I continue to go for walks and enjoy what I see in the neighborhood as the summer season comes to an end and we are full-on into fall. I read “Bettering Myself” from Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh and saw the parallel in my life with what she wrote. “Oh, okay, there were a few fine times. One day I went to the park and watched a squirrel run up a tree. A cloud flew around in the sky. I sat down on a patch of dry yellow grass and let the sun warm my back.”
No matter how troubled the times, small delicious pleasures – blue sky, bright flowers, a fairy doorway, dry grasses blowing in the wind, sun shining, fruit ripening, leaves changing color – never fail to delight me and lift my spirits. So I walk every day. I gather little bits from nature and put them in an antique wooden bowl when I get home.
I’m seeing a lot of travel trailers, vans and campers; took a photo of a vintage one I thought looked fun. Super popular way to vacation right now. Friends are waiting for a T@B teardrop trailer they ordered; it should show up in November and then I’ll get a first-hand report of their travel adventures. Might be inspired to follow in their foot-steps.
I’m on a news blackout right now; was just feeling overloaded in the past few days. Longer walks are great, and my photography is a way for me to anchor the moments of happy discovery. Life is fleeting; the sun will never shine through the leaves in exactly this way again. The sunset evolves from moment to moment. Leaves will fall, the sky will be overcast, the sun will be lower in the sky. So I capture the moment and hang onto it with gratitude.
Winter rain is inevitable, and we will see what the next season brings to delight the senses.
