Lilies

When I bought a pot of Calla Lilies yesterday, it was a whim. We were shopping in one of our favorite Publix Supermarkets and there the lilies were. They were absolutely beautiful.

I decided to get a pot of them and take them home to photograph. At one time, I would have thought this an odd thing to do, but it has become quite common place around our house. So, this morning, after a sunrise shoot, Mitch and I both spent some time photographing the lilies.

Here is one of my efforts. I hope you enjoy them. I hope that they give you the lift in your spirit that they did for me.

'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not,
neither do they spin:
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
~ Matthew 6:28-29

White Egret at Ding Darling

These are such stately birds when they are stalking along the shoreline. We see them frequently near our home on Lake Seminole. However, this image was taken at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. I like the clean look of this image. Just the bird and water. I do certainly wish I had gotten all of his tail.

Valentines Day

A friend gave me a lens set to go with my new Lensbaby (a type of camera lens). I then went to the store and bought a pail of red tulips to practice taking pictures of, with my news lens set. I had a great time. Tulips to me are one of the signs of Spring that lift my heart. Taking pictures of tulips with a new lens from a friend – well, what a great time.

Thinking of friends and people I love brought me to this coming weekend.

Valentines Day is this coming weekend. This is a difficult day for many people. There are those who have never found that special someone to be with, married to, engaged to, or just “in love” with. There are those that may have found that someone but lost them, perhaps in death (we went to a funeral today and there have been several losses of friends in the last week). Perhaps that special someone they love is far away, I think of our men and women in the military or in service to the Lord as missionaries. There are so many reasons to be away from a loved one. Then there are those who are divorced, not by choice but whose marriage fell apart due to things they could not control.

Valentines Day is a “Couples Day.” And it can be very sad.

However, if you can learn to love yourself I believe you can be alone and be okay. I found the following quote today:

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. ~Wayne W. Dyer

I have not learned this yet. I still sometimes do not like myself. I still sometimes think I am too . . . Though; I am more comfortable in this skin than I was as a young woman.

My Valentines greeting to each of you is:

Find yourself and be pleased with yourself. In essence, love yourself.

Buy yourself some tulips and enjoy the day!

Bit off more than you can chew?

Do you ever have days when you seem to have bit off more than you can chew?

I sure do.

When we were at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, I caught this picture of a Woodstork that had grabbed a hold of what looked like a Gar fish. In subsequent pictures the Stork actually ate the Gar. However, for a bit there it looked like a toss up as to who was winning.

This is how I feel sometimes in life. I get a hold of something, it looks good. It looks like something I want to eat or something I want to do, something I want to have, etc. Then I realize that it is much larger or more difficult or more time consuming or more expensive than I had thought it would be. And there I am, holding on to it because I can not or will not let go. What gets in the way? I truly want it and do not want to let go? Or maybe pride gets in the way? Or maybe stubbornness gets in the way? Maybe, just maybe, I do not know how to let it go, but I want to.

For some reason, I do not think I am the only person that does this. Do you want to know how I deal with it?

I have learned to pray about it. “God, is this really something I am to do? Is this really something you want me to do? Lord, what should I do with this?”

Sometimes, I get answers . . . right away. Sometimes, I get answers . . . but after I have learned the lesson that goes along with teaching. In some cases, I am still learning and have not yet had an answer.

Just a few thoughts to share, hopefully you are better at dealing with such things than I.