I went down again to the lake this morning, coffee in hand, camera in bag, repellent in car, and hope in heart.
The mosquitoes lakeside are apparently unable to read the label on the bottle because it didn’t work and I was dive-bombed from all directions. They made it so difficult to concentrate on getting decent pictures and by the time I fled the scene back to the comfort of my car, I was eaten alive!
As I drove home, I saw this lovely Anhinga sitting at water’s edge and so I pulled in and got a few shots of him.
He was a cute little guy but wary of me and when I moved to try to put him between the sunrise and me, he flew away.
I was honestly still miffed by the whole experience by the time I got back to the office.
I grabbed a second cup and loaded the pics into the PC to see if I got anything and that’s when I spotted this shot. Hope you like.
We often humanize these little creatures, transposing our own feelings onto their behavior but it seemed to me that he was looking sadly at the horizon, wishing he was in flight somewhere too, instead of standing at the lake’s edge with me.
It got me thinking how our mood really alters our perspective of things. This morning I was struggling with a personal issue and so it shaded all my viewpoints onto the dark side of the spectrum.
But I am sure we can all identify a time where we hear a song that plays exactly to our state of mind and it becomes our anthem for a while.
Or you watch a movie that plays out some scene that causes your eyes to tear up as it cuts a little close to the bone.
Our emotions drive many of our experiences in life; turning otherwise meaningless moments into something special, or taking something that should be special and making it meaningless.
Optimism and pessimism, happiness and sadness, love or loss … they all shape our experience on a moment by moment basis.
Which translates to a simple fact … that most of our happiness and contentment comes from within. Our minds very much control our life experiences and when we push a positive agenda within ourselves, it can have a very real effect on the quality of life we live.
So, try not to dwell in the negative. It is ok to lick our wounds but not ok to make a meal of it!
Speaking of wounds … I need to go now and pour some hydrogen peroxide on my back; time to buy a different repellent!