DAY 191: SMILEY MAN

I don't know this fella's name, but he was smiling and he made me smile back one day when I was taking a walk that just happened to bring me past his residence.

That's about it.

It'd be easy as shooting fish in a barrel to over-analyze and speculate about this photo, what with the sesame street diaper bag...the worn glider... cowboy boots kinda missing the toes (from kneeling in prayer?)... the white plastic chairs arranged in a way that suggest recent company...the seemingly home-made shutters at the windows, but------OOOPS----- there I go again!

This one, I didn't want to say a whole lot about...except that this guy just seemed like a sweet person who simply brightened my day by smiling at me - and he kept smiling, even when I brought out the camera and snapped his picture.

Thanks, Smiley Man!

DAY 189: FORGIVEN

I got an unexpected late night phone call from a Facebook Friend yesterday. I've known her since childhood, but after we got the initial business of her call out of the way we had a long and interesting conversation concerning things that I never imagined we'd ever speak to one another about.

She told me she has felt bad about something from years ago that I have not even given a second thought to for a very long long time.

She mentioned that she feels she knows me a little better because of my posts here and on Facebook, and I guess I know her better, as well, because of our digital posts - and for that I am glad. Our online friendship apparently started to bother her or rekindle a regret she had in the past, because she felt she had some unfinished business with me I guess you could say.

I've thought a lot about last night's conversation today.

She will probably read this, so...this one's for YOU!

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I would like to say here that all is totally forgiven, and I have no hard feelings AT ALL. And I appreciate your honesty!

I have done plenty of things in my life that I have wished forgiveness for - things worse than what has been burdoning you about me.

One day I had what one might call an epiphany, of sorts.

I had been just miserable about a wrong done to me, and I'd been so upset. How dare they do this to moi!

But then I began to think about all the wrongs I had done to others...  : ( 

Those memories of how I had hurt others far outweighed the injustice I happened to be experiencing at the time - my own failures weighed me down far more.

I realized that if I ever hoped to be truly forgiven and feel that childlike freedom in my heart once again, I must FIRST forgive others for any hurts that have come my way. I thought of the prayer most of us say so often. The Our Father. And the passage, "Forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US"! Basically, we've all been praying that prayer since we learned to talk, and are condemning ourselves if we are not willing to forgive others completely. Kind of scary.

It was as though a ton of bricks had been lifted from my spirit when I had that realization and acted on it. At that moment, I forgave everything - *just like that*. I can't believe how easy it was! It seemed so difficult, but when I wanted it with all my heart, it was easy. And how good it felt! Only then did I have confidence that I would somehow be shown similar mercy for any hurts I've caused others. And only then was my own burden lifted.

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I hope my facebook friend never has a negative feeling about the incident in question ever again. Life is rarely easy and she has had more than her own share of hard times in lots of ways, so I imagine it will be quite a struggle for her to totally forgive all those who've hurt her at once (it took me a very long time, as well), but I hope it won't be long for her that she'll get to the point where she can truly just bare her soul and offer up the hurts she has experienced in her life and know with confidence that her own slate is wiped clean; when that happens,  it's truly a brand new day.

That's just the way it is.

The pictures I'm including in this entry are significant to me, and this seems like a good place to save them. That's all.

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DAY 181: SCARIEST CAUTION SIGN EVER

It was just me and my camera at Lebanon National Cemetery when I came across this: possibly the scariest caution sign EVER.

*DANGER! OPEN GRAVE!*

Yikes.

Plus, I gather that at our National Cemetery, they dig a whole row-long 6 foot deep trench and then cover the entire cavern with wooden planks, sections of which are removed for each new burial of one of our Veterans. While expedient, I found this very surprising. I just never knew this.

And viewing the scene, I couldn't help but think of the old saying about "walking the plank"...which meant something really bad was in store (for a pirate, usually)...but from now on when I hear that phrase I'll also think of this.

Indeed. This truly is the scariest caution sign, ever.

DAY 180: HUMBLED: The Least as First, in Real Life

The kindness and generosity - and talent -  of some people never ceases to amaze me. 

   

I haven't had the best past few days, but my spirits were lifted when I got a message late this afternoon from a Facebook and Marion County 24/7 friend who instructed me to look out on my porch, in the swing.

She'd left me something while I was out.

What I found simply astounded me!

She is an artist who loves to paint, but the only people who can acquire the fruits of her talent are friends or people who buy her work in support a charity.

She'd told me a month or so ago that a certain picture I took at the Lebanon National Cemetery at the Memorial Day celebration had inspired her somehow, and asked if it would be okay to use that picture as the basis for a painting. Naturally, I was pleased that anything I'd done that day might bear fruit in another form. But still, I was more than surprised that she'd paid attention to this certain photo:

And never did I expect what awaited me on my front porch swing from her!

First, a beautifully framed (with easel, no less) painting of one in her series depicting fruits and vegetables - "Veggievention" (pictured at the beginning of this entry). She wanted me to have it because she said it reminded her of my appreciation for yummy veggies! LOVE. IT.

And then a large one that she calls her "practice" painting inspired from my photograph that is for "my eyes only", as she put it. She calls it "Courageous Spirits", and plans to complete the one she will auction off for charity by this Friday. I wish I could post her "practice"...it's great. I have hopes to publish her final draft.

Here is what she said with regard to "Courageous Spirits":

"What I felt from your photo was just a heavenly breath of courageous spirits that gave their life for us/America.  It is my hope that my final piece will reflect those courageous spirits swirling in the heavens, the trees and wind as we pay our respects to their standing stones; it moves me to believe that their spirits are with their loved ones as they come to visit the cemetery, even if it is on two different planes of being."

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Now how beautiful is that?

Honestly, in the lengthy series of photos I posted of that day at Lebanon National Cemetery, the very one that inspired the artist is the very one I almost did not post. There was an evident smudge on my camera lense on that particular photo. It really bothered me a lot.  But despite the smudge, I let it in (almost didn't).

I'm glad now that I did.

Isn't it just something what might inspire another person to great heights?

I am very humbled that what I considered among the least of my photos of that day is the very one to have spurred my friend on to produce what I believe is a very inspired painting.

The first shall be last. The least shall be first.

We just never know what will resonate with someone and bear fruit.

Thank you, Kassy Jaglowicz!

DAY 178: BOYS DON'T MATTER YET

These young ladies stopped by in pairs, asking if they could swing in our back yard. The two on the right arrived first, and once they got permission, the girl on the far right excitedly advised me of an important term: if two more girls showed up on bikes wanting to swing, I should not let them because she and her friend were here first and they're all mad at each other!

Sure enough, about five minutes later I had four girls instead of two in my back yard. I made it clear I was not going to referee their argument.

I got out the camera and they were all about it, but when it came time to pose, there was a big empty space between the pairs of girls. I told them I couldn't get them all in the picture unless they got closer together...and what the heck - "you'll probably all be friends again in a few minutes anyway!"

They all laughed and scrunched together for the photo.