169/365 Pastoral

"Object Lesson"

Pastoral is not a word that describes life in the suburbs.  With no time to head out in search of "pastoral" I amended the prompt and decided that I might be more successful if I looked for serene as we walked around our neighborhood.

I suspect that you are looking at this picture thinking that it is neither pastoral or serene.  In fact, it isn't even a good picture.  All of those things would be true.  So why did I include as my picture of the day? For me, it represents an object lesson, hence its title.

I was photographing the flower.  (I did actually take several images of it that are technically pretty good.)  With this one, I think the wind blew the flower a bit and obviously my focus shifted.  It wasn't until I was looking at the day's images on the computer that I noticed first the moon and then the bird in this shot.  No, this is not a good shot of either, but perhaps it could have been had I realized that they were even in the frame.  That is the lesson.

Sometimes we get so fixated on what is right in front of us that we miss things that exist just beyond, things that may be equally or even more interesting or more beautiful.  So, I chose this photo rather than any of these others from today's walk because of its reminder to me to look and then look a little more.

This is the in-focus version of the above flower.

I'm sure there are those who consider the golf course pastoral.  I am not one of them, but I do love this tree.

I like the symmetry created by the reflection.

And, another flower.

Like I said, nothing even remotely pastoral, but all of this pictures are images of today.

168/365 Splash

"Uncontained Passion"

Today's prompt was intended to be a splash at the beach or pool, a picture of summer water fun.  That wasn't happening around here.  We did, however, have a brief afternoon downpour.  I grabbed a clear bowl and set it out to collect the rain.  I managed a few splashes as the bowl filled.

And yes, I'm obviously still on my quote kick.

167/365 Something Masculine

"Lookin' Macho"

Here are the two most important guys in my life giving me their best macho looks.

I'm not so sure about macho, but they sure are sweet!

166/365 From the Side

'Close Your Eyes, Mom!"

I am definitely not skilled at applying make-up, especially the overdone make-up that is necessary when one is on stage under bright stage lights.  I had to enlist the girls as both consultants as to what to do and then have the do the application as well.  It took both of them working their magic to get it done.

Today's prompt's title is a little misleading.  Though it only says from the side, the additional instructions are for a self portrait from the side.  Yes, it is that time of the month again.  I have to admit that I actually did not take this photo; Erin took it with my camera.  Putting on my own make-up and taking my own picture were way more than I could handle today - or on most days, for that matter.  I'm glad the girls were around to help me with this.  We'll just consider it payback for all of those diapers that I changed!

Note: It is not that we were intentionally trying to keep Brooke out of the picture.  She had an allergic reaction to hair dye and because her scalp and face are broken out, she did not want to be in the picture.  I wanted at least some of her visible to put the photo in context.

165/365 Stars and Stripes

"Tower of Solar Power"

Happy Flag Day, everyone.  

As you can see, this is not a picture of stars and stripes.  Despite the fact that I had a dress rehearsal tonight for a concert that consists entirely of patriotic music, I failed to get a photo containing stars and stripes.

This is a photo of Museum Tower taken from inside the Dallas City Performance Hall in the arts district of downtown Dallas.  This tower is at the center of a heated (both literally and figuratively) debate between its developers and the adjacent Nasher Sculpture Center.  Museum Tower is a forty story mirrored building.  It reflects massive amounts of damaging sunlight onto the artwork at the Nasher.  This is causing irreparable damage to sculptures both outside and inside the museum.  City leaders, representatives of the sculpture center and developers of the tower have been trying to come up with a mutually acceptable solution to this problem.  As of yet, they have been unsuccessful with this.

164/365 Sand

"Reach for the Stars"

North Texas is not exactly known for its sandy beaches.  And, today started with a 5:45 am call for Resounding Harmony as we were lucky to have a spot to sing on a local morning TV show to help promote our concert this weekend.  Then I had to teach and then go to the dermatologist.  With the way today played out, there was no time or energy to go hunting for sand.  This little cactus pictured above did, however, catch my attention.  Cacti grow in the desert.  The desert has sand.  Voila!  Connection made.

As you have probably noticed with several of my recent pictures, I am on a quote kick right now.  I like the challenge of trying to take a photo to represent a particular quote or vice versa, trying to find a quote to accompany an image.  With this one, I took the photo first; I love this quote.  It really speaks to me and I think it is appropriate for this image of the pink bud sitting atop the prickly little cactus.

We all have dreams - some of them small, some big, and some at every point in between.  Yet, so many people live an entire life and never even lift a finger in the direction of their dreams let alone lift their arms to reach for and fully embrace those dreams.  What keeps us from pursuing our dreams?  Time? Money? Other people?

None of the above.

The only thing that ever really stands in our way is fear.  It may be fear of trying and the risk, commitment or amount of work that requires.  It may be fear of failure.  It may even be fear of success.  However you look at it, it boils down to fear of something.  Time, money and other people are excuses, a way to keep us from taking responsibility for our own actions or lack of action.    To say that we don't "have" time  is more accurately stated as we don't "make" time.  If something is important, we will make the time to do it.  And if we truly have a passion for something, the resources to nourish that passion will come.  If we believe in what we are doing, so will other people.  When all of these things come together, dreams will come true.  I honestly believe that where there is a will or a passion, there is always a way.

That way may involve standing on a cactus to reach that star;  we may get poked by a few cactus needles in the process.  But once we are swinging on that star, the pain and scars from those cactus needles fade away.  We can say with confidence that dreams do come true if you believe in them and believe in yourself.

163/365 Relax

"Oh to Have the Life of the Cat"

The cat is the only one around here right now who seems to have time to relax.  Between summer school and several concerts in the next two weeks, I barely have time to check my calendar to figure out where I am supposed to be next let alone to have even a minute to relax.

This spot on the back of the arm chair in our bedroom is the cat's favorite spot.  There is now n indentation in the back cushion that is perfectly molded to her body.  As you can see by the amount of cat hair on her blanket, she spends a lot of time here.

Some day I might have time to relax.