Dirt Therapy????



Garden Therapy



I reached into the loose earth and I scooped it up in my hands and I drew it towards me just so that I might pull those strong earthy smells into my very being. Perhaps that sounds crazy to you, but to me it was a wonderful therapeutic session. Please allow me to explain.

The Winter is at that point where you can finally feel her beginning to loosen her grip and the weather the last week has been beautiful. The problem is that I have enjoyed it mostly by looking at it through my office window, not by being out in it. But yesteday, I decided come what may, I was going to be out in my yard doing something. Winter being the finicky lady that she is decided to give me plenty of clouds and no sunshine and a slightly cool breeze, but I was determined to enjoy it if it killed me.

I am not an avid gardner by any means, but I do enjoy a good excuse to be outside and a garden is a wonderful excuse. I have my herb garden and several flower beds and a small vegetable garden. I have been preparing the soil as time allowed for I knew the planting season was coming and finally this weekend it was time for the potatoes and onions to go into the ground. That brings me to where you came in with me scooping the earth and soaking up the aroma that it was producing as I worked with it.

If you have never had a garden or flowerbed, then you will probably not understand. There is just something about the smell and the feel of the soil that I like. It was soft and gentle under my hand and cool to the touch but it had that smell. That strong earthy smell that held  me captive. So there I am on my knees in my garden running my hands through the soil simply enjoying the moment and it happened. I never even saw it coming. I was suddenly at peace with all things and all people. There were no problems that needed my immediate attention. There were no concerns at work. There were no problems in the entire world for just a brief moment in time. There was just me all by myself on my knees, enjoying one of God's most basic creations.

If you understand, then good. If you do not, then what is it that makes the world and all of the problems that it brings disappear for you? I hope that you understand what I am saying. My intent was simply to say that for me personally, I needed to find that thing that turned the constantly whirling side of my mind off and allowed me just to exist if only for a few moments.

As the day conlcluded, I went in and washed away all signs of the soil that I had so enjoyed working with. No dirt under my nails, no dirt on my knees, no sign anywhere of what I had been doing. Except for the contented look that was now on my face and the slight stoop from a back that was reminding me that I am growing older and not younger.

The Day

The day, where did it go?

I stay so busy that sometimes it is so easy to look up and another day has quickly faded away. Even now as I began this blog I decided to go get a quick glimpse of the sunset only to find that it had slipped away as well and the sky was beginning to fade into the early shadows of evening.

Where does it go? One minute it is there and the next it is gone. A shadow, a whisper, a fleeting moment. There, then gone. I wish that I knew. The breeze stirs and I catch myself just trying to freeze the moment so that it can be enjoyed. Always fleeting, always just beyond my grasp, always............

The day, it is now gone.

Hope lingers though, for tomorrow is a whole new day.

GW



  

What do you see?

What exactly do you see here? Before you read on, just stop and slowly take a look at the picture that is attached.

What do you see? A fireplace? An old building? Rocks? Wood? What do you see. Just tag along for a few minutes and we will return to this question.

My wife has asked me on many occasions whether my writings inspire my photography or my photography inspire my writings. The truth is that there are times that I will take a photo and it will cause that quirky little gear in my head to begin to churn and suddenly there is this crazy thought for a blog. Then there are other times that I will think about something that I want to write about and then I will go through some of my favorite photos and see if any of them tie to what I am wanting to write about. If not, I grab my camera and away I go, looking for that photo that expresses what I want to write about. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Today the photo inspired the blog. I have recently began to go through my numerous photos and to eliminate a lot that just need to be deleted. In the process I have come across a lot of photos that I had forgotten about and some that I had never even looked at. This is one that I had forgotten about. I have a good friend that I have known for twenty years and we will occasionally go and find those little out of the way places that you can stumble across interesting photos. This particular one is the inside of an old abandoned log cabin in a little community just north of Comanche, Texas.

I am not sure what you saw when you looked earlier, but look again. There just above the fireplace. Do you see his face. Who is this person? Is it really a face? Is it a ghost of those who lived here long ago? Who really knows.

Our mind is a powerful instrument it can create and it can destroy. Take a look at this photo and just let your mind be creative. You never know what you might discover.

GW

Anger Revisited

When a man does the right thing because he knows in his heart that it is the right thing to do, I respect and admire him.

When a man does the right thing because it is the only thing left for him to do, I despise him.

I have lived my life with one constant and strong message to my Children. "Just do what is right.".

GW

Behind The Veil

It is a rare opportunity to truly see behind the veil of most people. That might sound like an odd statement, but please allow me to continue.

We are all very unique individuals. God created us with no two of us the same. He made us where we have unique fingerprints, palm prints, facial features, DNA, etc. With that being said, why are we all placed into a cookie cutter society where we all have to think, act, talk and behave the same. It is ludicrous to think that the God that created us so different from each other would then put  us in a position where that uniqueness separates us from others. That however is the truth. If you conform you are accepted and normal, if not, you are either a radical or a free spirit. Often times frowned upon by society, and sometimes even rejected.

I know there are people out there that have never allowed others to see them for who they really are. I know that they are out there. I have seen them, I have talked to them, if I were completely honest with myself, I am one of them. In a previous blog I was speaking of my anger and I was just releasing this anger and I wrote the following words "Ok, so I let the door swing open today. I have reached out and grabbed the handle and pulled it closed.". As I looked back upon that post, I realized how tightly I held that door closed and for it to escape me that day even for just a few hours was unusual for me.

 I know that there are many of you out there who can completely relate to this feeling. You never really let people see you for who you really are. You guard your thoughts your actions your feelings, you guard everything that you do. You literally spend your life with that veil pulled up so tightly around you that people will never even get the chance to appreciate the real you because you are so afraid that the real you is not good enough or perfect enough or whatever else there is that doesn't measure up. The irony is that the veiled you that you put out for the world to see is experiencing all of the things that the real you is avoiding. The veiled you is liked by some, hated by some and some just really don't care anything about you.

As I said, it is a rare opportunity to see behind the veil of most people. Maybe life is just a masquerade. We put on our mask and we step out the door and we pull the veil tightly around us never realizing that we are the ones unable to see because the mask and the veil have clouded our vision and even our thoughts.

I challenge you today to lower the veil and to remove the mask and to just be yourself. You might be surprised what an unobstructed view of others will do for your opinion of yourself.

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not." ~Andre Gide

GW

It's Cold Outside

It is cold outside. The winter that I have looked upon with dread has finally arrived here in Texas.

Of all of the seasons, Winter is probalbly my least favorite. That does not mean that I hate winter it just means that in a four horse race it finished fourth.

I love the hot weather so much better. If the temperature gets below 80 degrees, I begin to get cold. So you can imagine how I felt the last two mornings when the temperature actually got down to the upper teens. I am sure that the people up north would look at that statement and say "what a pansy". I would however encourage those same people to come help me mow my yard this summer when it is 110 degrees in the shade and I am enjoying my warm weather.

Summer is a clear winner in the race for favorite seasons with Spring and Fall in a dead heat for second. In the Spring it wins out over Fall but in the Fall it jumps back ahead of Spring. I really like both of those seasons almost as much as I like Summer. Winter has placed itself with a death grip on the last and final place in my seasons favorite category. Like a cold icy hand frozen in place it will never relinquish that position.

With all of that being said, I would like to clarify, I do not hate the winter, it is simply my least favorite. If I would allow myself to be honest, there are actually things about Winter that I like. Come along as I remind myself of the things that I like about Winter so that I might endure until the Spring arrives.

I like that first really cold blast of air when you say to yourself that Winter has finally arrived.

I like the feel of a really cold brisk morning when the sun is rising and trying to overpower the cold but fails.

I like the feeling of snow as it lands upon my face when I look to the sky.

I like the sound of sleet falling in the cold quiet of winter. It has such a soothing rythmic sound.

I like to see the fresh fallen snow as it transforms the gray and desolate world that winter has created.

I like to see a childs face as he explores the excitement of the new fallen snow.

I like to see the things that are revealed when the leaves are gone from the trees and bushes.

I like the fact that every day of Winter brings me one day closer to Spring.

I like the thought that this too shall pass.

So you see, I really don't hate Winter. Actually, without Winter I would never look forward to the Spring which makes me look forward to Summer which makes me look forward to Fall which inevitably brings me back to Winter.

So with that in mind, let me get my coat because after all, It's cold outside.

Feel free to share with me the things that you like about Winter.

GW

Inspired by the Inspired

WOW!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever just read something that someone has written that is so moving that it captivates your entire being?

This is where I find myself today. Last night as I was meandering through a few of the blogs that I follow, I casually began to read through the most recent post of "BB" and all I could say was WOW!!!! I have not been able to get it out of my mind. It has so captivated my thoughts and emotions that I myself have had, it was inspiring but unsettling all at the same time.

I usually quietly admire the work of the bloggers that I follow. My comments are not scattered out freely just to be commenting. I only comment when the author has posted a photo or a writing that catches my attention and causes me to think outside of this box that I have found myself in. This is the first time that I have actually promoted anyone's blog. 

I hope that if you take the time to read it, that it moves you in the same way that it moved me. If not, then maybe it wasn't meant for you.

Here is the Link.
http://eternalsunshinequest.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-dreams-and-silver-seams.html 

GW