Hanging out with Friends

Typically I am a homebody. My very small social life revolves around photography workshops, the camera club, an occasional dinner with friends, and some volunteer things that I do here and there. This past week though I have had a very healthy and large dose of socializing. Saturday, I had organized a gray whale tour with Island Adventures, for the camera club and large group of us went.  We had a great time.  The weather was almost perfect - sunny, calm, a little warm and clear skies. We didn't have to travel far before we saw gray whales. There were quite a few whales out so we just hung out and enjoyed the scenery and watching these magnificent creatures.

Then I organized a Sunset under the Bridge workshop that spanned over five nights. The workshop was a benefit/fundraiser for a friend/instructor that had passed away. Each night there was a large group of us hanging out and waiting for the sun to set under the Deception Pass bridge.  While waiting we stood around talking, laughing and really enjoying each others company.  It was so relaxing and just plain fun to just hang out with these wonderful people, sharing a common interest and getting to know them more.

Expressing myself with fun and enjoyment of great company.

A Journey to where we are

In life we travel many journeys.  I am talking more about the where-life-takes-us-kind-of-journeys.  We are what we are because of the journeys we were on, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. We have to travel a journey in order to get to where we are now. Just like when we travel, we may hit bumps in the road, experience beauty that is beyond words, head downhill (sometimes at high-speed), take a leisurely ride to the top, or just float along.

I am fascinated by people with lives that are what I refer to as, 'level'.  Their lives seem to be on this path, or road, that is pretty even, fairly level and constant.  Not much changes. The scenery is pretty much the same, the road is pretty level, nothing too high, or too low. They are traveling a simple, quiet journey and where they are is stable, reliable and most of the time fairly calm. And I always wonder, 'why is that?' Is it their personality, the choices they made, their outlook on life, their pre-consciousness (without even really thinking about it), or just because? What is their secret?

Then there are those that we all refer to as, 'Lives Life to the Fullest'. Always on the go, happy, bouncing from one journey to the next, always exploring, looking forward to the next journey, enjoys where ever they are and gets to where they are by just doing. 

My journeys have been more like up and down and all around. Always heading somewhere, sometimes heading nowhere, turbulent, winding roads, vastly changing sceneries, changing direction - most of the time without a map, having to relearn again, with brief journeys to amazing places in life.

Now that I am older what kind of journey would I like to be on? Honestly, a mix of all 3.  I like that my journeys change, but I would like some more stable and reliable journeys to help balance it out.  Then add a journey here and there that really excites me and helps me get to that live-life-to-the-fullest place.

Expressing myself with a 'sense of adventure' and hopefully a 'touch of stability'. 

A Great Loss

Today I lost a good friend, a mentor, an important person in my life.  Though I am feeling this loss strongly, I am also feeling very blessed - because this person, even though for a short time, was an important part of my life. 

We both shared a passion - his was to teach photography, mine was to organize the classes that allowed his wonderful talent to shine. We made a great team and we had some really successful classes. I went through the blog from our workshops today and found this posting of a workshop we did in August of 2009.  That workshop was our most successful class. It was intense, the location was perfect for the subject, and the students participating dived right in.  Something that Dick and I both enjoyed the most from our classes was watching the students get so involved and we would get the most joy from their excitement.

This post seemed appropriate considering today.  The workshop was called,  "Workshop with Emotion."  A quote from the post is what struck me the hardest, "What was unexpected was the 'intensity' of the location and how it would affect the participants."  

That is how I am expressing myself today: The 'intensity' of the emotions felt in a community today. We will miss you. Thank you for being you, for all that you were, and what you meant to all of us.

Workshop with Emotion