The History Of Us
History. It tells us a lot about where we’ve been, and sometimes where we might be going in the future. Many of us tend to ignore it, or tried to just squeak by in school, and then never really giving it too much thought after that.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th President of the United States and the youngest President ever elected. There have been a lot of theories about who assassinated him that day in Dallas, TX but there has never been an absolute answer. We may never know.
I was at the grocery store yesterday and I picked up a copy of Time’s 100 Photographs The Most Influential Images of All Time. I love books and magazines like this and I have collected quite a few over the years. [A dear friend started me down this path of “photo books”.]
A lot can be told about our lives through photographs, especially the last 150 years. Imagine photos taken that long ago where there were wide open empty spaces; no houses, no lights, no cars, very few people! Photographs exist of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address. That can be mind boggling when you think of it. 1863! That’s 160 years ago. Want to be even more blown away? How about the earliest known photograph to exist? 1826! I feel sorry for the guy that had to sit there for 8 hours without moving!
Photographs have also documented our wars, from the War Between the States, to both World Wars, Korea, Viet Nam, and continuing up to today. They show the tragedy, heartache, death that war brings mostly to innocent people. It shows our history. History from all over the world. And shows how vulnerable we all are, and that we are all humans.
Photography doesn’t just chronicle us; it chronicles our lives and struggles, poverty and affluence, births and deaths, good times and bad. Photography takes us to the stars and to the underwater depths. It shows us the amazing and the shocking. It makes us laugh and cry. And what is so fantastic about photography today is that it now can be shared with the world via the internet.
So, you see, photography IS history, whether the images are produced by the most expensive cameras that exist or by that little communication device we know as our cell phone. A piece of us, and our lives, and all that gather around us, from peace to wartime, our pets, animals in the wild and in our backyard, the stars above and the ocean depths – it all becomes the History of Us.
Posted in Photography, Reflections and tagged history, jfk, photographic history by Jason with no comments yet.
The Star Spangled Banner
We see it every day, the flag of our country. It’s displayed in yards across America, at schools, the Post Office, government buildings, hospitals, cemeteries, and other establishments. And it is always displayed at the White House and our military bases at home and around the world. It’s just there; it’s become a part of us, our every day life. But we probably notice it most often when the President orders the flags around the country to be flown at half staff, meaning half-way up [or down] the flag pole. And you will notice, too, that the flag is the background of this blog, a photograph that I took while visiting a National Cemetery.
We don’t know exactly who designed the first flag, although many historians think it was New Jersey Congressman Francis Hopkinson and sewn by Betsy Ross.1 We do know that it had thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, and thirteen white stars on a blue background; the stars signifying the new 13 states which before had been colonies. And the rest is history, as they say.
So, where did the song “The Star Spangled Banner” come from? It is from a poem that Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 [the War of 1812], although its original title was “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, when seeing the flag still flying at dawn after a night of the British bombarding Fort McHenry. The poem was so popular that within a week it was suggested the words be sung to the tune of “Anacreon in Heaven”2, a popular song at the time and then becoming known as “The Star Spangled Banner”. In 1931 it was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America3, 117 years after Francis Scott Key wrote the poem.
Over the course of history our flag has undergone many changes as the national flag, but always with thirteen stripes, and then white stars on a blue background. On August 3, 1949 President Harry S. Truman declared June 14th to be National Flag Day4.
But, as we all know, this is one of the hardest songs for the majority of us to sing. Those high notes….oh, those HIGH notes! Many people have suggested an alternative, any alternative, to The Star Spangled Banner, but would it evoke the same emotions as The Star Spangled Banner? I think not. Even if we can’t sing it, we become just a bit more proud of our country when we hear it, maybe even becoming a bit choked up and teary-eyed. The song and the flag together just symbolize to us the best free country in the world and, as in the founding of this country, we will defend that flag, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the freedoms it gives to us, until the end.
For me, probably the most definitive rendition of The Star Spangled Banner is when Whitney Houston sang a pre-recorded version of it in 1991, backed by the Florida Orchestra, for Super Bowl XXV. [Yes, she apparently did lip-sync it! but it’s still incredible!] While this is my choice, I’m sure that you will have your own favorite version, one that you might lip-sync to – just as I tend to do!
Yes, I know this has nothing to do with photography, but then, this is my blog and it doesn’t always have to deal with a camera and a subject. ? Unless, of course, you really enjoy taking photos of our flag!
“O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets’ red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,
O’er the Land of the free and the home of the brave?“
And forever in peace may it wave.
1
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/long-may-it-wave-the-evolution-of-the-american-flag/francis-hopkinsons-claim
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner
3
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/03/star-spangled-banner-becomes-us-national-anthem-march-3-1931-432140
4
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/proclamations/2841/flag-day-1949
Posted in Holidays, Personal Thoughts, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Where did the time go?
Boy, I just realized how long ago it had been since I posted anything. Time sure gets past you when you’re busy.
There’s not been any major happening in my life. I have taken some photos, but nothing very spectacular and a lot of them I haven’t even taken the time to upload them to my laptop. And I have been using both my cameras for photos, so there is quite a few there. And really, I haven’t even taken the time to review them. That’s pretty sad, you know?
I did get a chance to spend two weeks in Florida at the end of April and the beginning of May. Most of that time, however, was spent visiting friends and my other two dogs. Our wee little Lexie Starbright has been ill for a while now with renal failure, but she is somehow managing to hang on and when she sees me she just perks up like there was nothing wrong with her. I guess it’s that “daddy” thing. I did take quite a few photos of her, but those are on my phone and I haven’t transferred them to my laptop yet [sound familiar?]. I also got photos of Sasha Bean, but again, on my phone. Those I do review often. I haven’t gotten the chance to see much of them over the years, but I love them so very much. I know both are getting to the age where time is limited and they will have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. For pet owners, that is a mixed feeling day; you know they are no longer suffering, but it is hard to let them go. And it will be very hard saying goodbye to them from a distance.
BUT….it is Summer time! Time for photo buffs to get outside and take those photos! Right now, though, here in Texas, not such a good time to do that because of the excessive heat we’ve been having the last few days. However, it won’t last and we’ll just go back to our regular hot days – the ones we complain about and wish we had cooler weather until we GET that cooler weather! But there’s still lots to take photos of regardless. Grab those cameras, or your cell phone, and snap away at the kids swimming in the pool [and maybe the dog in the pool with them!], or those flowers with the bees zipping from one to another, or maybe you can try to snap a humminbird getting a drink of nectar. I say try because it isn’t the easiest to do even for a professional photographer! My friend Peter lives in Idaho and a year ago he was taking macro photos of insects which were stunning to say the least. But then, with the encouragement from a friend, and a new lens for his camera, he moved on to our nation’s bird, the eagle, and he got some really spectacular photos! Lately, he’s been capturing owls, and let me tell you, I am j e a l o u s! Now I’m trying to get him to put a book together of some of his photos. We’ll see!
So, look around and see what there is to see, even if it’s buildings, or cars new and old, flags, signs, whatever is around you. I once took a photo of signs in my neighborhood that were a bit strange. When you first turned into the subdivision you were greeted with a sign that said Speed Limit 30 MPH, which in itself was really funny because the distance from turning in to the subdivision to the stop sign was about 30 feet. And then there was a sign about children playing, or something like that because there was an elementary school across the street along with a baseball diamond. THAT sign was across the street from the stop sign. Take photos like that and have fun with them.
The whole purpose though IS to have fun. If it’s not fun, obviously don’t do it!
In the meantime, here is a photo of my little guy Roby just before we left the dog park, one of his favorite places to go. It was taken just a couple of months ago. I hope that you enjoy it!
Roby Lincoln
A good job dog – who steals socks!
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Pets, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Genealogy
We always tend to think of our photography as just taking photos of our kids, friends, landscapes, water sports, other sports, etc, but there is one area of photography that most people don’t think about. That is in the field of genealogy. Now, if you’re interested in genealogy you know that you cannot post your living relatives’ names or photos online; this is for security reasons. You can, however, post photos of your deceased relatives along with their name and birth and death date. And, you can post online their headstone.
One of the biggest helps to genealogists are grave sites and cemeteries. Lots of people have taken their cameras and headed out to cemeteries and kindly photographed the headstones of the people buried there. They then upload them to this fantastic website, Find a Grave. Find a Grave has helped millions of people find their long lost deceased relatives, which has helped connect them to other relatives, basically “filling in” their own history. I am one of those people.
I had a sister born five years before myself who died at four months old. I didn’t know anything about her until I was in my early teens and I was upset that I had not been told about her. She was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and there wasn’t a facility in our area able to take care of her, so my parents made the very difficult decision to send her across state where they took care of her for around 2 – 3 months and at the time she died. I have an older sister that told me that she only knew that she was buried somewhere across the state. [I can’t imagine my parents not bringing her home for burial, but they didn’t.] My older sister was only 2 at the time so she didn’t know a lot of the history, and I never really pursued the whole reason with my parents at the time I found out about her. It was a subject that just wasn’t discussed, most likely because of the pain my parents understandably felt.
But, over the years I felt so incomplete because I knew about my sister, but had no closure. Before Find a Grave I did a lot of searching online when genealogy sites started popping up, but there wasn’t any information about my sister. In 2013 I had major back surgery to fuse my spine and have rods and pins put on either side and in my hips; I was born with kyphoscoliois and with a partial C1. I spent four months in the hospital and rehab learning to walk again and how to take care of myself with my new limitations. And then….
In December 2014 I decided to check Find a Grave. Mind you, I had been to that website many times but looking for other relatives, but not my sister; and I did find quite a number of relatives burial sites. I put my sister’s name in their search engine along with the state I knew where she was buried. To my shock and to my surprise there was her headstone! But her first name was entered incorrectly, and I could understand why – the lettering on the stone did make it look the way it was entered. I contacted the photographer/person who uploaded the information and they kindly edited the information. But, I couldn’t believe it! I found my sister! I cried and I weeped and cried some more. For me, my family was now complete because of the woman that went out and took photos of a cemetery. And just in the last few days I was able to find her death certificate at Ancestry, making my information on her completed.
So, after this long discussion and personal information, you can see how your camera can be useful in other ways. Even if you’re not a genealogist, you can help other people by taking photos of headstones, especially if you have a relatively unknown cemetery in your town.
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Reflections and tagged Five a Grave, genealogy by Jason with no comments yet.
Remembering Lily
Lily. LilyCatherine. LilyCat. Kennel Cop.
Our little Independent dog born on the 4th of July.
Little Lily came to us as a rehome. We said we would find a new home for her, but we decided she would stay with us and be part of our family. I’m glad we did.
This cute, funny, charming little Yorkiepoo had a way of wrapping herself around your heart before you knew what was happening. Oh, how she loved to play “escape artist” and she was very good at it, too! And when she managed to escape she was so proud of herself she danced around in circles egging you on to chase her. You see, Lily had a very bad case of separation anxiety. It didn’t matter if you were standing on the other side of a gate and she could see you. Oh no! She wanted to be on the same side of the gate you were on. And there was one style of gate she figured out how to climb and get across. She was smart! The first night we had her we put her in a crate at bedtime, but she wasn’t having any of it, and next thing we knew she was up on the bed dancing around! Back into the crate little one. Nope! Didn’t take but 30 seconds and she was out again! The third time, though, was too much of a charm and darling Lily got her foot stuck in the door and I almost had to break her foot to get it out. After that Lily slept on the bed with the rest of the crew. And let me tell you, if she ever got out the front door it was next to impossible to catch her – she was quick on those little four feet!
As charming and sweet and lovable as she was, she also could swear a sailor down to a whimpering mess at her toes. I don’t know where she picked up that language, but boy could she swear! And she would tell you off in no uncertain terms, too. She would swear until she spit, sometimes. Honestly!
All Lily wanted was to be loved. And she was definitely loved by everyone she met. That was the charming side of her. It was hard to not love her; the moment you saw her, you were hooked. But she was really conservative with her kisses, unless she wanted something. Of course, she would never tell you what she wanted, so you would have to guess. It was her game! I guessed a lot! I figured out her favorite treat was teeny Greenies. Perfect sized for her little mouth. She had a prominent underbite but she could chew things with the best of them!
I have to say that sleeping with her, once we were on our own, was a hit and miss thing. I kept a bed pillow next to me where she would sleep sometimes, but it was always special to wake up and find her little head resting on my shoulder and hearing her little “congested” snoring sound in my ear. Those were the times I hated having to get up because I didn’t want to ruin that special moment with her.
In the beginning we used to take “chair naps” where she would lay on a pillow on my lap for a couple of hours. And oh, how I heard about it when I would put another dog on my lap for one of those naps. After a while I got to where I would just hold one in my arms while the other slept on the pillow. It beat the cussing out!
As much as she liked to escape, she did not like going for walks. I hate to say, but I called her “slow as a slug”. It wasn’t that she wanted to take in all of the smells. Nope! She just didn’t want to go for a walk, either by herself, with Bentley, or with Bentley and a friend. Those walks were basically “carries”. She loved being out, just not out on a leash going for a walk. The best part of a walk with her was her getting back home. But, she did like one thing being outside …..sunbathing. And she really loved doing that, even in the heat of the Summer. I could be melting, but she was just happy sitting in the sunshine – until Daddy nearly would faint.
Kennel Kop. The vet learned early on that Lily was an escape artist and had to take extra measures to block her cage door so that she couldn’t open it. Nothing like looking around and finding a little Yorkie at your feet when you were sure she was in a cage a minute ago! I never saw it for myself, but the vet’s told me that Lily would “direct traffic” so to speak when she was there. It was probably more like demanding that she be paid attention to and wanted petting. Oh, she could be annoying, but heartwarming at the same time. It was hard to ignore her! She wasn’t tiny, she was small, but she had a very large presence in everyone’s life.
Shortly before Bentley crossed the Rainbow Bridge Lily was diagnosed with diabetes, and that meant that she had to have shots of insulin. Oh lucky me, because I tend to feel faint around needles. It did not get any easier for me giving her the shots, either. It had to be done, but it was not easy, even using the pen. Eventually I had to go to using syringes for her, but that was hard on both of us. She took it like the trooper she was, though. Especially since she knew a treat would follow. God bless her, she always held so still for me, making it just a wee bit better for both of us.
But, after Bentley crossed, a little bit of Lily went with him. Because I wanted to spend some time alone with him, Lily was at the vet at the time he crashed and had to be put down [remember, he had lymphoma of the spleen]. After he was gone we brought her in to smell him so that she would know he was gone. She was 12 at the time. And for her it was a slow decline afterward. So, while she had diabetes, her thyroid also decided to give up, so we added medication for that. And six months after Bentley left, her eyesight began to go, a result of cataracts, but she wasn’t a candidate for surgery, so over time she she became nearly blind as well.
I knew she was lonely, so six months after Bentley’s crossing I started looking for another dog, mostly as a companion for her, but for me as well. I thought I had found a Schnauzer at a rescue group and Lily felt very comfortable around him, even laying next to him while his foster mother and I talked. It wasn’t to be, though, I suppose because I live in an apartment. I felt so sorry for her because she had never got close to another dog like she did with him. So, I kept looking, and several months later Roby fell into my lap.
I think that getting a puppy wasn’t a good thing for her, but it was a very good thing for me. Roby, like any puppy, wanted so much to play with her, and I think she would have loved to have played with him if she could have seen him, but he was more of a burden to her instead. Even with two days a week at the “vet spa”, she just couldn’t really cope with him and I couldn’t get him to stop pulling her ears and tugging her around like a mop. Lily finally decided it was time to go find Bentley.
So, a year ago, our precious little Yorkipoo that looked like a Yorkie crossed the Rainbow Bridge leaving behind lots of tears and broken hearts. Oh, I have missed her so. I still look for her, and tear up when I think of her or see photos I took of her. A little dog that was bigger than life that only wanted to be loved. And I love her still.
Posted in Personal Thoughts, Perspectives, Pets, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
They Just Have to BE
Some might wonder why I made the post about September 11th. Well, it was two-fold. First, it was a reminder about the 20th anniversary of that horrible and devastating day. But secondly, which was never mentioned in the post, it was also about photography and videography.
Our first glimpse into what happened to the Towers that morning was through the news, which the majority of us watched on television. That was thanks to the journalists and videographers that were digitally filming the events that were unfolding. And then, too, were the digital photos from journalists but also from others with digital cameras. And probably the most recognized photo is of the Falling Man captured by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew. Other people also jumped from the towers that day and many were captured on video.
But, there were also many private citizens that captured the events digitally, on film, or on video. They recognized the importance of capturing these events for posterity, for history, for remembrance of how our lives changed forever that day. The images those people took that day are just as important as the photos taken when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated and when his brother John F. Kennedy, our President, was also assassinated. They tell a story – a story we can never forget, just as the films of the bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, and all the films we have seen of WWI, WWII, Viet Nam, Desert Storm, and the many wars in the Middle East. The stories that did change our lives forever.
Many of us will never be so “lucky” to capture tragedy, as if we really want to be there to do so, but now with the increasing quality of photos and videos on our phones, we can be there.
And so, my post on September 11th was fitting even though there was no mention of photography of any kind. Photography is our way of preserving history, whether we capture major events or just the events and people in our lives. Photography, whether by amateurs or professionals, is important Don’t throw away or delete your photos. Save them. Print them. Put them in albums for future generations to see. They don’t have to be award winning. They just have to BE.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections, View Point by Jason with no comments yet.
September 11, 2001
This year marks the 20th anniversary of that horrible, shocking, and devastating day. Some of you may remember that day; some of you were probably too little to remember that day. All of us, though, either watched in disbelief, were there in some way, or….. This year is not a celebration, per se, although we should celebrate the lives lost – who they were, what they did in their lives, and how they, the innocent, live forever in our hearts. And then, of course, we should remember those that were in the towers, terrified beyond belief, desperately wending their way down flights of stairs to get out and away with their lives. These people especially need our continued prayers and support, hugs virtual and real, because they grapple with survivor guilt and PTSD every day. We cannot, and should not, ever forget them. Nor should we forget the brave men and women in and out of uniform fighting to save lives and eventually recover bodies when possible. They, too, have suffered in unimaginable ways.
Know that this day, September 11, 2001, was like none in the history of our country, and God willing we should never know another day like it ever in our future. The days that followed pulled the people of this country together in ways we’d never experienced, even during WWII. This happened on our soil, in our house. We were wary, yes, but we also were a country of family. We BONDED together. Our music was patriotic and though flags flew at half staff there were flags everywhere showing the love we have for our country and our fellow neighbor. For a few weeks love surrounded us and protected us and if there was any hate, I don’t remember it.
So, this September 11th, remember and say prayers for the survivors as well as for those that lost their lives. And make note…..this is not a celebration, but a remembrance. We will never forget!
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections, View Point by Jason with no comments yet.
Gratitude – Thanksgiving 2020
I think we can all agree that since March 2020 this year has not been the best. Okay, it’s been awful, and that’s putting it mildly. It started out with a bang and full of hopes and goals, and then the bottom fell out with the coronavirus – COVID19. I’m not so sure that anyone thought this was going to be as devastating as it has been, or the number of people that have died around the world because of it. COVID19 became a pandemic quickly with no way to avoid it. As of this writing there is no active vaccine; in other words, you can’t just run out and be vaccinated against it as you can the ‘flu’. Vaccines are being worked on with three being very promising, but we won’t see them until next year, and between now and then hundreds of thousands more will have succumbed to it. Wearing a mask is about the only defense we have against this coronavirus, but so many people refuse to wear one for whatever reason. Despite this ravage, we have, or should I say I have a great deal to be thankful for.
Although I live alone here in Dallas, and my family is in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, I am so very grateful for them. My older sister, that I have only seen once in the last 25 years, and whom doesn’t talk with me now [for whatever reason]…I love her very much and miss her terribly. She has taught me a lot over the years, and we have shared a lot; our combined genealogy research found many ancestors and solved several unknowns; thanks to the internet we were able to share many places that we knew we’d never be able to go; and we shared photos that we had taken. We laughed, and cried, and commiserated with each other. I’m very grateful she’s my sister.
My three nieces, Carolyn, Wren, and Lindsay, their husbands and children, all very much a part of my life, although they, too, live far apart from me.
My friends, many of whom I consider family, not only those I have known face-to-face, but those virtual friends from around the globe. Each make a part of who I am, whom I have become, and all are important in my life.
I am grateful for all of the doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and medical technicians that have helped “fix” my body and keep me going, and those that have helped me transition to the man I have always believed myself to be.
I am also grateful for those in veterinary medicine that over the years have taken great care of my dogs; they have done so with caring and compassion.
I am grateful for those people that deliver our goods across the nation; the long haul drivers, the pilots of the skies, the train conductors, and those that deliver the mail across the country and to our mailboxes; and to those river pilots and captains of the seas that bring goods to us from overseas. Without them, our commerce would collapse and we would have none of the conveniences we enjoy today.
I am grateful for those that deliver our energy resources across the country and to those that work in the oil fields and ocean oil rigs risking their lives to bring this resource to us.
I am very grateful to a woman that over the years has not only saved my life on several occasions, but also has taught me a lot about caring, compassion, acceptance and love. Her job has definitely not been an easy one with me [at times], but she has hung in there at the worst of times and during the best of times. Without her the last 10 years I’m not sure where I would be, or if I would be at all.
I am grateful for having a roof over my head. It’s not a palace, but it is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and is filled with love. And I have enough to eat and enough food for my dog. I have not wanted.
There is far more that I am grateful for, but I would end up writing a chapter for a book that few would want to read. And, while I believe in God, and consider myself a Christian, I am very grateful for all that God has given me and the blessings I enjoy.
I look around and see that I am rich beyond belief.
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends, even if virtually. Blessings to you all!
Jason
Posted in Holidays, Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
In Your Own Backyard
Tin Woodsman: What have you learned Dorothy?
Dorothy: Well, I – I think that it – it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em – and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go looking any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right? -From “The Wizard of Oz“
Dorothy’s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own. We are always looking for something to spice up our lives, give us an adventure or two; the grass is always greener on the other side, so off we go in search of something bigger or better, more satisfying and rewarding.
As photographers, we are no different. Camera bag and paraphernalia in hand, we load up our vehicles, fill them with gas, and off we go, sometimes long distances, to capture that one photo that might be more satisfying and rewarding [personally or financially] than what we have already seen. I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future. But, like Dorothy, I have come to realize that many of my great photos [well, great to me, anyway] have been shot in my own back yard, so to speak, most within five to ten miles of my driveway. Oh, certainly they have not been the majesty of the Rockies, or the icy cold of Alaska’s glaciers or the humid banana groves of Costa Rico.
I no longer have the funds or the opportunities to travel to those kinds places so I am really glad that I was able to get some nice photos on those travels. However, now that I am limited, I am finding that I am rediscovering that thing that I had “lost” – the sights and scenes that are in my own “back yard”. Like many that are only able to afford “stay-cations”, I am discovering the personality of the towns around where I live as well as the town that I live in not to mention some hidden “gems”‘.
Last week I “discovered” one of those gems in Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for “injured, sick, or orphaned birds of all types” in Hutchins, Texas when I transported a bird to them from the Tri-City Animal Shelter [where I volunteer whenever I can] here in Cedar Hill. I did not have my camera with me at the time but I did ask about being able to come back and take photos of some of the birds and was told that it would be fine. I am looking forward to going out there sometime in the near future [when it is NOT so hot] and taking some photos, especially of the peacocks that are just roaming around.
Sometimes staying in your own back yard and discovering the hidden gems can be as rewarding as traveling across and around the country or even out of the country. Yes, definitely, getting the chance to travel to “exotic” places is rewarding, and gives a lifetime of memories, but even though you think you know all about where you live, oft times there is more to be discovered, more to be found.
All we have to do is look.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Celebrate the moment!
Live today as though you have never experienced it before, because you haven’t. Be amazed and awed by all around that you see; look at everything as though you were a toddler seeing something for the first time. What is there before us at any given moment of time is brand new and fleeting; you will never see it again, as life evolves and is a gift from God. Never take anything for granted, for what you have now may be gone in an instant. Listen to the sounds around you, the sights before you, the ground below you, and the heavens above. Celebrate the moment. What you see and hear you will never see and hear again.
Posted in Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.