So, I said I would do this once a week. Probably on the weekends. But given the holiday, I decided to slip an extra one in....Its Thanksgiving in America and I have much to be thankful for.
Its the time of year to show gratitude. Its not easy for everyone. Knowing that it can always be worse doesn't bring much comfort, but it is most certainly still true. A few years ago I was having a mini tantrum because once again, the moment I had built a little "nest egg" for myself, or received some form of extra or "free" money....well, I bet you can guess. Something of course had to go wrong. This has happened, quite literally, every time I have ever had extra (bulk) money in my life. It seemed cash was a bad omen for catastrophe of equal or greater value.
During this mini tantrum I vented to my mother in typical woe-is-me fashion. Every time I have some money...BOOM...something has to happen so I can't even enjoy it. I can't have fun with it, or save it, or pay off a stupid bill! No, nothing <insert Charlie Brown Ugh here>
My wise mother then said something that changed my outlook on everything...forever. She said, "Why is it that you say, whenever you have money, suddenly something bad takes it away? Instead of, whenever something bad happens, suddenly you have money to pay for it?" Well didn't I feel like a schmuck. What has happened in our society of plenty that we (namely ME) can no longer see the bright side of anything, when we are living directly inside, the bright side. I have a lot to be grateful for. The list starts with God, country and family and ends with my last breath. I will not forget that again.
Today, I wish to express gratitude on simpler scale. It starts with the kindness of a stranger...
I love pictures. Love to look at them. Love to take them. But Im not that great at it. Remember the whole attention span issue? I have a great digital SLR that I keep on IA (intelligent auto) all the time. What a waste. Photography is yet another passion that I love but neglect. I am such a slacker. I'm below par for my own course....sigh. That said, some people are just gifted and what they have cannot be taught.
I troll the net sometimes looking for inspiration. I usually know what I need to see. I will look up a color, like orange or a subject like "Moss" or "Clouds" and search until I find the one that satisfies whatever it was my brain was looking for. I often wondered what it meant, that people are my least favorite subject. There are some, that without an individual perfectly placed, the symmetry would be lost, or the point ineffectual. Not to mention how often looking in the the wide open eyes of a very young child or infant is your door into an unwritten world. But still, they bottom out my list
Photographers, the good ones. The dedicated ones. The ones that see art in the strangest places and smallest details. The ones who always have their camera ready, they way I always have a pencil and paper hidden somewhere...I have great respect for. They express what I am thinking, without even trying. They know what I was trying to say, without words.
Besides being part of my name, I relate to clouds in many ways. A clouds lifespan is about that of my attention span. They can be beautiful and cheery. Or dark and ominous. They can look like a teddy bear or a raving lunatic Crocogator. Oh yea, they exist. They tell you things without a word...hows the weather outside? Ask a cloud! They are common. Always around in some form. I think most people forget them. As pretty as they are, people cherish clear blue skies. I have never ever understood that. A cloudless sky to me, looks empty. Lonely. Its like a salt-less dish. I appreciate them. I enjoy the ever-changing sky. Its like...my mirror twin. I feel a strange bond when I look up. Day or night, she is always there. A new print every time I look. Why have so many stopped looking up? I can't even speculate.
So, back to my point. I found a picture recently that resonated with me in many ways. This picture to me, was art. It was on flickr from an Italian photographer named Andrea Cucconi. While I got stalled on his albums for a while..this one picture burned itself into my mind...it was like a self portrait...of my mirror twin, ha! The photo, titled "Nuvola nera" (black cloud) is just stunning. It is a photo of the Italian sky...but is so much more. It seems to almost fade from some perfect oil painting, into nature. A bright illuminated sky, with a rogue raven cloud passing through. I am posting the link below with permission from Mr. Cucconi. But he went a step further and gave me, a complete stranger and amateur rambler in every way, permission to actually use the photo on this blog. The photo is below and is one of the new loves of my life. I thank you very kindly Andrea Cucconi! And to you, I offer my gratitude today!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreacucconi/508643366/in/faves-88361884@N00/
It will become my main photo as soon as I figure out HOW to do that...it seems I am not so fast a learner!
It is now the very end of my day. I am tired and more stuffed than any old turkey could be. Now that I am three blogs in and I feel like its something I can do, I will get back to what was supposed to be my original point this weekend. I will begin to verbally walk through my attempt at writing this novel. Probably while still avoiding proper punctuation. (Its a blog! Thats like dressing up to go to walmart!) This will be my outlet, good bad and ugly. And I hope that it will help me track growth as a writer and progress toward my goal. And to anyone who takes this journey with me, I pray I neither bore you to death or drive you insane. And if I take the walk alone, well, I hope I don't bore myself to death or drive me insane! Unless bored insane people write good books....
Once again, out to the open air I say, goodnight. If the sun rises on your tomorrow, say thank you. Or, say thank you for no reason at all, or for every reason in the world. And when a black cloud passes though...don't be so quick to think that there is not some small reason that even it, deserves your gratitude. It was one passing black cloud that inspired me. And its photographer made that possible. He stopped to take a picture of the darkness in his Italian sky. And years later someone who found it beautiful took it home. Even if home is just right here. It was not darkness I saw. But a stroke of Gods brush, and a photographer who knew divine art was just passing through...
~A Raven Cloud is a happy cloud
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