Simple Beauty

I have been trying to organize my photos so that I can access them with greater ease.  Now the problem with this is that I get lost in the process... lingering over photos of yesteryear's when my children were toddlers... or pictures of my life with my brothers and sisters when I was the grandchild... or shots I have taken of, "who knows what" and where in the blazes was this taken?"

This organizing task has gnawed away at more of my evening hours than I ever expected it would.  And I am the gal who likes to check things off her list.  Lingering tasks deplete my energy and send me into that crazy, obsessive, driven place.  Not a healthy reaction.  I am able to recognize this insanity now and give it what it deserves - another thought.  The practice of changing my thoughts has served me very well.  It's amazing what we choose as our truth.   What really blows my mind though is that we can actually change (really, atomically alter) the atmosphere around us by changing our thoughts.  It's a physics thing that I don't fully understand, but I have done it enough to know that it works for me.

While traveling through my files and files of photos I discovered some wonderful forgotten pictures of art that I had taken in Wyoming.  They are fun, colorful and simple.  They made me smile and like the many of the other photos I was organizing, these reminded me of the joy of genuine expression. 

Self Portrait of Cautious

Animal Kingdom

Stop and Smell The Roses

Healthy Choices

Flowers Flowers Everywhere

Hope Springs Eternal

The following photos are shots of my five-year-old grand daughter and pages from her journal.  Her mother struggled over the decision to send her to kindergarten.  She turned five two weeks after school started and her mom knew that her emotional attachment to family and her being so young could make kindergarten a nightmare instead of a delightful right of passage.

As it turned out Sparky did go to kindergarten.  The first two weeks were very, very hard.  Sparky and her mom cried every day. 


But as good parents do, my daughter made changes that gave Sparky the security she needed to attend kindergarten and not only come to enjoy the experience, but excel in a manner no one ever expected.



I will let the following journal pages speak to her growth and transition into time away from her familiar home life.

I find it amazing that Sparky not only knew how to write and made bold attempts at spelling words, but that she would write about her feelings... her frustration with her sister, her feeling of sorrow over moving from Walden and being separated from family in Oklahoma and her joy of friendship. I don't know if Sparky changed the atmosphere for her, but she surely did for me. 

May you experience simple beauty this day.  If needed, I hope you can change a thought that does not serve you well.  I wish you courage to genuinely express what you are feeling.  I hope it freshens the air you breathe.