We are on our own when it comes to living a life worth the effort, and the older I get, the greater the effort on all levels. The compromises and trade-offs make walking to the mail box more of a chore than it once was, and just sitting in this scene and those like it becomes preferable to walking through them taking pictures.
Absorbing the wonders. Relishing the joys. Becoming one with the beauty here, now, and being in no hurry to move on, move on, make the moment more of a treasure than they ever have been. I sit enjoying the breeze beneath a Carolina blue sky, and see no reason to move on, move on.
I slow every day down to my speed in this way. Taking my time to see what I’m looking at, and hear what I’m listening to, and taste what I’m eating (The amazing apple cobbler I made yesterday with lactose-free ice cream qualified for the highlight reel) are the kind of things I’m talking about when I say we are on our own when it comes to living a life worth the effort.
Looking closer, feeling deeply, absorbing the value of each moment, not allowing life to slip through our hands without intense delight at the experience of being alive to this here, this now throughout the day every day. And there is always the wonder of the music I’m in the mood for coming through my ear buds thanks to YouTube at any point in the day.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 