It is the unseen worlds that fascinate, the world that breathes outside my linited perception. I celebrate these prisms of color that reveal themselves through my ingnorance of shutter speed the absence of an appropriate filter.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Solitude
I am delinquent in all things, in all phases in my life, work has been pushed to the top of my priority list, for now for at least a little bit longer, it is simply how it is. The work has been good, actually the work has been fantastic, a real sense of being able to make a small difference, the ability to work on projects that have meaning, and a fantastic group of peers working together in a collaborative spirit. It has however has me traveling more than I would like, travel seems to be feast and famine in the work that I do, I am either in the field constantly ( the parking shuttle driver knows my name) or stuck in the office for months ( a twilight zone sort of place a cross between the Office and Just Shoot Me). Ideally I would like to travel a couple of days a couple times a month, every month-but of late it has been travel part of every week, I am looking forward to the long dry spell. I miss my husband and daughter when I am gone, a sense of not being connected in the day to day mechanics of our life. Yet I often enjoy the quiet down time I carve out at the end of a travel day, the time where it is just me, myself and I. By nature I am an extrovert and find great energy and purpose in being with people, but as I age I find that I also need a bit of Brenda time. I am learning to carve out quiet time at home, to find time to enjoy the noise of my own mind. Last week we had record snow here in Texas, 12 inches in 24 hours, our world was covered in a thick blanket. I laid down in my front yard and made a snow angel, make snow ice cream for my daughter and her friends and I took a long walk with camera. The photo taken at the edge of a Frisbee golf field. With God's grace I find myself mostly groovy.
I am delinquent in all things, in all phases in my life, work has been pushed to the top of my priority list, for now for at least a little bit longer, it is simply how it is. The work has been good, actually the work has been fantastic, a real sense of being able to make a small difference, the ability to work on projects that have meaning, and a fantastic group of peers working together in a collaborative spirit. It has however has me traveling more than I would like, travel seems to be feast and famine in the work that I do, I am either in the field constantly ( the parking shuttle driver knows my name) or stuck in the office for months ( a twilight zone sort of place a cross between the Office and Just Shoot Me). Ideally I would like to travel a couple of days a couple times a month, every month-but of late it has been travel part of every week, I am looking forward to the long dry spell. I miss my husband and daughter when I am gone, a sense of not being connected in the day to day mechanics of our life. Yet I often enjoy the quiet down time I carve out at the end of a travel day, the time where it is just me, myself and I. By nature I am an extrovert and find great energy and purpose in being with people, but as I age I find that I also need a bit of Brenda time. I am learning to carve out quiet time at home, to find time to enjoy the noise of my own mind. Last week we had record snow here in Texas, 12 inches in 24 hours, our world was covered in a thick blanket. I laid down in my front yard and made a snow angel, make snow ice cream for my daughter and her friends and I took a long walk with camera. The photo taken at the edge of a Frisbee golf field. With God's grace I find myself mostly groovy.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Doodle Art and the Art of Balance
It seems a long time since I did anything purely creative, wrote a poem, took time to photograph the world, or simply do one of my doodles. This one a true doodle as I was in a 3hr training class that was a near postal experience, a new computer orientation class about being a mobile workforce and introducing new increased security protocols (roughly translated means all advanced controls locked making the term "mobile workforce" a oxymoron for us road warriors). Score one this week for the marriage between the Art of Bureaucracy and Technology. Brenda zero. I spent the first three days of the week in Orlando and can honestly say after two trips to Orlando I have not yet seen any of Florida, my first trip was spent entirely in the surreal world of Disney and this week in a conference center with faux lagoons and a row of palm trees. And rain, don't forget the rain. I did however get to see my friends from other offices and the inside of the hotel bar, where the bartender had come up with a whole series of Environmental Themed Drinks the Global Warming and the Climate Change-I stuck to glass of wine, however several of my group imbibed in the Global Warming. The rest of us used our imaginative skills to come up with ideas for other possible environmentally themed drinks, such as the Oil Spill (perhaps something with fruit that would form globules in the drink and be almost impossible to get off the glass) and the LNAPL (something with perhaps Grand Marnier that floats to the top like gasoline) and the DNAPL (here we became stuck-trying to think of a liquor that would sink to the bottom).
The City of Richardson photo contest closed and none of my photos placed, I was really disappointed, as I thought that one of mine had a real chance. I am going to lick my wounds and perhaps enter a few of my photos in the work yearly contest. Work has been hectic but fantastic, I was accepted in a leadership development program, the jury is still out if this is a good thing. I have been doing the same sort of work for nearly 25 years. It has evolved through many changes, re-inventions and initiatives. The basic premise remains the same and honestly some of the initiatives feel a bit like deja'vu ( this may be because I am somewhat a cynic), but after 25 years I still love what I do and for that I feel eternally grateful. I started a 30 day poetry challenge yesterday (which means if I make 10 days I will call it a win) as I am finding it harder and harder to get to the place where the poetry grows. Perhaps it is because I am out of practice, or perhaps it is because work has been so hectic that at the end of the day my brain is a bit mushy and I simply want to vegetate. I am trying to recalibrate my scale, so that I can find time for all of the pieces in my life. I am groovy and happy, but still I miss the words, we shall see how I do.
It seems a long time since I did anything purely creative, wrote a poem, took time to photograph the world, or simply do one of my doodles. This one a true doodle as I was in a 3hr training class that was a near postal experience, a new computer orientation class about being a mobile workforce and introducing new increased security protocols (roughly translated means all advanced controls locked making the term "mobile workforce" a oxymoron for us road warriors). Score one this week for the marriage between the Art of Bureaucracy and Technology. Brenda zero. I spent the first three days of the week in Orlando and can honestly say after two trips to Orlando I have not yet seen any of Florida, my first trip was spent entirely in the surreal world of Disney and this week in a conference center with faux lagoons and a row of palm trees. And rain, don't forget the rain. I did however get to see my friends from other offices and the inside of the hotel bar, where the bartender had come up with a whole series of Environmental Themed Drinks the Global Warming and the Climate Change-I stuck to glass of wine, however several of my group imbibed in the Global Warming. The rest of us used our imaginative skills to come up with ideas for other possible environmentally themed drinks, such as the Oil Spill (perhaps something with fruit that would form globules in the drink and be almost impossible to get off the glass) and the LNAPL (something with perhaps Grand Marnier that floats to the top like gasoline) and the DNAPL (here we became stuck-trying to think of a liquor that would sink to the bottom).
The City of Richardson photo contest closed and none of my photos placed, I was really disappointed, as I thought that one of mine had a real chance. I am going to lick my wounds and perhaps enter a few of my photos in the work yearly contest. Work has been hectic but fantastic, I was accepted in a leadership development program, the jury is still out if this is a good thing. I have been doing the same sort of work for nearly 25 years. It has evolved through many changes, re-inventions and initiatives. The basic premise remains the same and honestly some of the initiatives feel a bit like deja'vu ( this may be because I am somewhat a cynic), but after 25 years I still love what I do and for that I feel eternally grateful. I started a 30 day poetry challenge yesterday (which means if I make 10 days I will call it a win) as I am finding it harder and harder to get to the place where the poetry grows. Perhaps it is because I am out of practice, or perhaps it is because work has been so hectic that at the end of the day my brain is a bit mushy and I simply want to vegetate. I am trying to recalibrate my scale, so that I can find time for all of the pieces in my life. I am groovy and happy, but still I miss the words, we shall see how I do.
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