Thought on a morning walk...

In the effort to get back in shape, I've been walking through errands in the morning and hitting the gym at night. Unfortunately, it's like walking through air soup here in Kansas City right now. At 8am it's already over 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is pourable. However, walking is always a great opportunity for me to think...

On today's walk, I realized that my inclination to "see all sides" reflects itself in my photography. Now, I feel rather silly even saying "photography" because I'm far from a photographer like my long-time friend PoppaZ. I suppose I'd much rather say that my pictures often reflect the reflections that my eye has a tendency to see in surfaces; as if we don't have the whole picture unless we see what's there and see what's in the mirror... or on the window... or on the granite.

I came back from this latest trip to Europe and noticed that I took several pictures that highlighted the reflections of what I saw. To me, there's something fascinating about this. If thinking about my book, I can see a similar tendency to look at all sides. There isn't simply the light and the dark, we're all some combination of them--all some blend of gray. In order to achieve our goals, we must understand the real world and the signals we get from the metaphysical world. With both, we accomplish our dreams... and our dreams.

I often use the light switch analogy, stating that I simply can't be with someone who is either on or off. The right partner for me is a dimmer, changing the light and dark based on the situation or the circumstance or the mode or the feeling. This was never more evident than with the young woman I dated from a nearby city who consumed everything at a rapid pace--she was either running full-speed or dead to the world--that I once asked her why she was always in such a hurry. Her response, she didn't want to miss anything wherever she was going. Now, I eat my meals quickly, for example, but I'm never in a hurry to get up from the table. I like to take in the moment, admire my environment, stroll through the park, consume a book in the shade and cool breeze off the lake.

Now that I think about it more, this concept of "dimming" was very apparent in my couple of weeks with a former lover turned friend in Sweden. We made a wonderful team making meals, cleaning, planning, taking it easy, talking, exercising... there was no rush, even when there was some demand to get out of the summer house, into some nice clothes and visit a restaurant. We both adjusted to levels of light that complemented one another. That was nice, I must say. Now, if my teammate wasn't 6000 miles away...

I have a few hours today that I will be able to use on my novel. After yesterday's shredding (a self-edited, disheartening endeavor), I feel more like my own harsh criticisms are today's words of progress as soon as I fix the wrongs that I discovered. But first, GO USA!