Monthly Archives: June 2012

Inspiration: Everything Can Change For the Better…

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” Jim Rohn.

Inspiration: Everything Can Change For the Better…

Recently, I read a post from Joel Osteen titled Don’t Give Up. I get his inspiring tips and prayers - Today’s Word  – daily, and the timing of it was perfect. Joel’s post was exactly the message I needed to hear at that moment because I was struggling with some important change that had to be made. His soothing words and thoughtful, prayerful advice calmed me and, on reflection, I knew that I could meet the challenge ahead and battle it. The exact details are irrelevant, but what rings true for all of us is that we all experience life’s turbulence at different periods in our lives and nothing is more comforting than a kind, hope-filled and uplifting word. Since words carry enormous power and energy, we recognize and appreciate positive words and must be careful how we use words in our daily exchanges too… Everything can change on the turn of a word. Yes, you have won! Yes, you are hired! Yes, you have a clean bill of health! Yes, the project is done! Yes, to life…

“What can we take on trust in this uncertain life? Happiness, greatness, pride – nothing is secure, nothing keeps.” Euripides, Hecuba

Inspiration: Everything Can Change For the Better…

Joel advices us in that message to “Choose to be around people who are going to encourage you and fill your heart and mind with God’s Word. Let a song of praise come out of your mouth.”  This is important because sometimes, our negative attitude and experiences are a result of the company we keep. If we surround ourselves with toxic people, then our efforts at positive change becomes a cumbersome ordeal. Things can and do change for the better… But first, we have to do our part with focus and a positive spirit. If we fall down while we are in the middle of our struggle for change, lets get up and chalk it up to the removal of another obstacle in our path. Everything changes for everyone and can change for the better… Believe it.

“Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.”  Carlos Castaneda

Inspiration: Everything Can Change For the Better…

If you get Rolling Stone magazine, you might have read the riveting interview/story on homelessness by Jeff Tietz. The article “The Fallen,” walks us through the ever changing, shift-shaping lives of several people; families, elderly, young folk coping with homelessness. These are people from all walks of life whose worlds unraveled when they lost their homes, jobs, emotional support system,  and perhaps their mental stability. As Jeff put it, “They had good, stable jobs – until the recession hit. Now they’re living out of their cars in parking lots. The sharp, sudden decline of America’s middle class… ” Yet, in the midst of all that pain and suffering, profound changes occur. Some find new homes, new ways of handling the shame, new meanings about life, about people,   and above all, about themselves. On the surface, much might not change but on the inside, many have shifted their attitude and their thinking… Everything can change for the better. More below!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment…

“We are only beginning to learn what to say in a photograph. The world we live in is a succession of fleeting moments, any one of which might say something significant.” Alfred Eisenstaedt

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Girl waiting for boy.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Girl ignores boy…lovers tiff?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Girl ready to walk dog but makes a call first.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Mother and son waiting for… Dad?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man and man’s best friend waiting for WALK light…dog walking is a popular pastime.

I’ve always loved street photography but didn’t realize it was a genre within the art and craft of taking photographs. As a child, I loved looking through magazines that showcased fleeting or captured moments of people, subjects and events in every day life; subjects living life boldly or quietly, giving the observer, shielded by the camera‘s lens, a glimpse into the lives of strangers. I love this week’s challenge because as Eisenstaedt says above, life is a succession of  fleeting moments, and any of those moments might share something significant. Those fleeting moments include pauses or momentary acts of waiting and then movement. My photos for this challenge were taken on the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. More below!

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Loving couple cross paths with dog walker.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Girl on bike…another popular pastime in GP

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Girl in black on bike cruising along.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Two men on speed bikes up Franklin

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man on motorbike waiting for green light.

Greenpoint is friendly, family oriented, and the northernmost neighborhood in Brooklyn; an oasis for those folk who wish to escape the noise and endless grind of Manhattan. It was always considered a working class area with a huge Polish population, but in recent years, young professionals and those seeking something a bit more laid-back have moved in. It has also attracted a large Latino, South Asian and North African population, and has an ever growing yoga community. Naturally, the price of real estate has gone up. When I went there to capture life on the street, I could tell that people loved hanging out; walking their dogs, biking, skateboarding, people watching, chatting on their cellphones and waiting for the endless street lights to change.

“The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man with friends and pit-bull. Says to me: “WTF! You wanna photograph me?”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man with pit-bull chatting with friends… shot before the WTF shot.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Landmark Astral Apartments. Home to many folk and a few birds.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man and son looking up at bird diving at The Astral Apartments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment… Street Photos from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Man and son still bird watching.

The man with his dog observed me taking pictures, and turned his back when I came a little closer to capture him and his friends. Then he suddenly threw his hands in the air, turned around and said: “WTF! You wanna photograph me?” I smiled and said. “Yeah?” and took the shot. Only in NY. The Astral Apartments are beautiful and I loved the way the sun cast its shadow against the walls. The man and his son were watching a bird flying back and forth to the top of the building. I observed and captured their delight but my shot of the bird was a wash. :-(     :lol: More below!

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Musings: What’s On Your List?

“I believe that all humans have moments of inspiration when we perceive truth. These moments usually occur when the mind is quiet–when we perceive the force of life through our feelings.”  don Miguel Ruiz

Musings: What’s On Your List? Your heart’s list?

Seth Godin is one of my favorite marketing geniuses and an accomplished writer/blogger. Whenever I need to remind myself why certain things I choose to do matter, I go back to his writings and his blog for fuel. You see, Seth is not an advocate of the herd/bandwagon effect, he is more for finding our voice, following what matters to our hearts and damn the consequences. Now, I don’t mean that in a nonchalant way, but that as we continue to follow our hearts, what we do feels solid inside of us so no matter which way the winds blow, we remain steady on our course. We might stumble or even fall down sometimes, but that is the test of our metier and can only make us stronger.

Recently, I received two posts from him that resonated with me. The first, What’s On Your List, poses two important questions: How often do you remind yourself of what’s on the list? If the first thing you do when considering an opportunity is consult the list, the list is the most important thing in your life, isn’t it? Basically, bucket lists are only good if we act on them. Another point is that many of us don’t respond spontaneously to opportunities that make us joyful because we are busy calculating our risk and wondering if it belongs on our list of shoulds. The advice is to just go with it. Live. Dare to be different. We can learn to enjoy the liberating feeling of stepping out of our comfort zone and there is tremendous personal growth there.

“Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.” Ronald Reagan

Musings: What’s On Your List? Fire Up your muse…

The other post is Do we have to pander? In this one, he exhorts us to stay true to what matters to us and to not allow shifting winds to distract us from our hearts desire. There were a couple of lines that stood out for me: “Restaurants serve chicken fingers to their guests’ kids, because it’s the only thing they’ll eat. Some comedians give up their best work in exchange for jokes that everyone will get.” and “Yes, you can have a blog that follows every rule of blogging and seo, but no, it won’t be a blog we’ll miss if it’s gone.” The point he makes is that we go back to why we started it all and refocus on that original impulse as that is what will sustain us. Why settle for sameness? Stay true to you. The fact is that we can’t be everything to everybody.  I started this blog in 2008, and I recall that for many months I barely had any traffic. Then I had one subscriber, then another, and one committed blog friend and then another. Over time, it changed and has gotten infinitely better. I thank all who have supported this blog both outwardly and silently. Actually, the silent readers continue to be a surprising source of amazing grace too.

Two other bits of reading on my mind are Things To Stop Dwelling On from O Magazine. In it, Oprah offers advice on 10 things to stop sweating over and they include whether or not someone is mad at you, doing better than you, and the rudeness of strangers…  Rudeness is a pet peeve of mine and I had to laugh when I saw it on the list… Let it go. I encourage you to read the rest. Finally, Mamakat’s recent workshop prompt asks us to: List the 6 best things about being an adult. Making decisions and standing by them is adult for me. Honoring ourselves even if others don’t is another important one. When was the last time you treated yourself to something fun or pampered yourself? What’s stopping you? Other people’s opinions? What a waste of precious time, please go for it! The operative word for me this summer is FUN! Live boldly. :-) More below!

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