Make Every Day the Best.

Make every day the best. 

I love this quote from a Pennsylvania photographer and blogger named Linda Stager. 

She was writing about her love of photography and her fervent desire to continue photographing the places around her for as long as she can. So, she has decided to make every day the best. 

Isn't this great advice that all of us can follow? We are on this planet for a finite number of years, and as we age, many of us find it more and more of a struggle to do the things we love to do. So while we are still able to pursue our passions, why not make a decision to make every day the best it can be?

I travel a lot. Travel is something I really enjoy and something I have pursued since I retired roughly a 16 years ago. 

I have had people ask why I travel so much. My response is always the same: because I can. I travel because, at least for the moment, I can afford to. I travel because I am in pretty good health for someone my age. I travel because I still have my wits about me. But most of all, I travel because I love it.

Yes, I am much more careful about the trips that I choose because I'm not as strong or as agile or as well balanced physically as I used to be. But after numerous surgeries on both eyes, leaving what used to be my stronger eye pretty much useless for photography, I have redoubled my decision to travel and to pursue my passion of wildlife and landscape photography. I'm hopeful that my team of eye doctors and I will be able to maintain my remaining eyesight, but I won't take my vision for granted.

No matter what your passion is, our time on this planet is finite. So go out there and make this day and every day the best.

No, It's Not Happy Memorial Day

Are Americans clueless or ignorant or do they just not care? 

I suspect the correct answer is all of the above. 

Monday is Memorial Day in the US. But sadly, this holiday that should be a day of honoring and mourning the members of the American military who died while serving this country, has become little more than just another excuse for 3-day weekend. There will be sales and barbecues and lots of drinking. What there won't be, however, will be any attention paid to the real reason for the holiday. Memorial Day, as its name implies, also is not a day for recognizing veterans and active duty military.

Members of the military, as they do every year, have placed a small American flag a boot length in front of the headstone marking the final resting place of thousands upon thousands of US mititary who are buried in military cemeteries. 

Some cities may hold seremonies honoring the war dead. But for most Americans, the day is just another excuse for a three-day weekend.

We need to do a better day of recognizing and honoring the sacrifices made by the 1.3 million members of the US armed forces who have died in combat or who perished from injuries suffered while serving.

Feeling Sparkly

There is an AI character I follow online. 

His name is Bobo, and he is a golden retriever puppy. He recently said something about trying to make other people's and other animals' hearts feel sparkly. 

I love that sentiment. What would the world look like, I wonder, if more people did their best to make other people's lives more sparkly? 

That started me thinking about what makes me feel sparkly. I am writing this post while on a photography trip in Italy. I love this country, its food, its landscapes, its history, everything about it. And of course, I absolutely love photography. 

So the first thing that came to mind that makes my heart feel sparkly is photography. These photography trips are physically hard on me.

Most days we leave our hotel at 4:30 in the morning. We return for breakfast about 4 hours later, have a midday break and lunch, and then go out again just before sunset. I generally skip dinners because I don't like to eat a big meal late at night. 

So the trips leave me feeling exhausted. My schedule is all topsy-turvy. But it's all worth it because the travel and the photography and the landscapes and sometimes the wildlife all make me feel sparkly. 

I wish each of you a beautiful and sparkly day. And thank you, Bobo, for helping me to be sparkly.

Have The Day You Deserve

I love this sentiment, especially when it pertains to magats who are finally learning the hard way what the current regime in power in the US is all about. 

These people voted for this demented megalomaniac, It should have been abundantly clear to them what kind of person he is. After all, he's been a terrible, evil, greedy person for his entire life. We saw what he did and how he acted and how he spoke during his first term. So why in the world would anybody vote for him again? 

And now they're acting oh so shocked and so surprised when his demented actions and words impact them. Now they're learning the hard way that he doesn't give a rat's ass about them or anybody else. His only interest is in himself and his money and how to get more of it.

So go ahead! Have the day you deserve. You'll get no sympathy from me. You got what you voted for. So remember, decisions, especially votes, have serious consequences.

Honor the Light

I am an avid photographer. 

Photography is my hobby, and it is something I absolutely love to do. My favorite subjects are wildlife and landscapes.

As I started this blog post I was sitting in an airport waiting for my flight back home after spending 3-1/2 days in Utah. We had only two days rather than the three we had planned to photograph some of Utah's beautiful wild mustangs. The herd we photographed was habituated to humans, so the horses -- some 150 wild horses -- didn't run away in fear. In fact, there were times when the horses were walking our way and we needed to move so we didn't get too close to them. 

The thing about photography is that light as much as anything else is so important. Without light, there is no photography. And light at different times of the day can make all the difference in a photo. 

One photographer I know uses the motto "it's all about the light." I have chosen the motto of "honor the light." Another photographer I know has as her motto "chasing the light." However the word is used, the most important element to any photographer is light. Is it warm? Is it bright and harsh? From which direction is the light coming? Is the subject backlit, front lit, or side lit? Is it creating harsh shadows?

Light, for most people, isn't something they think much about. It's either present or it isn't. We tend to think about light only if the room is too dark and we need to turn on a light. But for photographers, light is all important and it is something we as photographers of any level need to acknowledge and appreciate.

Light is the reason I and my fellow photographers get up before dark so we can be in position to capture the warm light of sunrise. And light is the reason we get in position before sunset to take advantage of the warmth of that light. Doing photography in the middle of the day doesn't work, because the light is too bright, too harsh, and it produces shadows. 

So aside from all the other benefits of sunlight - - allowing our crops to grow and lifting our spirits - - It is so essential to any kind of outdoor photography.

So Tired

I am tired of being angry. 

I am tired of being upset. I'm tired of being disgusted. I'm tired of being embarrassed. I am tired of being afraid.

What the current regime in power in Washington and in so many states has done to this country angers me. It upsets me. It disgusts me. It embarrasses me. 

When the chief muskrat and his minions slashed funding for NOAA, what did they expect would happen? Meteorologists aren't getting the data they need to predict life-threatening meteorological events. Case in point: the devastating floods in Texas that claimed the lives of more than 100 people, including numerous children. They slashed FEMA funding, which means there will be little to no assistance for people whose lives have been devastated by natural events. 

So yeah, I'm angry and disgusted and embarrassed. Americans are supposed to look out for each other. The government is supposed to help Americans in need. But now, instead of helping those in need, we're helping the billionaires get even richer.

Non-profit organizations are struggling to help those in need, as more and more and more people need assistance. I am bombarded everyday when the snail mail is delivered with appeals for donations. I just made a donation to the local Meals on Wheels chapter. I do what I can, but I can't afford to support every appeal for money. And I refuse to donate to any organization if it isn't one to which I already donate. That would just open more floodgates of appeals for funds.

I have to wonder whether the members of the regime, and their millions of magat followers, enjoy eating. If they do, they might want to think about who is going to gather the food they enjoy -- the fresh produce, the fruits, the meat they devour. The people who harvest the crops and process the meat are by and large immigrants, many of them here illegally. Who is going to spend eight or more hours every day picking strawberries or harvesting other crops in back-breaking work? Some regime idiot said that once work requirements for Medicaid recipients take effect there will be lots of people to work the fields. Do they expect the disabled or the elderly to show up to pick crops in 100° temperatures?

Every day brings news stories highlighting the depravity and cruelty of this regime. There's nowhere to go to escape. I have been limiting my exposure to the news in order to try and safeguard my sanity. This has not been easy, as my professional career, all 20 years of it, was spent working with the news media, either for a large non-profit organization or for a federal agency. So news is something that I used to need everyday. I like to keep informed about what's going on, not just in the United States, but around the world.

So how do I keep from losing my sanity? First, let me say, it’s not easy. But as I noted above, I limit my exposure to the news media. I stay physically active every day. I read a lot, mostly biographies or historical fiction. I listen to upbeat music. Sometimes it’s Tchaikovsky or Mozart, but lately it’s been ABBA. Anything to distract me and to lighten the mood. Recently I put together a couple of photo wall calendars, one for a friend and one for me. I am fortunate that I can afford to take a variety of photography trips to beautiful locations.

I know I'm not alone in feeling frightened and depressed and overwhelmed. All we can do is take this one day at a time. Thinking that we still have three and a half more years of his madness is something I can't even consider.

Words

There are some words I just don't like. 

Sometimes it's the sound of the word. And sometimes it's what image the word conjures up in my mind. 

Let's start a list of my least favorite words. 

Snack

Patty

Panty 

Beverage 

Vomit

Merch

Wipes

App

Hack

Crotch 

Scalp

Some people have issues with the word moist. That isn't one of my favorite words, but it doesn't really bother me.

As a writer, I love words. I love playing with words and finding just the right word to fit the sentence I'm writing. But some of the words above I will never use in my writing. Not only do certain words sound ugly, some, even most, of the words on my list, represent something ugly.

Why use these ugly words when there are so many beautiful words to choose? Words can express emotions. They can explain things. They can bring back memories both good and bad.

There are too many beautiful words to use to waste my energy on these ugly ones.