Get to It

I woke up this morning as I do most mornings, full of hope. Hope that this would be the day that I get up from bed and walk like normal.

It was not to be.

For a while I was convinced that the new meds were once again affecting my kidneys. By 9am I was teary-eyed. As I was getting into the shower mom was trying to talk to me and I tried not to snap back a response. It was only 9am and I was tired, discouraged, worn out.

But then a wonderful thing happened. She asked me if I wanted prayer. "Yes', I exclaimed. She wrapped her arms around me and prayed. Prayed for mercy, prayed for healing, prayed for comfort. I wish I could say that when she let go, I stood up tall and strong, but I didn't. What I had, however, was peace.

By lunchtime I was feeling well enough to take a walk. It was cool and clear outside. Just perfect weather. My steps were slow, but not too painful. I had my praise song playing in my ear. I listened as I  thanked God.

That I could still go outside and walk
For the perfect weather
For my mom's prayers that morning
For my iPhone with a camera

I decided that one of my problems has been that I've been waiting....waiting to live or waiting to die. It was time to just live. And with that I took a few pictures.

Live

Life, it's often messy and sometimes it beats us up, but we still have to live our lives. We can't be afraid to get hurt because it's going to happen, but it doesn't mean we can't keep on going.

"Get to living or get to dying" as Red so eloquently put it on The Shawshank Redemption. Or as the lyrics from Both Sides put it, "something's lost but something's gained from living everyday"

I think this picture says it all...

Cha Cha Cha

It was a gray day today. Gray from the moment the morning began, gray at lunchtime, gray on the drive home. Gray, gray, gray. I think the point is made. I didn't feel gray inside. Didn't really have the time, but I wasn't inspired to take hardly a picture today.

As I was reflecting on the day, I thought to myself, "I only took one picture today". But when I pulled out my cellphone, I found that I had forgotten about my first shot. It wasn't worth remembering, no wonder I forgot about it. I wasn't even going to post the picture, let alone write about it, but here I sit finding myself doing exactly the opposite of what I told myself I was going to do.

I took this as I sat at my desk in my gray cube at the office. I eat a banana almost every day. I like them on the green side. I like to cut the stem with a knife and peel the skin carefully back so that there is no bruising. I don't like bruises on my bananas.

But this isn't about bruises, or peeling or even about green bananas. It's about the little Chiquita sticker which inexplicably caught my eye. I was reminded to a time when I was little and how my sister, brothers and I would love to peel the Chiquita sticker off and stick it on ourselves. Why we got such joy out of the sticker, I don't know, but we did. And why this particular memory came back today, I don't know, but it did. So I did the only thing I could think of to preserve it, I took a crummy picture of it.

And that was picture number one.

The second picture? The one I was going to post? It was just a lame shot of the gray day as I waited in line at Costco for gas. That one is getting deleted.

A Typical Day To, From and In the Office

The day started early, woke up at 4:42, happy that I had 18 more minutes to sleep or lay in bed...whichever! Still the alarm startled me and I jumped out of bed so I could leave the house in time. I'm not the kind who wants to do a lot before I leave for the day so I have just 45 short minutes to get ready to go.

I was greeted with the promise of a beautiful sunrise and, oh my goodness, I still need to get my windshield cleaned.

The moon was still out and about. I was hoping to get some of the hills in the shot, but I just put my phone up to the window and hoped for the best...had to keep my eyes on the road.

It was smooth sailing the whole drive in. It's the one reason I get up and out so early.

The day was uneventful. I got a lot done and happily all but one of my meetings were cancelled. Sometime during the day, renderings of our new office were put up in the hallway. We're moving in May 2012. I would have taken more pictures, but each time I would walk by someone would come up and I didn't want to feel like a weirdo. I don't mind taking picture of oddball stuff when no one I know is around because I'll never see them again so who really cares.

Seems like this whole year the sky has been filled with big puffy clouds. Today was no exception. As I came back from lunch I ended up parking in a completely different area so I could get this picture. Who wants to go back to work when it looks like this outside? Luckily I like my job, so back inside I went.

When I left for the day, I found a benefit of the back of the building, airplanes coming in for their landing! Since we are right next to the airport, we're within the flight path of airplanes coming in for landings. How could I not have seen this before. I was one minute too late to take the photo of the day as a s twin engine plane soared in. I waited for what seemed like 5 minutes for another plane to come down, but nothing. Mindful that every minute that passed just meant a longer commute home, I finally left with nothing to show for my trouble.

The traffic stunk on the way home. There were three accidents so it was pretty slow the whole trip. I was able to get some more pictures in. I started with some more planes coming in. With the clouds in the sky, you would see the planes coming from miles away, their silver bodies glistening in the white masses.

Made a note to self that next time I'm in the office, I am going to get pictures of the planes coming in.

Just for something to do as we crawled along.

Not the best shot, but not bad considering traffic started flowing as I put the camera up and quickly snapped.

Me talking to Matthew.

I thought it was a good hair day.

It was unseasonably cool. Was thinking this might be my last cup of hot cocoa of the season.

Just in case I added a little whip and chocolate jimmies.