When I left home around 5:15 this morning, the plan was to head to St Pete and take sunrise pics at North Shore Park. I have been there just a couple of times and it gives a lovely sunrise view across the waters of Tampa Bay.
Last night before going to sleep, I checked the weather and it said “partly cloudy” which sometimes bodes well for a really colorful sunrise.
But as I hit the interstate, it became apparent that fog and heavy cloud was the order of the day and the prospect of a sunrise at all was virtually zero.
By this time of course, I was already heavily committed with my trusted cup of coffee by my side and all the cats either fed and locked up or fed and allowed out. So the thought of turning back, never really played out in my head as a serious option.
I remembered the boat docks at St Pete near the pier and I figured I didn’t really need a sunrise for those shots. Particularly if I could get there early enough to catch whatever ambient lights might be in play.
So, I reset the navigator destination and while still heading to St Pete, targeted the pier just a few miles further south than the park.
In the back of my mind I wondered if there might still be a breakthrough of sun, should the clouds break up a little. But looking out into the darkness of the early morning, I couldn’t really see much chance of that happening.
From my parking spot near the boats, I could see a dim glow of blue from something at the pier and it was only after going out the pier a little that I realized it was an art-piece that was getting hit by blue and some red lights that were dimming on and off. Hence the shots, I got.
The value of the glow was wonderful in the dark, touching the fog and creating a surreal feel to the photos. But as the sky began to brighten, the effect washed out. So, I was glad I got there when I did.
I have attached some images to the end of the blog, hope you enjoy!
It was on the way home that I began to mull over how well the adjustment to my morning went. And I thought how much of life itself is really an adjustment.
I mean, yes there are definitely times when we have to implement a Plan B and totally change what we are doing, but more often than not it is a simple adjustment that works best.
Most adjustments are seamless … they may even be invisible to us as we slow down or accelerate along a given path. For example you find yourself at the grocery store adding some things to the shopping cart that you didn’t originally intend to buy.
Other adjustments require us to recognize something is wrong with a specific plan or action and so we have to devise a slight improvement or redirection that gets us to where we are trying to go. For example perhaps we are driving to a friend’s house and the road ahead is flooded so we take a detour. We are still going to the same place, just taking a slightly different path to get there.
Then there are times when we have to reevaluate what we are doing and compromise ourselves in some fashion in order to get the same end result. For example, you are in college pursuing your degree and the studies are more demanding than you had originally allowed for. So you have to dump the boyfriend because a relationship is too much of a drag on your ambitions at this time. Sorry, Johnny!
In each of the above situations, the end point hasn’t changed. We still got our groceries, we got to our friend’s house, and we got our degree.
Being unable to adjust can be the difference between success and failure. We don’t get the sugar because it wasn’t on our original list and it turns out we had not at home after all!. We never reach our friend’s house because we flooded the engine trying to get through too much running water on the road. And we ended up not getting the grades to complete our degree and Johnny ended up leaving us anyway for another woman (someone who got their degree apparently).
Aesop’s Fables has the reed surviving the storm because it happily bent in the wind, while the strong oak refused to bend and eventually fell over.
When we feel the wind, we need to move with it. Adjust our approach to things so that we eventually get there.
Keeping the end goal in sight and being humble enough to know that occasionally we have to trim our sails, is a wise way of going through life.
“My way or the highway” too often leaves us upside down in a ditch somewhere and is a fool’s approach to life.
Today’s adjustment meant that I still went to St Pete, still got photos for this blog, but they just turned out to be a bit different than the images I went to sleep with in my head last night. Such is life sometimes!
… just a thought!
