Feeding the soul

2010-01-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

I hate to call them weeds. They're too pretty. But they do live at the side of the road and I kind of doubt anybody planted them and I'm right sure nobody tends them in any way.

You don't have to go far, whether in winter or summer, to find beauty. It's there after a snowstorm, it's there in a frost, it's there in a sunrise or after dark.

And it feeds the soul. If you stop long enough and let it.

I like to let it.

Exploring

2010-01-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

It hasn't changed with the new generation.
The preference remains the real over the artificial.
Just feet from the plastic toys and child-proof books, the tree and its colors and smells and prickliness and dangling ornaments is the most fascinating.
And that's good.
Unless you get to the dirt in the flowerpot before grandma does. And get the dirt into your little mouth for a taste before grandma washes your little fingers.
Still, it's gotta be how we know textures so well. When we see dirt, when we see the branches of a tree, we know how they feel, how they smell and how they taste because once we were almost one and touched and tasted them.
And hopefully our mother said something like "so we're one with the earth, are we?" to forgive our grandma.

I'm all for the real.
For the national parks. For the family gatherings.
For limiting screen life.
For talking rather than watching.
For the exploring and hiking. For the touching and tasting and living and experiencing.
There may be prickliness, there may be dirt, but that's the real stuff of life.
Reach for it.

Something new

2010-01-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

For the third time in my almost four years at the gallery, we just held what we call our "out-of-the-box" challenge.

As you might guess, it's a charge to break out from the normal routine and try something new.

My friends at the gallery bring a new dimension to my life. The way they see things in the world and find beauty in the grand and the miniscule, in color and in value, are just a few of the ways they open my mind.

One of our founders, a sweet, dear woman, told recently of how she was cleaning her stove top but had to stop because the designs made by the cleaner and the dirt were so interesting she had to get her camera for a picture.

Some people think out of the box all the time.

So, as before, this month's challenge found one who usually works in two dimensions trying something in three. One who normally paints in precise detail tried something impressionistic, a pastel artist tried spray paint, a oil painter applied a smashed soda can to a worn board.

I tried painting.

And it was pretty scary.

Here's what I started with:
And before I show you how it ended, let me just say I know.

I know I'm not going to be an artist with a paintbrush. I was always in music classes and didn't even get the training that most people got in junior high and high school.

And I'm not patient.

And I'd rather be doing other things.

Like taking pictures.

But I'm still glad I tried the challenge.

Because now I know how hard it is to mix the right color. How hard it is to get the right angles and capture the right feeling. How hard it is to get the brush to do what you want it to do.

Now I know how hard it is to put something out there that you gave your best creative juices to and have people analyze it or criticize it or walk by it.

Now I know why great art is so great.

Just so you'll know:
And when you're through laughing, just let me say that doing something out of the box -- taking a different route, trying a different flavor, excercising a different muscle -- is a great way to start a new year.

It opens your eyes. It makes you glad for people who do things better than you do. It makes you appreciate things you hardly noticed before. It makes life even more interesting.

Gifts

2010-01-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

One of the great gifts in life is people.

They don't come brightly wrapped in packages with ribbons and bows, but they are gifts just the same. And when one takes time to get to know what's inside the packaging they do come in, life becomes richer in many ways.

This Christmas included time with people who are interesting and funny and who are leading lives of worth. It also included correspondence from people I haven't seen in ages but still admire and still want to learn about.

Each person is a book. Each brings experiences I'll never have, but can learn from through the things they share. Each conversation is like reading another chapter and brings a new way of seeing into my life, making it richer and fuller.

All my love to all who have shared a part of themselves this Christmas. To the friend I first met in 1980 who took the time to e-mail, to the former neighbor who shared her husband's frightening diagnosis, to the ones who traveled in difficult circumstances to get here -- love and thanks for who you are and what you share. You are my gifts.

When you're cute...

2009-12-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

...there's no such thing as a bad-hair day.

A walk on the beach

2009-12-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

The anticipated ice storm and snow didn't come, so we were able to make it out to the Coast from Portland without any problem last weekend. And then the sun shown all day. And at evening, the cloud bank stayed just enough to the south and east that the sun was able to peak out before setting. And the tide being out made the beach all shimmery with reflections. And this is what happened:

These colors are all as captured by my camera. I made no changes. Credit goes to the Creator.

'Tis the season

2009-12-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

....to write so many lists you need a list to keep track of your lists.

....to be thinking of so many disparate things that you forget one very most important thing.

....to stand in line at the post office and the grocery store and the photo lab and tell yourself that this is all part of the season you're happily sharing with those really slow people in front of you.

....to wonder how you were ever busy before, when you didn't have wrapping and shopping and decorating and sending to do -- just cleaning and cooking and picking things up at the store and volunteering and working.

'Tis the season to turn on the holiday music really loud and sing along with whoever's singing and remember that everything you do at Christmastime is going to make someone happy. And that will make you happy too.

Here's a happy picture:

Here's a happy verse I wrote some years ago and attached to a Christmas cookie cutter, to help my friends, similarly yoked, with their holidays:

I can shape the holiday, I've all it takes to start
The decor, lights, the treats and gifts are only just a part

I also have a family whose joy I want to feel
And faith to know the Savior's birth makes celebrating real

The shape of every busy day is largely up to me
I'll start with prayer, set steady goals, remember He taught peace

I know the Savior knows my needs, to follow is my choice
That on this holiday to Him, I can, with all, rejoice.

Love to all!

When they're down

2009-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

The only way to get noticed is to mess up.

I first noticed this at church with organ music.

Organ music is just there, like light fixtures and carpeting, until something goes wrong. Hit a sour note and everybody looks up to see who's playing. Even if you've played 239,647 notes right, the one's that's wrong gets the attention.

This, I would tell a friend organist commiserating over a goof, is why it's OK to mess up on the organ now and then: To get noticed.

But there's messing up and there's messing up. There's accidentally messing up and there's stupidly messing up and there's intentionally messing up.

And the news has been full of all manner of messing up lately.

Take the local quarterback, whose post-game tirade has sucked all the glory out of hard-won victory. It was stupidly messing up and it's what people are talking about and remembering more than his game-winning touchdown.

Take the party-going interlopers who thought it would be a lark to crash a White House dinner. Their intentional mess-up is probably not bringing in the kind of attention they'd sought.

Take Tiger Woods, who messed up in all three ways, and do with him what you will. I can't look anymore.

The rhetoric is tiring. The ugliness depressing.

It's a kick-em-when-they're-down culture we've become.

If everybody could just all go through life and not mess up....

But since we can't apparently, maybe we should just let people fix their own messes without our nosy interventions and maybe we should just admit that sometimes we mess up too and maybe we should try and remember where possible, those other 239,647 notes.

I hear the White House dinner really was quite nice.

Finding the good

2009-11-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

My computer was in the fix-it shop for SIX DAYS last week. Six VERY LONG DAYS.

Things you can't do when your computer is in the fix-it shop:

--Find out who is sending you messages via e-mail and assuming you got them.

--Watch Office episodes you'd missed.

--Confirm that the local theater company mispronounced Jean-Francois Millet 1,000 times during its play.

--Get the agenda of the Kaysville City Council meeting.

--Broadcast your family news to the family newsletter.

--Find out what the stock market is doing at any given second and why.

--Get directions to your next appointment.

--Draft letters and stories for various assignments.

--Download pictures and send them off to interested parties.

--Locate hotels for future travel plans.

--Post new blog entries.

Things you have to do instead:

--Wait in line at the library with mostly pre-teens, for your turn at the computer.

--Get all your Internet business done in 30 minutes due to library rules.

--Listen in on the couple next to you at the computer, who are trying to get a $20 gift card for spending $100 at Walmart by yelling at managers on the phone, while sitting at the library computer.

--Clean your desk at home.

--Clean the drawers in your desk at home.

--Clean your toenails at home.

But, as with every trauma in life, good comes of trial. And this good comes just in time for Thanksgiving. Now, in addition to my usual appreciation for home, family, food, health, church and country, I am thankful for:

--Computers

--Phones of all types

--Cars

--Planes -- so, so grateful!

--Cameras

--Furnaces

--Men who fix computers

It's a great time to be alive!!

Oh, and could I add ... sunsets?!

Out of kontrol

2009-11-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

The world would be a simpler place if "cat" started with "k" and "knife" started with an "n" and "face" was spelled "fase." At least in English-speaking countries.

Why do we even have a letter "c" anyway? And why does "s" sound like "sh" in sugar?

I'm not sure how all these variations on exceptions came to be (kame to be), but they never really bothered me until I started teaching English to someone from a totally different culture with totally different language experience. And no writing or reading at all.

How on earth can one teach the differences of the shapes like b and d and p and g, when they're so similar in looks with such a minor variation in sound? Couldn't somebody have come up with symbols that were easier to distinguish?

This falls into the ever-enlarging category of: things I can't change because they're out of my realm of control.

Things like winter coming before you're ready for it.
Or health-care legislation that takes reams of paper to print when all that really needs to be passed is law #1 -- everybody has to have health insurance and law #2 -- nobody can sue doctors for more than $x million.
Or like oil refineries that are eye-sores and safety hazards to your community but that got there before you did so you're stuck with them.
Or like effects of aging that are no fun but better than not aging.

When things are out of your control (kontrol), you just have to go with the flow. That's the lesson that I'm giving my friend from Somalia along with the English lessons. As I try to show how letters become words, like how "b-o-w-l" becomes "bbboooowwwwllll" by sounding it out, and then how "c-u-p" becomes "cup" by sounding it -- oops doesn't work -- I just shrug my shoulders and shake my head and smile and say, "funny English."

That's all you can do sometimes. Shrug your shoulders, shake your head and say, "funny world."

Lights of Massachusetts

2009-10-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Take an ocean and add a lighthouse and you've got something pretty exceptional.

There are many who are inspired by the beacons that have meant safety to seafarers over the years. I count myself among them.

Many thanks to Kraig of http://www.lighthousefriends.com/ for guiding us to these Massachusetts lights:

(The top three are of Eastern Point Light on Cape Ann from different angles. Those below are Cape Ann (Thatcher Island) Lights, then Annisquam and then on Cape Cod: Nauset and Highland. On Nantucket island: Brant Point and finally on Martha's Vineyard: Edgartown Harbor Light, East Chop Lighthouse and Gay Head (Aquinnah) Lighthouse.)

By the numbers:

Massachusetts lights -- 62 (as near as I can tell)

Those we saw -- 20

Those we saw at sunrise -- 3

Those we saw in storms -- 4

Those we went in -- 2

Those we were close enough to touch -- 8

Those we saw from the sea or across a harbor -- 9

Every setting was different, every light was unique. Every one perfect in its own way.

These too

2009-10-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

The moon had perfect timing that night.

Just because

2009-10-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Just because I like it.

History and Literature

2009-10-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

You get a lot of history when traveling in New England. History that celebrates discovery, revolution and independence.

One day in our travels the history largely revolved around literary figures, their homes, their writing and their inspiration. That was the day we started in Salem at the House of Seven Gables made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne and ended at Walden Pond, Thoreau's inspiration.

In between we saw Orchard House, home of the Alcotts; The Wayside, home at various times of Hawthorne and the Alcotts and Margaret Sidney; and Emerson's home.

The most fascinating thing of the whole day? For me it was a comment on an informational sign in the house where Hawthorne once resided. I haven't been able to confirm it, but it struck me.

It said Hawthorne was a bit of a recluse at times and that when one of his books got bad reviews, he gathered up the copies he'd given to his friends and burned them all.

That just does something to me. Me, who can't throw away an interesting article or give away an old shirt. Me, who doesn't sell many books but keeps writing new ones anyway. Me, who can't take 20 steps in a new place without taking a picture of it and can't delete even the bad ones because someday I might want to see things from just that angle.

Because you can't relive it. Or rewrite it. Or recapture it.

So you have to embrace it. Imperfections and all.

Even if no one else does.

Top: The House of Seven Gables

Above: Orchard House

Below: The Wayside
Below that: Emerson's home

Above: Replica of Thoreau's temporary home near Walden Pond.

Below: Walden Pond. (I bet he didn't stay in much.)

He does too deserve it.

2009-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

He didn't ask for it and was the first to admit he doesn't feel worthy of it, so it's just plain wrong that President Obama's getting the drubbing the world is dishing out for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Especially when he does in fact deserve it.

Yes, so he was nominated early in office, but those making the decision have had these nine months to consider it. Perhaps in that time, they have seen what I have seen:

--Steps have been and continue to be taken to close Guantanamo, a blight on American belief in freedom and justice.
--The missile shield program that caused such tension with Russia has been dropped.

In addition, Obama has been seen:
--Reaching out with rationality to the world's Muslims.
--Meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders (remember Bush waited seven and a half years to address that issue).
--Speaking candidly to the UN about what America can and can't do.
--Being willing to talk to leaders of rogue nations (Bush just called them names).
--Pulling out of Iraq to the extent possible.
--Taking a long time to consider the ramifications of an Afghanistan build-up.

Wasn't there even something about shutting down more of our own nuclear arsenal?

Why didn't anyone think of these things before? Doesn't each lead to peace?

I applaud Obama's efforts to use diplomacy and to go where others have not thought to go.
I applaud the Nobel committee's decision.

I believe all these moves will in fact lead to greater peace in our crazy world.
And I hope all those criticizing will take a step towards peace as well, by letting it go.

East Coast views

2009-10-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Imagine my surprise, when... ...on rising early to take pictures of the sunrise at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts...

...I spotted a lighthouse across the harbor from the dock where I was shooting.

That happened again and again as we explored New England's capes and islands. Lighthouses of many sizes and colors and signals popped up with sufficient frequency that even a buff (or "nut" as some call it) like me was inspired from sunrise to sunset.

There's something about a lighthouse. Its dramatic presence, its history, its guiding light, its security, its promise.

I never got tired of photographing them -- this one alone from many angles -- as we passed it heading out on a ferry......heading in on the ferry... ...heading off for dinner... ...even having dinner.And a couple mornings later -- more still.
Yes, we had a great time in Massachusetts.

And we saw beautiful things.

And we took many photos.

And this is just a start.

Around the world just down the street

2009-09-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

It was possible this summer, to go around the world without leaving the neighborhood. Bountiful's Summerfest International allowed us to enjoy a bit of Hungary (below), Spain (below that), South Korea (you get the drift) and beyond.

(OK, so these girls aren't dancing right at this particular minute -- they are enjoying my photographs -- also a trip around the world -- so here it is.)

Music from South Korea (above -- OK and now I've confused you) and Salt Lake, art from Africa and Arizona and food from Equador and Hawaii, enriched those who attended, without requiring so much as a passport or a hotel reservation or a wait in a security line.

Kudos to those organizers who brought so many talented performers from so many far-away places to Utah for our entertainment and education. And kudos to them for -- probably an even harder job -- getting so many of us to the park to enjoy this taste of culture and art.

An aside:

A few of these pictures and many, many more of many and varied places by many, many other photographers, have been submitted to a fun enterprise sponsored by Media One. Media One, the company that coordinates Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News circulation and printing and such, is putting together a book of Utah pictures by local photographers. You can submit your own or vote on those that have already been submitted for inclusion. It's a fun site to wander through -- many exceptional pictures of beautiful places, people and events in Utah. If you want to take a look and vote -- now's the time -- through September. Kinda fun to see what's happening in the state, and kinda fun to think your vote might impact the outcome of a book (that you can also buy!). Check it out: www.capturemyutah.com. Another chance to travel!

Passions

2009-09-15T07:59:00.001-07:00

Is it the end of civility?

First we have citizens heckling Congressmen. Then we have a Congressman heckling the president. Then we have a musician embarrassing a musician at the same time as we have a tennis player verbally attacking a linesmen.

And I didn't forget the football player who punched out the other football player. That I consider a natural extension of his "game." When you are taught to wipe out the opponent for the entertainment of others and the aggrandizement of the group you represent, it is understandable that you might forget that you can only do it at certain times when wearing certain gear.

But when the challenges come from a Congressman, a musician and a professional athlete, things are getting out of hand.

Is this something else we can blame on global warming? Or eating non-organic food? Or our attention deficits and depressions? Or the vitriol virtual medias now spew out and then feast on?

It brings to mind a telling moment at a family reunion a year or so ago.

A group of adults were sitting around visiting when a little spat unfolded between two toddlers. One had a built-to-size lawn chair and the other decided he wanted it more. The original owner begged to differ. As the argument heated up, an adult stepped in and suggested a sharing arrangement. When that didn't go over, another adult stepped in and suggested taking turns. Neither child liked that idea so yet another adult rounded up a second chair and considered the issue solved.

But it wasn't.

Because now they both wanted the second chair.

Continued efforts by many and varied adults didn't solve the problem. We were helpless, all of us, as we watched the passions of toddlers supercede any logical solution. We knew only distraction and ultimately the wisdom of years would bring the problem to resolution.

Kind of like I feel today. An observer who doesn't quite get why there's a problem and has no idea what to do about it.

What is going on out there?

When is everybody going to grow up?

Being impressed, being disgusted

2009-09-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Things that impress me about the actions of the new president of the United States, Barack Obama:

1. He took his wife to a play in New York City.
2. He met up with his family in Paris during a business trip.
3. He looks at his wife with affection when they dance.
4. He took his family to national parks for a summer trip.
5. He took his family to a quiet retreat and had his staff ask the media to leave them alone together for a while.
6. He told fathers they have a responsibility to the children they father.
7. He walks his dog.
8. He apologized and tried to make amends after saying something stupid -- or should I say "stupidly."
9. He doesn't give up on a goal just because the opposition intensifies.
10. He lets Congress write the laws, just like the Constitution says Congress is supposed to do.
11. He cares enough about school children that he took the time (and hassle) to challenge America's youth in one of the most inspiring talks with some of the greatest insights and best encouragement ever, showing understanding and sensitivity and confidence in their abilities and a faith in their future.

Things that disgust me about some citizens in the United States of America.

1. They get riled over the President of the United States taking his wife to the theater in New York.
2. They get perturbed over some expense issue regarding the first family's trip to Europe.
3. They talk cynically about the president's attempt to clear the air with individuals in a racially-charged dispute.
4. They exaggerate to the point of absurdity the issues being debated before Congress.
5. They bring up nonissues beyond belief like place of birth.
6. They take exception to an address to school children in America by the President of the United States.

I think it's all these talking heads on all these cable channels, making mountains out of molehills. I think it's wild Internet postings. I think it's crazy radio talk-show hosts. I think its racism. I think its close-mindedness.

I think it's time for everyone to hold on to their hats and put on their brakes and open up their eyes and get a dose of what matters and what doesn't and when something wise is being said and when someone duly elected is providing leadership.

And in the meantime, everyone can get a shot of good old fashioned wisdom that is just as likely to bring a tear as it is to bring renewed hope and dedication from:
www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-in-a-National-Address-to-Americas-Schoolchildren

Speaking of showing what you're feeling

2009-08-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

This young man seemed to take exception to the music of the Spanish troupe performing at Bountiful's Summerfest International.

Perhaps he thought his father felt the same way.

Center of attention

2009-08-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

For a couple of weeks this summer, all our entertainment revolved around one 13-pound bundle of life, our six-month-old grandbaby. It wasn't necessary to go to movies or play games or watch TV or read books. We only sat and watched and photographed her expressions, her reactions, her frustrations, her celebrations.

This is a good way to spend an evening.

Babies are different from older people because they haven't yet learned what we need to teach them. They haven't yet learned that you're not supposed to cry when you get hungry, you're not supposed to get fussy when you're tired and you're not supposed to pull away from someone you don't yet like.

Everything they are thinking and feeling shows on their face and in their actions.

And it's entertainment at best, education at even better.

You know if she likes you, or if she hasn't decided yet.

You know what she thinks of green beans.

You know when she's curious. And you know when she's unsure of what to think.

She'll learn to keep a straight face when served a food she doesn't like. She'll learn to keep her frustrations in check and her smiles polite. But until then, she sure is fun to watch.

Does anyone else find it odd...

2009-08-12T14:09:00.001-07:00

...that it took $5.7 billion-with-a-B to support volunteerism in America?

It was hailed as a bipartisan success because both senators Edward Kennedy and Orrin Hatch supported it. And then President Obama signed it.

And while I can understand the need to give banks money to keep the financial system from collapsing and I can hope that the money given car makers will keep car dealers and car-part makers in jobs, and while I am willing to allow that money given to first-time home buyers and old-clunky car drivers might help things along in the flailing economy, this is one I don't get.

It seems to me, if I understand the definition correctly, and I think I do because it pretty much describes a major part of the last 28 years of my life, that a program to support volunteerism should cost ... $0.0 billion.

Or at least -- even with government supervision -- $5.7 million-with-an-M.

In the sand

2009-08-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Somebody was trying to send a message to God and thought the beach would be a good place to do it.

I can see their logic. Vast, open space where anything new garners attention, easy writing utinsel in a stick, good writing surface in the sand, and a finished message that faces directly to heaven.

You somehow, at some point, start thinking about God when you're at the beach anyway. Its vastness brings eternity to mind, its perfection makes you wonder about creation, its magnificence helps you know somebody put it there for you.

And so instead of writing John loves Jane, or building a sandcastle, someone wrote a short little note to God.

Here's what it said:

God,
Thanks for everything.
Please don't give up on us.
Love...

At the beach

2009-07-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know this woman. But I know a little bit about her.

I know she's too unsteady to swim or wade in the water. I know her skin's too sensitive to get a lot of sun. I know she doesn't want to miss going anywhere even if it's a little harder to do anymore. I know she has family that love her enough to help her down the rocky slope of the beach. I know she's not too timid for the icy cold waters of Bear Lake. I know she knows how to relish every moment despite any limitation.

I don't know this woman. But I like her.

Baby duty

2009-07-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

My brain is only working at one-third capacity this week since two-thirds of it is being taken up with my new responsibility: taking care of my six-month-old granddaughter while her parents move from the West Coast to the East Coast (they've got a job, found a place and are moving in as I write -- yeah for new adventures!).

One might think taking care of a baby is easy -- especially after one has done it four times in the past -- and very successfully, I might add. But it has been 22 years since my last foray into full-time mothering, and while I've found giving baths in the sink and getting that little spoon into that little mouth at just the right time has come back like riding a bike, I've also found that the associated worries and time limitations have come back as well.

Now my brain is focused on these questions: Is this a tired cry or a mad cry? If I pick her up will I spoil her or will I reassure her? Is she scratching her ear because she has an ear infection or because I inadvertently got a bit of water in it during bathtime? Should I let her sleep as soon as she rubs her eyes or should I get her on a schedule?

I've already called my neighbor the doctor once.

If I take a shower now will she wake up and start crying and I won't hear her? If she's finally asleep should I get everything done around the house that needs to be done or take a nap too?

I learned long ago to enjoy cold toast -- as long as you butter it before it gets cold, and to never, ever put milk on cereal. And I'm totally fine loading laundry with one hand while holding baby with another.

But I'm being reminded of a few more things I maybe forgot, or maybe missed the first generation around. And as I watch this new little miracle -- the baby of one who was once my baby -- it is a sweet to share in her discoveries.

Things I long ago stopped hearing -- like the rustle of leaves in the wind -- get her rapturous attention. Things I long ago stopped seeing -- like a car that rushes by -- are a fascination. Things I long ago stopped putting into my mouth -- like tablecloths and plastic storage lids... things I long ago stopped running through my fingers -- like the nap of a carpet -- are all new and interesting. Her new little eyes, ears and hands are an example to my old ones.

And when she puts a hand on each side of my face and nuzzles her forehead into mine, when she smiles at my smiles and tries to tell me something in her own little language, we make the greatest discovery of all.

Expanding your horizons

2009-07-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Photo workshops are for expanding your horizons and learning new techniques and being inspired by other photographers and going to beautiful locations and catching incredible shots.

All of that happened and more at my second workshop in the Olympic Peninsula. Earlier posts include shots from before and after the workshop (see "On the way") and sights in the town that was our headquarters for the three-day session (see "I am not making this up"). The shots below were culled from hundreds I took in the five locations we explored as a group. Along with the pictures are the lessons learned -- not necessarily all lessons that were taught -- but those that became evident in the moment.

Sol Duc Falls morning: Patience. Only a few of us were left on the trail by the time the sun made it through the trees and mist to warm this scene. I almost left too -- about five times -- but kept coming back thinking it was almost time -- until I caught this. Yes, the lights are blown out and the darks are too dark, but it's still an incredible scene. And I learned that photographers call these bursts of light, "God rays." I like that. And I liked waiting and earning them.

Ruby Beach sunset: Find your own space. There were about 15 of us, but very rarely did we see the same shot. As we arrived at a beach, we soon dispersed to all corners and spent the hours finding beauty in a place very different from the next person's take. I moved up off the beach for this shot through imposing Washington firs. It was a calm, colorful sky that night. We all got great shots -- each one as different as the person who took it.

Hoh Rain Forest morning: Look closer. We were surrounded by tall, tall trees, moss hanging down from every branch, ferns growing in the moss, on the ground, in the trunks; mushrooms, pinecones, lichen, birds. The rain forest was full of life. You could stand in one spot and be overwhelmed by the richness whether looking up or around. Then you could bend over and look at one little spot and be overwhelmed that something so grand was made up of tiny somethings so individually perfect.

Ruby Beach sunset: Stay steady. I'd left my tri-pod in another spot when this shot presented itself. Despite the example of my fellow photographers, I tended to wander rather than set up and wait. And despite their raised eyebrows, I took this shot without the support it would have been wise to have. But it worked. As did the F-22 aperture setting with the sun. If you're not wise, at least be steady.

Rialto Beach morning: Never be done. I was headed back to the car, needing to get started on the four-hour drive to catch my 1:30 p.m. flight from Sea-Tac. Time was of the essence and I'd already pushed the limits by getting up for the sunrise shoot at a beach 12 miles further away from the airport. But not only did I stop here, I stopped at a river along the way, a bridge, a pond and a lake. This shot ended up being my favorite at this beach. After wandering far down the shore looking at drift logs and seastacks, arches and gulls and eagles, I found the best shot when I was almost back where I'd started. Never be done. And never miss what's behind you. Or what's right where you started.

After winter

2009-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

There was just one little blossom on the stem when I planted my pansy last year. But it was a pretty little blossom so I put in it in my window box with a few other little blossoms and hoped it would be happy.

The summer was hard on it. Or maybe it was me. The unrelenting desert sun and dry heat, combined with my unpredictable watering and frequent travels, left it struggling at times, though valiantly blossoming at others.

And then came winter -- a cold, hard winter, freezing temperatures and deep snow that could only have been very hard on my already-stressed little pansy.

Imagine my surprise then, when spring came and there was green sprouting in my window box. And imagine my delight when those little sprouts turned into big, healthy masses of pansy blossoms.

I can't help but wonder if it was surviving all the tough stuff that made that little pansy stronger and more beautiful. Did it find something inside that helped it hang on through the dry and then the cold? Did the quiet time of turning in to heal build even greater determination? Did the time to reflect, away from the bright lights of life, help it celebrate even more the beauty of sunshine and warmth?

It makes me think.

And gives me hope.

And makes me wish the same for one who is in the middle of her own private winter.

Latest studies

2009-06-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I read it in TIME or the DesNews or on-line or Atlantic Monthly or Family Circle or, yes, AARP magazine. But I'm not worried about not remembering where I read it anymore. Because what I read was pretty much that forgetting things is all in your mind. Yes.

There was this scientific study where they divided old people -- the youngest of whom were actually as old as me -- into two groups and gave them tests. The first group was told that this was a test of how good or bad their memory was. The second group was the placebo group -- they were told the test was about a subject that had nothing to do with memory but that I can't remember now but I'm not worried about not remembering it anymore.

So, the group that was told they were having their memory tested scored worse -- probably because they were so sure they were old and had a bad memory. You may need to read this through a few times before it makes sense.

But the study made sense to me. When you forget a word or a name, you are so busy thinking, "I forgot that word or name because I am now old and old people forget words and names and it probably means I have early-onset Alzheimers and pretty soon I won't remember my kids names because I've already forgotten their birthweights and I'll likely be in a home soon and people will come to visit me and then tell their friends funny stories about all the silly things I said when I couldn't remember who they were or what they were talking about."

And with your mind going in that direction and beyond, it's no wonder you can't remember the word you were working to remember. You probably can't even remember why you wanted to remember that word.

I've tried to adjust to this logical scientific finding. When I can't think of a word, I now try to focus on the word rather than my future in a nursing home. And sometimes then, I even remember the word.

I love it when studies tell you something you want believe but didn't dare hope. They've even come up with one that says chocolate is good for you. Yea for science.

On the lighter side

2009-06-16T09:22:00.001-07:00

Spotted in recent travels:

But this, from the top of Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii in 2006, still wins: