It has been teasingly warm this month with hints of summer's quick arrival and I couldn't be happier about it. We have our first school show at Pegasus tomorrow and it's supposed to be 70 degrees!!! I know everyone has spring fever, but it hits me particularly hard this year because I spent all summer last year on crutches. It's been almost 10 months since I broke my foot. I can't believe it. It's still sore enough that I have a constant reminder of what happens when one gets careless, but it's solid enough to be excited about the prospect of climbing and camping trips :)
I was reading some of the posts I have written here and thinking about life in general- I know, it's a frightening thought. All things considered though, I enjoy a relatively play life. I mean, I take photos occasionally and "work" at the barn daily, then joke around with people at the bar at night. I'm just saying it could be worse. Even though at times, of course, I would like to be busier with photography or what not, I have to admit that the freedom that goes along with my schedule is entirely intoxicating. I think I may be ruined forever and may not be able to go back to the corporate haul. the best part is, I'm entirely ok with that. :)
Anyway, the point is (if there is in fact a point), that I'm genuinely happy. The sun is shining, my horses are doing well, summer is well on it's way, and I'm mobile. It's good. Life is good.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, October 02, 2008
The times they are a changin'
It appears that the last shreds of summer are quickly turning into chilly evenings and painted leaves... Fall is quite beautiful out here in good 'ol Utah, it's a shame we don't have more than 2 weeks of it :) You can almost smell the frost thinking about settling over the valley. In lieu of shorter days and snow covered mountains, I am scrambling to fit in any portrait work that needs to be done before we have to bust out snow shoes to get around. Typically the blanket of winter lulls my photography company away from portrait and wedding work; however, I have a feeling this winter I might see more bookings than last winter. Even though outdoor photography will see a sharp decline (sans landscape/skiing shots) I am thoroughly looking forward to exploring the unique architecture that surrounds SLC. Admittedly I normally steer towards the great outdoors for portrait work, but this year, I am actually excited to be forced to manipulate creative lighting within Utah's ever present dichotomy of interests which seems to integrate itself into the physical structures themselves here (maybe more so than other cities?).
Anyway, rather than rambling on and on... because this post seems like it has the potential to do that... I say, enjoy what warm weather is left! Get out and play in the leaves- rake a big pile then throw it around! Carve some pumpkins! Remember what fall felt like when you were a little kid? Take some time to slow down, put away your to do list, ignore gas prices, and have a fall play day!
Friday, August 08, 2008
Travels Untold
Talk about an emotional month!! phew.. and August isn't even anywhere near over! Some really great things are on the horizon and I have to say I am pretty stoked about some of the potential for my photography company. I got a bid accepted for some huge landscape prints that are to be displayed in a new office building and I am really quite excited about it. The deal should go through next week!! It's rewarding to have some positive reinforcement for the landscape portion of my photography. Hopefully with this commission and a few other deals, I will be able to suck it up and make the switch to a mac laptop!
Along with that, some even cooler news.. .oh yea, I'm published!!! Saaawweeeet. I published a book. Yup. that's right. And no, it doesn't matter if you can't read, it's composed of landscape photography. This has been interesting, because it started as a small project to test a printing company for wedding albums and it has slowly manifested into something that may turn out to be really beneficial. Since the feedback has been soooo strong on the book, I decided to chuck it all and go for it. I'm hosting a book release party on Aug 15th where I will be taking orders for what has been called. "the ultimate backpacker's coffee table book". I take that as a compliment of the highest order. But in a seriousness it is way traumatic in some ways because there are a lot of what-ifs, but if I silence that nagging self-doubt voice, I actually believe I have a pretty good chance at getting some really positive marketing. It would be fantastic to kill it. You know what though? No matter the outcome of the book sales, it's a good feeling to put something together that takes people into the recesses of their memory and imagination to evoke feelings of longing and belonging, of solitude and connectedness.. you get the point. Anyway, I'm excited!! So if you are in town COME DRINK BEER AND BUY A BOOK.. if you're not in town.. GET IN TOWN- DRINK BEER AND BUY A BOOK!! :P heh heh heh
Along with that, some even cooler news.. .oh yea, I'm published!!! Saaawweeeet. I published a book. Yup. that's right. And no, it doesn't matter if you can't read, it's composed of landscape photography. This has been interesting, because it started as a small project to test a printing company for wedding albums and it has slowly manifested into something that may turn out to be really beneficial. Since the feedback has been soooo strong on the book, I decided to chuck it all and go for it. I'm hosting a book release party on Aug 15th where I will be taking orders for what has been called. "the ultimate backpacker's coffee table book". I take that as a compliment of the highest order. But in a seriousness it is way traumatic in some ways because there are a lot of what-ifs, but if I silence that nagging self-doubt voice, I actually believe I have a pretty good chance at getting some really positive marketing. It would be fantastic to kill it. You know what though? No matter the outcome of the book sales, it's a good feeling to put something together that takes people into the recesses of their memory and imagination to evoke feelings of longing and belonging, of solitude and connectedness.. you get the point. Anyway, I'm excited!! So if you are in town COME DRINK BEER AND BUY A BOOK.. if you're not in town.. GET IN TOWN- DRINK BEER AND BUY A BOOK!! :P heh heh heh
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Traces of familiarity
Another rise another fall-
heart open and vulnerable
with each misted breathe,
knowing,
somewhere hidden among secret desires
and forsaken memories,
pain will sing again.
Uncompromising injustice
fevered by infallible innocence,
the tip wields ever so slowly-
watching
waiting
expecting.
a quick exhale and the intoxicating
anger teases the iris
yet again.
heart open and vulnerable
with each misted breathe,
knowing,
somewhere hidden among secret desires
and forsaken memories,
pain will sing again.
Uncompromising injustice
fevered by infallible innocence,
the tip wields ever so slowly-
watching
waiting
expecting.
a quick exhale and the intoxicating
anger teases the iris
yet again.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Happy Xrays
Wahoo!! I saw the doc on Monday and my xrays showed that the bones in my foot have stayed stable. So far so good. As of right now, he said he is glad that we decided to try it without surgery :) I am allowed to start putting a little weight on my foot and start to slowly progress into walking with the boot for the next month. I can try to go from walking in the boot with both crutches then one crutch and so on. He said to let pain be my judge on how much to do.
It's crazy trying to put ever so little weight on my foot. Kinda feels like my foot isn't really my foot- that numb, less than reactive extension that is somewhere by my ankle. Even better, I'm allowed to take this not-so-well-ventilated boot off when I am just hanging out and to sleep. YAY! I have to keep it on while trying to put any weight- which is fine, because I'm pretty sure my whole leg would collapse if I tried to walk without it right now (I think I remember what my calf USED to look like before it all ran away).
Seriously, it's just so reassuring that at this point, it looks like I am actually healing. A hell of a lot better diagnosis than, "if you don't have surgery you will be a crippled arthritic". Yup, I'm happy. I'm plotting my return to the saddle and actually believe it will happen in the near future. Now I just need to take it slow and relax.. because I will be able to drive again :) Only one more month of this boot!! Which means I can go on a road trip. Enough said :)
It's crazy trying to put ever so little weight on my foot. Kinda feels like my foot isn't really my foot- that numb, less than reactive extension that is somewhere by my ankle. Even better, I'm allowed to take this not-so-well-ventilated boot off when I am just hanging out and to sleep. YAY! I have to keep it on while trying to put any weight- which is fine, because I'm pretty sure my whole leg would collapse if I tried to walk without it right now (I think I remember what my calf USED to look like before it all ran away).
Seriously, it's just so reassuring that at this point, it looks like I am actually healing. A hell of a lot better diagnosis than, "if you don't have surgery you will be a crippled arthritic". Yup, I'm happy. I'm plotting my return to the saddle and actually believe it will happen in the near future. Now I just need to take it slow and relax.. because I will be able to drive again :) Only one more month of this boot!! Which means I can go on a road trip. Enough said :)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Road Trip Frenzy
The open road is calling!!! Oh it is time for a road trip! Loud music, windows down, overly caffeinated driving, with random maps thrown on the floor that is littered with camping accessories and dog hair (let's face it.. I have a collie-cross)... sigh. It's been a while since I have been able to explore new territory! It's one thign to be financially restricted from road tripping, but i'm kinda a little physically restricted too.. so both kinda suck.
You know, even just dong an over night is some national forrest would probably make me feel better too, but I actualyl think I am going to have to book it to the water sometime soon.
My doc appointment for my foot is coming up and I am really hoping that I can start weight bearing. I would looooove to be able to drive again. I'm thinking a coastal tour of Cali would be great. I just kinda want to go somewhere I haven't been yet and just chill. Course, the other thing is, I'm kinda feeling like an old school raod trip. You know, like a few years ago, when 4 people would pile into a car and get outta dodge. I've been doing more solo trips the last ocuple of years and I'm thinking some rowdiness is in order. You know the kinda that result in borderline blackmail pictures?? So.. anyone out there that is up for some old school driving til the sun comes up.. give me a holler.
You know, even just dong an over night is some national forrest would probably make me feel better too, but I actualyl think I am going to have to book it to the water sometime soon.
My doc appointment for my foot is coming up and I am really hoping that I can start weight bearing. I would looooove to be able to drive again. I'm thinking a coastal tour of Cali would be great. I just kinda want to go somewhere I haven't been yet and just chill. Course, the other thing is, I'm kinda feeling like an old school raod trip. You know, like a few years ago, when 4 people would pile into a car and get outta dodge. I've been doing more solo trips the last ocuple of years and I'm thinking some rowdiness is in order. You know the kinda that result in borderline blackmail pictures?? So.. anyone out there that is up for some old school driving til the sun comes up.. give me a holler.
Claiming the Dark
An excerpt from, The Light Inside the Dark :
To learn how to live means claiming more of the territory of life, even, or especially, the darkness. When we begin our inward journey, we think it will be a continuous ascent. But we find that however well we try, we fall into pain, into the excruciating awareness that if we are human we love, and if we love we are vulnerable. The darkness presses hard on us- turbulent, autonomous, full of obsession and loss. It seems greater than we are and has a mule-like resistance to common sense. As Jung remarked, everything unconscious remains fate.
If at this time we cling to the spirit, we will think that the fall itself is the problem. Spiritual traditions have a strong tendency to see things this way. The classical solution, then, known in monasteries around the world, is to detach and so cease to suffer. But it is more likely that we pay too little attention to our pain, that we are too eager to clamber back to the cool, pure heights and their certainties. Here, in this human life we share, another kind of spirituality might serve us better: one that sees it is our very losses that save us, by bringing the aspiring spirit downwards and initiating us into soul. This is why the way up- into the true life- begins with the way down.
This revelation of the intimate closeness of beauty and suffering may unbalance our previous idea of order. It tells us that, like Rilke in front of the archaic torso of Apollo, we must change our lives. We must learn to attend more acutely, to grope through the labyrinth, holding the twine of spiritual practice as we head into the dark. Through patient observation, then, we find that it is our thoughts and feelings that make us happy or sad, that the quality of our attention changes the colors of the day. This discovery of the reality and then the consolation of the inner life is our one solution to the problem of suffering, which is also the problem of living up to the underlying, and equally pervading, happiness of life.
Something to ponder, yes?
To learn how to live means claiming more of the territory of life, even, or especially, the darkness. When we begin our inward journey, we think it will be a continuous ascent. But we find that however well we try, we fall into pain, into the excruciating awareness that if we are human we love, and if we love we are vulnerable. The darkness presses hard on us- turbulent, autonomous, full of obsession and loss. It seems greater than we are and has a mule-like resistance to common sense. As Jung remarked, everything unconscious remains fate.
If at this time we cling to the spirit, we will think that the fall itself is the problem. Spiritual traditions have a strong tendency to see things this way. The classical solution, then, known in monasteries around the world, is to detach and so cease to suffer. But it is more likely that we pay too little attention to our pain, that we are too eager to clamber back to the cool, pure heights and their certainties. Here, in this human life we share, another kind of spirituality might serve us better: one that sees it is our very losses that save us, by bringing the aspiring spirit downwards and initiating us into soul. This is why the way up- into the true life- begins with the way down.
This revelation of the intimate closeness of beauty and suffering may unbalance our previous idea of order. It tells us that, like Rilke in front of the archaic torso of Apollo, we must change our lives. We must learn to attend more acutely, to grope through the labyrinth, holding the twine of spiritual practice as we head into the dark. Through patient observation, then, we find that it is our thoughts and feelings that make us happy or sad, that the quality of our attention changes the colors of the day. This discovery of the reality and then the consolation of the inner life is our one solution to the problem of suffering, which is also the problem of living up to the underlying, and equally pervading, happiness of life.
Something to ponder, yes?
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