The lamppost...

With the soft light and the snow falling, I became totally enamored by this lamppost the other night.

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On another note: I stumbled onto Leo Babauta's blog titled: Zen Habits. This guy's outlook on productivity and organization is phenomenal. He seems to have a knack for reducing things to the simple. One of my problems with organizational systems is that I very much dislike too much structure. Especially complicated structure. It seems like the struggle is to reduce complexity and still keep the details that are truly needed.

I immediately implemented some of his ideas into my work flow and my life. I have mixed feelings about his "Culture of free". But I like a lot of his stuff enough that I am linking to his web site. Enjoy.

Leave the light on...

You've heard it, you've said it.

Today is link to another persons blog day. I was reading Kim Peterson's blog, and I ran into an older post that had some photos from her coverage of the memorial ceremony for the tragedy at Virgina Tech. Sure it's old news, but I was deeply moved by the photos. Check out her blog post:

Sometimes you have to cry

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I am going to be setting up some links to various blogs and websites that I like and that are, or were, an inspiration to me. I will be introducing them as I add them, so stay tuned.

A new title...

A great deal of my thinking last week was occupied by the questions of what I wanted to change about this blog. At one point, I even thought about deleting the whole bloody thing. In the middle of my thoughts, I received an E-mail from an old friend which talked about life providing a few "...windows for reflection...". He further said that, "...I always have very strong reflections when I look at your photography and read your writings..."

I thought to myself, "Self, what more do you want to do then touch people through something inside of themselves?" More then anything else, I want people to connect to the person that is deep inside of them. Their true, and better self.

It reminds me of the story of Narcissus as it is told in the The Prologue of the book, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Narcissus falls into a lake and drowns while looking at his reflection and admiring his own beauty. Later, as the Goddesses of the Forest speaks to the lake, the lake replies:

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

When I walked into the Trisha Romance gallery and saw her paintings, they touched some of the deepest parts of my own soul. That is what I want this blog and my photography to do for you, the reader. So this blogs new title is Windows for Reflection, and hopefully that is what I can turn it into.

Shadowland...

This was taken at the edge of the Mississippi River, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. There was a little park alongside of the river and I spent the late afternoon and evening there. Very nice place. Very peaceful, although a bit sad and dark for me at the time.

I read yesterday in a book where the author said, "The happy man is a hollow one." I don't think that is always the case, but in many cases, happiness seems to lead to complacency. The author argued that today we look at sadness as an entirely bad thing that needs to be medically treated. He further says that by not allowing sadness to have it's place, we rob ourselves of many great things, such as our finest art.

For me, some of my finest photographs were taken at times when I was troubled, desperate, or sad. Sometimes I was just reflective, or perhaps a bit melancholy, and other times, I was really disturbed. And on rare occasion, I was ecstatic. So embrace the feeling that life has brought to you. If it is sad, feel the sadness. Every drop of it.

We seem to need opposition in order to inspire us to be our better self.

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On another note, I'm thinking of revamping my blog. I'm not quite sure what changes I will be making.