There is something about early morning on a trail that is very difficult to match. The sun had just come up, temperature was in the 60’s, the air was fresh, and all the little creatures were awakening.
Yes, this morning was close on perfect.
I didn’t stay very long on the trail, as I had a pressing commitment but I am glad I made the effort to overcome a wicked night’s sleep and loosen my cobwebs in Mother Nature’s arms.
She even presented me with a few cobwebs of her own and against the rising sun and with a touch of dew, they far outdid anything in my head.
This little collection of images include the cobwebs, as well as some wild-flower that was seeding, and a couple of feathered friends just basking in the warmth of the early sun.
The thing about photography and in particular wildlife photography is that you never really know what you got until you get back home and pull them up on the monitor. You might think you got something but it blurred or your timing was off. Or something that you end up getting, totally surprises you.
I have had my share of luck in this regard in past adventures but the thought occurred to me that much of life is also like this. Whether in business or personal life, we often pursue something and even when we have it, we are unsure. Or worse still, we think we have something but it turns out to evaporate.
This uncertainty affects most of us in one significant manner. It reduces our enjoyment (because we can’t really savor the moment) or leads to unexpected disappointment. We are told early on to never count our chickens before they hatch and unless we have a strong history of winning, most of us ride the fear of something going wrong.
In fact, certainty is the overriding thought that I wanted to explore today as it seems to have a real bearing on our overall enjoyment of life.
So, I paused in going through the images and disregarded the fact that some I got and others I didn’t. I thought about the value of certainty and why we pursue it.
We pursue certainty because variables in our life leaves most of us uncomfortable and oftentimes knowing that we have lost is better than wondering if we will win.
We try to turn our life into a series of black and white events built on a simple collection of facts and happenings.
But certainty is no more embraceable than ether. In technology we often refer to this concept as vapor-ware … pure illusion. So why do we keep trying to force it?
Nothing in life is a given. We are not even guaranteed our next breath. Most of us have long since realized that there is no certainty in growing old, as many of our friends and family have died young.
So is that why perhaps we try to build as much certainty around us? Perhaps that it makes us feel we have some sense of control over our lives?
Whatever the reason, we need to understand that trying to build a “certain” life is a fools errand and we need to be able to embrace more of these moments as they happen and not get over-involved in the outcome.
This is why, as much as I love photography, I enjoy the moments of the photographs more. The moment where you are shooting a creature, a scene, a person. I love the trails themselves, or the city streets. I love the people and creatures that allow me to share their moments with them and I feel fortunate to be there.
If the images fail to be what I was hoping for, then tough shit. At least I had the moments.
And that is how we should live our lives. Dance for the love of the dance and not the applause.
We only get one dance and none of us know when the music ends.
May the music of your week have a lovely melody and may you enjoy every chord!
