It had been a frustrating weekend with limited abilities to do anything that provided nourishment for my soul, so when I found out from the groundsman at UT that the lotus were starting to bloom, I promised myself I would make haste and get there to shoot whatever I could find.
I went there early this morning. Figured if the police had a road block setup, I would just tell them I was on my way to a gun store.
But I needn’t have worried … downtown was relatively busy considering everyone was supposed to be staying at home. But traffic was considerably lighter and parking easy to find.
The lotus flowers were not in full bloom yet, but I am not sure if that was the time of the day or the time of the season. I didn’t care though … they oozed beauty in the pond and the smell was as sweet as any florist shop I have visited.
None were near the edge of the pond though, which is probably just as well. There was evidence of broken stems near the pond-edge that bore witness to the mindless morons that had beaten my visit.
There were plenty just a few feet into the pond though and as they hadn’t really opened up yet, It meant that I had to become slightly acrobatic in getting the shots that I was looking for.
So, my one-handed camera skills finally came to use as I managed to avoid an early morning swim or worse still dropping my expensive alpha into the water beneath. Figuring out how to adjust focus and control the camera at arm’s length while perched perilously over water is actually a skill I have been in training for, these past couple of years, so I was really pleased with some of the shots that I got … hope they bring some beauty into your lives today.
As I drove away from my little adventure, I was quietly confident that I had gotten something decent and so I patted myself on the back for not just having the skills to run the camera with one hand, but also my willingness to risk loss (of camera and pride) in pursuit of capturing the moment.
There might have been a time when I was young when risk would make me balk at the pursuit. For example, as a late teen the risk of rejection was prime cause of my lack of dance partners and an enduring virginity.
But nowadays being much closer to death, risk seems frivolous in terms of deciding whether to do or not do something. But is it just longevity in years that plays the mitigator in our brains towards risk? I don’t think so.
I know some people even older than me (yes, there are a few out there, believe it or not) who come up with a million reasons not to try something. And for them, the fear of failure or ridicule makes them shy away from even the first sign of risk.
So, it can’t be age. No, what I think it really comes down to is experience.
What I mean is that if we have a lot of bad experience in past risks taken, then we may introduce a fear element into the next risk decision.
My mom would refer to me as her Cockeyed Optimist. She told me it was a phrase that she learned from the movie South Pacific and no matter what past fails, I always seemed to be willing to keep an eye open for the next opportunity to try.
I don’t really see myself in that wonderful light, in all honesty, but I loved that she saw that in me.
Our parents are a unique gift in our lives. They see such wonderful possibilities in the most dismal of us. I miss mine, horribly.
Anyway, I digress. Sorry.
Bad past experiences should definitely be something we think about but only from the perspective of learning from them. They should never be a reason to not try something new.
Life will give us as many outs as we look for. If we need a reason not to do something or not even try something, our brains will automatically flood with a list of why we shouldn’t even bother.
There will be no shortage of food for our fears, but in the end we only end up starving our adventurer-spirit until one day on our death bed we drown in the regrets of things never even having been tried.
We all have regrets and if you haven’t yet, then trust me, you ultimately will. But the regrets should only be of things we have done; not of those we never did.
By definition, the word risk means there is a possibility of failure, but wtf. So what if I fail? And then again, what if I succeed? How will I know, if I don’t even try.
Have a wonderful week!
