« view 18: random thoughts and shots taken on a short 15-minute walk to clear my head »
One good reason to love winter: no need to get dressed properly, since a long jacket hides a multitude of sins.
It's so funny: I take these pictures of nature, and to an outsider, Houston looks wild, untamed and forested ...
... and yet right behind me, there rages this huge, nonstop, 8-lane highway -- the kind of thing Houston is really known for. It's all about framing and perspective, baby.
You know, now that I think about it, taking and framing these shots is sort of like meditation, or even just getting through life. It's all about focusing on the quiet and the calm and the beautiful, while the crazy and the ugly rages around you.
All these dead leaves and foliage -- everything is so inert. It's kind of cool. It also matches my mood: I'm just not in the frame of mind to write and to work. I just want to be still.
But maybe that's okay. Maybe that's the whole point of winter: for nature to lie still, inert, to get ready for the work of spring. Maybe I'm just in an inert phase right now, getting ready for the work of writing and creating again in the new year.
Song: Bad body double by Imogen Heap
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 12:01AM
Reader Comments (12)
you are so in touch with yourself. love it. what a wonderful quality.
I do love the stillness in these photos...and I think it's a good time for stillness in the creative life.
Sometimes life really is like a taking a photograph where how you frame it ( what ever " it " is ) will have everything to do with your perspective.
Beautiful photographs ... thanks for the walk on my coffee break from Christmas cooking.
It takes a true artist to see the beauty in everything. Your pictures are just like taking a walk with my kids, seeing things through new and unjaded eyes. Thank you for the reminder to stop and appreciate beauty everywhere.
aint that how our spirtis are...quiet and still, composed and serene while the outside forces jostle and tries to push its way in.
beautiful photo's as always, lady
Merry Christmas!
I definitely agree with you. I wrote about my word for 2010 being focus, for that very reason. Lovely lovely photos.
And you are totally ahead of me, I go outside improperly dressed on a daily basis without a coat. I wander in pajamas. hehe :)
I think I need to go take a similar walk in my urban 'hood. Awesome perspective/ head clearing. You're inspiring me.
these are lovely. you always cause me to look at things with fresh eyes. sometimes i get myself down, thinking that it's harder to get lovely nature photos because i live in the city. but you always remind me that there is beauty everywhere, if you take the time to look for it. i've also been feeling like it takes extra effort to create right now: like my soul is in hibernation and i keep having to gently coax it to get it to want to do anything. but maybe that is just normal. i think everyone feels like that this time of year. :) thank you. happy holidays!
Houston in December looks so much more alive than Michigan. We don't have trees, we have sticks in the air. We have snow, thankfully it's still the white kind, not the dingy snow of February. Everything is bare and still. It makes me long for a Houston winter.
i really need to go for one of these walks too...thank you for sharing! enjoy your holiday!