Always Be Grateful !!!!

The other day I went to see a fireworks extravaganza only 5 or 6 blocks from my home on the water. Ths is a festival held every year in which 4 countries participate. It turned out that my country Canada was the first up. We would be followed on alternate Wednesdays and Saturdays by Great Britain, South Africa, and tomorrow night China. As I sat in the throngs of people (approx 300,000) I started to think that every year the fireworks are the same. In fact there are only so many things one can to with a fireworks demonstration albeit in many different colors. I was actually aware of my blaze' attitude.

I thought that if the fireworks are the same every year, why do I attend? Then it came to me: I am not the same person who attended last year. I am a year older for one thing, I have had a whole year of different experiences, I look at life differently, I have different people in my life, and the people who are the same, are actually different people because of their experiences. It brought to mind something that I or someone said in the past:

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change"

With that thought in mind, I started to enjoy the fireworks with a new understanding. I was most fortunate to be living in a beautiful city, during a beautiful time of the year, with beautiful people in my life. As I write this message I send love, peace and joy to all those in my life, and if you are reading this, you are in my life.

Cheers

Dennis

Life is Now in Session - Are you Present???

The other day my grandson Tyler invited me to go along with his Mom (my daughter), and Dad and my mother on a boat ride. He was always interested in the "Paddle Wheeler" which plies the waters in front of our homes. He and his family live in the apartment building next to me. Well we had an opportunity to ride on that very boat, and being 2 1/2 years old he was of course interested in how the paddle wheel worked. I was trying to explain it (like I really knew) when the captain walked by and I of course stopped him and had Tyler ask him the question. I was happy to see him stutter and stammer trying to explain the intricate workings of diesel engines to a 2 year old. Tyler must of got something from the discussion, for when I asked him later how it worked, he told me "the diesel engine combusts, grampa". I gave some thought to the day and realized how precious is the gift of life, if only we are grateful for the opportunity to be with the people in our lives. We are so lucky to live in a beautiful city, and for me I am so fortunate to have wonderful people in my life, and today I honour each and every one of you.

The photo above was taken while on that wonderful boat trip where I spent a couple hours of life being with the ones that mean the most to me. What a wonderful day.

I wish you all many days of "wonderfulness", and a love of life that allows you to realize how lucky you are.

Love, peace and joy

Dennis

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!

That great elusive and undefinable concept (thing, element, condition, constraint, threat or what have you) we call time is ever present in our lives. For instance, the title of this brilliant piece which I am about to write can be taken in many many ways. It could be used to berate myself because it has been a while since I posted to this blog and deprived my one or two readers from my insight on life???? Or it could be a simple statement that the subject of this musing is simply about the concept of TIME.

In fact if we study the concept of time, I am sure that the first thing that comes to mind is the phrase we have heard countless times "I didn't have time", "I don't have time", "where will I ever find the time?" "who has the time for that?" In fact, if I had the time, I would list more instances of phrases that we have all heard and no doubt uttered as we went about our daily lives floating through time. To say that time is a major factor in our lives is a colossal understatement. As a normal convention, we divide up the day (a concept of time) into hours, minutes and even seconds. Going the other way we organize days into weeks, months, quarters, semi annual segments, and continuing on into years, decades, centuries, milleniums and finally (I think) into light years. Light years are interesting, because we have now taken a unit of time and introduced space or distance to the equation. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. At 186,000 miles per second, that is a pretty long way or time, or whatever. My old friend Al Einstein (you probably know him as Albert) even developed a "Special Theory of Relativity" which was more advanced that his plain old "Theory of Relativity" in which he discussed the relation about time and space, and something called the space time continuum and interesting concept about the warping of space and something about "warp speed" that I do not have time to get into (no pun intended, well may just a little one). In simple terms, he said that time changes according to the speed of the observer. If we travel on a jet plane, our watches move slower that otherwise!! I once had a watch like that, but I thought it was broken and threw it out. Those fake Rolexes are not what they used to be!

The fact is: (and remember all things are relative, except this statement which is absolute!) we each have all the time there is!!! It is simply a matter of choice of what we do in the present moment. As "Eckie" Tolle said "all we have is NOW" and we choose what to do with each NOW moment of "time". And I always thought that time was linear and moved from left to right in absolute terms. For my next moments of "NOW TIME", I choose to go out on the water with my daughter grandson and family on the boat and spend the next few hours (or many moments of NOW enjoying the sunshine before it is "time" to go to work.

It is about TIME that I wound this up, because I do not have much TIME before the boat leaves and I take the TIME to drive to work to spend some TIME there.

Caiao for now

Just Say Yes to Life!

Today I was completing an assignment for an online photography course I am taking (www.betterphoto.com) and the photo to the left was part of my assignment. When I review my images that have (or at least try to) captured a "mood" I usually am mentally transported back to the scene that I had captured. The zen like quality of this image got me to thinking and I focussed (no pun intended) on the title of my blog, and in particular the word "musings". I thought I new what the word meant, but just to sure I consulted Mr Webster and his big book of words. I was partially correct in my thinking, but not totally. According to Mr Webster, "musing" is something "thoughtfully abstracted". This made me feel OK as I have always seen myself as a thoughtful person. Now the other word "abstracted" had me a little confused, so again I sought out Mr Webster's advice. We according to Mr Webster, abstracted is defined as: "pre-occupied, absent minded, look of a professor"!

Absent minded??? I immediately set out to change the name of the aah, the aah, where was I again? I know that it is just on the tip of my tongue. It will come to me I know. :-))

What I originally thought about today, was the old slogan that Nancy Reagan used for her "war against drugs" when her husband Ronald was President. I know, I know what on earth would make me think of that? Like I told you before, if you can figure me out and how my mind works, please give me a call and enlighten me. But I digress. It seems to me that as a group we are more comfortable saying NO! to a lot of things, but not saying YES! to that many. If we are overweight (or think we may be), we say NO to sweets, and other desert type foods, but we do not say YES to healthy living. If we have work or a task to perform and the gang is going out to play, we say NO to having fun, but not YES to the satisfaction and long term benefits that completing our task may bring. Just this evening, I said NO to the effort it would have taken me to get my camera equipment out and head out to the beach for the sunset shot, and would not say YES to the pleasure sharing that image would have brought me.

So my message today (for me as much as anyone else), is to practice saying a resounding YES!!!! when life presents you opportunities to enhance your enjoyment, even if it is enjoyment of work related things or activities that require physical or mental effort.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!!!!!!

Love, peace and joy

Dennis

A New Baby

Yesterday morning I got a call from my 2 1/2 year old grandson that went like this: "Good Morning Grampa, would you like to see the baby Beluga at the aquarium with me?" As a fairly frequent visitor to the aquarium I was aware that a new baby Beluga had been born. The aquarium is in Stanley Park, and both my daughter and her family and I live close by the park. On our walk over on a beautiful sunny day, my grandson gave me my instructions: "grampa when we see the baby beluga, you must be very quiet"! With these instructions firmly in mind we entered the area of the Beluga habitat. We were allowed to remain in each viewing station for only five minutes which was enough time to see the baby and learn a little about its personality.

Following our viewing it was time to visit the puppet show at "Clown Fish Cove" and then on the way home to stop at the park to play on the slides and swings. Talk about being in touch with your inner child; with my grandson in my life, I live as a child almost every day.

I am the luckiest Grampa in the world!!

Love, peace and joy

Dennis

Why Do Some Images Sell?

I have often wondered what makes some images sell more than others. I live in the Pacific Northwest, a land of mountains, oceans, water scenes, and much greenery. In fact I live on the edge of a rain forest.

A number of my images sell as people seem to find me more than because of a concerted effort of mine to market my work. I usually print images 13 x 19 inches on canvas and mat them and occasionally frame them according to the customer.

I am surprised that my recent images from north east Arizona and southern Utah have sold the best here in the rain forest. The image on the left is the biggest seller recently and much touch something in each person who has purchased this image which by the way I like very much. When I was in the Monument Valley (just 6 miles into Utah) I was struck by this scene following lunch with our group of 10 photographers. This particular image is a compilation of 5 separate exposures processed as a single exposure. For me the color and drama of the photograph is obviously heightened by my memory of actually being there and experiencing the heat, color, the slight breeze on my face and the stillness of the area. It is gratifying when someone thinks highly of my work to the extent that they want to purchase it and presumably hang it in their home or place of work.

Today I thank all of you who have purchased my images, and also those of you who have received a gift of an image from me. You are all special to me and I extend my deep feeling of gratitude for being in my life.

Love, peace and joy

Dennis