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After several wet, gloomy, cold and windy days of April showers, today the sun is finally shining. It’s glorious out there! So I steered the F-150 out of the driveway, armed with a couple of cameras, one fitted with my 100mm macro lens and the other a 17-55 wide angle. True, I was getting a late start as the morning sun was more than halfway on track toward high noon. No matter. I was determined to make the best of it and indulge in a little ‘gravel travel’.

This isn’t my best work and there isn’t anything truly inspired here but what made this morning special was a chance encounter after I’d turned around on a dead end road. I’d passed an older couple in a red SUV as I headed up the hill. We waved our hello’s and continued on. After I’d circled back and was heading the way I’d come, I sighted this same vehicle coming toward me and I could see the driver putting his hand up for me to stop.

Dutifully, I did so and he (and his wife) asked if I was the plumber who was apparently due to show up at some point that day (but hadn’t yet called) and, with a grin on his face, was that me? Chuckling, ‘no’ I assured them it was not. He asked if I was lost and needed directions then. I explained that I had a couple of cameras in the truck and that I was just out taking photographs. I told them I enjoyed traveling gravel roads because ‘you just never know what you’ll find’. They seemed delighted with this response and we chatted for several minutes about the beauty in these wooded parts and about retirement and travel and life in general as well. It was so nice visiting with them and as I drove away I chided myself for not asking if I could take their picture.

These are the kinds of things that truly make my day!

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Looking through the photos my husband shot during a recent weekend getaway, I was initially horrified to see the wrinkles around these just-turned-sixty eyes. Later, shrug. This is who I am. Short of expensive and utterly worthless-in-the-long-run Botox injections, what’s a girl to do other than simply (and gracefully) just accept who she is, Deep Breaths, and then move on. After all, the sun is shining out there today!! Chop-chop, places to go, things to do, things to see and my full self yet to become.

Textures of Tuesdays

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When it came to calmly and rationally contacting her Members of Congress, her best intentions went AWOL. Her emotions took over and the F-bombs went flying. Such was her anger and her frustration with the way these elected officials (not ‘her’ elected officials since she sure as hell didn’t vote for this lot) were conducting the nation’s business.

Did they not care about people’s sufferings, their hardships? Did they not realize the legislations they proposed and the regulations they gleefully rolled back would only serve to weaken, degrade and destroy the environment? Surely they knew – but apparently did not care – that this was the only planet we’ve got? Did they truly believe Big Business would do the right thing and ensure people were treated fairly, that they would have adequate and accessible health care, that they would not dump pollutants into the air, water and soil? What kind of fools did they think we all were?

Apparently the kind of fools who’ve allowed this kind of thing for generations.

She was dismayed (and embarrassed) at her lack of control in conveying all these concerns in a lucid, respectful manner. But more than that, she was horrified at the control these few had over so many. She could not wrap her head around how all of this came to be and was hopeful for a rectitude, of sorts, although for the life of her she could not imagine how that might come about.

Still, she held on to that because she just had to believe that what was right would prevail.

Daily Prompt: Control

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A grassy bank
Blue sky overhead
Fluffy white clouds
Tall grasses swaying in the wind.

Teenage years
Always filled with angst.
Yearning, discovery
Sometimes pain and loss.

I remember lying there
Wondering about the world.
Idealistic brain babblings.
So sure of how things should be.

Trying to figure it out
‘Where do I fit in?’
And sometimes, that small voice:
‘Do I fit in? Do I belong?’

All these years later
I can still visualize that one particular moment.
So unaware of what was yet to come.
Considering this, the future is not so daunting.

Always, one foot forward.
What else are you going to do?