bacalpacing...

you have heard of backpacking,
well this is...

bacalpacing

pronounced... back-alpacking
(hitching a ride on an alpaca)

"The world does not need tourists
who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues.
The world as it is needs those
who will love it enough to change it,
with what they have, where they are."
- Robert Fulghum

No matter what your situation,
you may be just where
the Lord wants you to be
and in a place where
you can make a difference.

Use the opportunity
to change someone's world.

don't give up...

don't give up

"Your present circumstances
don't determine where you can go;
they merely determine where you start."
- Nido Qubein

You can always start again...
you are only defeated when you
decide to do nothing.

savoring...

grape pie

I love grape pie... mmmm
My mother used to make one of these a year
during peak season for grapes.

It was a “labor” of love.

Sometimes now we get one
from New York's Fingerlakes.

This is something to be savored.

"You must pre-live the future...
not re-live the past...
and savor the moment."
- Author Unknown

shine on me...

shine on me

"The sun does not shine
for a few trees and flowers,
but for the wide world's joy.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

money plant...

money plant

Yesterday was my birthday...
and at my request, I received money
(for photographic related items).

Since my wife is so very creative,
and since I just turned 68,
she presented me with a “money plant”
containing 68 one dollar bills.

Money doesn't grow on trees
or on any other plant.

“Waste not, want not”
- Ben Franklin

in the hospital...

in the hospital

My wife recently ended up in the hospital
with a TIA (mild stroke).

These two highly efficient doctors
(Doctor Buttons and Doctor Bows)
provided one of the best medicines of all...
laughter.

“Experts now agree, Laughter:
-Is good for you
-Boosts your immune system
-Can be shared
-Relieves tension
-Benefits the mind, body and spirit
-Is free!”
- Author Unknown

“A cheerful heart is good medicine."
- King Solomon
(Proverbs 17:22)

UPDATE:  My wife is home again from the hospital
and is fine... the neurologist thinks
it may have been a type of migrane
but not to rule out a possible TIA...
inconclusive diagnosis.
Prayers work.

prepare...

PREPARE
winter is coming

"Four steps to achievement:
Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully.
Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”
- William Arthur Ward

wise discourse...

wise discourse

"Where wise actions are the fruit of life,
wise discourse is the pollination."
- Bryant H. McGill

number 44...

it's another anniversary
(number 44)

"An anniversary is a time to celebrate
the joys of today, the memories of yesterday,
and the hopes of tomorrow.”
- Author Unknown

by understanding...

by understanding

"Man masters nature not by force,
but by understanding.”
- Jacob Bronowski

that has spirit...

that has spirit

"There's no particular class of photograph
that I think is any better than any other class.
I'm always and forever looking for
the image that has spirit!”
- Minor White

fullest potential...

fullest potential

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee,
the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential,
and fight for your dreams."
- Ashley Smith

virtue...

virtue

"Beauty without virtue
is like a rose without scent."
- Proverb

teeming life...

teeming life

"The teeming life of nature
has yielded up to your loving attention
many sacramental images of Reality."
- Evelyn Underhill

blessings...

blessings

"Are you more grateful
for the blessings in your life
or the One who has
given you each blessing?"
- Karl Graustein

grace...

grace
photo by Erin Doyle

"Grace isn't a little prayer
you chant before receiving a meal.
It's a way to live."
- Jackie Windspear

love and hope...

love and hope

"Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be.
Each of us has the power to give life meaning,
to make our time and our bodies and our words
into instruments of love and hope."
- Tom Head

days too short...

each day too short

"I still find each day too short
for all the thoughts I want to think,
all the walks I want to take,
all the books I want to read
and all the friends I want to see."
- John Burroughs

reflection...

only the reflection

"The beginning of love
is to let those we love
be perfectly themselves,
and not to twist them
to fit our own image.
Otherwise we love only the reflection
of ourselves we find in them."
- Thomas Merton

live deliberately...

live deliberately

"I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life,
and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach, and not,
when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived."
- Henry David Thoreau

time and tide...

time and tide

When I was to putting something off...
my dad would say...
“Time and tide wait for no man.” 

This was his way to remind me about
being wasteful of my time and energy.

"If there are any regrets in Heaven,
they will only be that
we did not use our earthly time
more for the glory of God
and for growth in His grace."
- Donald Whitney

need anything else?

need anything else

"There can be no other occupation
like gardening in which,
if you were to creep up
behind someone at their work,
you would find them smiling.”
- Mirabel Osler

"Coffee. Garden. Coffee.
Does a good morning need anything else?”
- Betsy Cañas Garmon

a cuppa and a catta...

a cuppa and a catta
photo by Erin Doyle

"May your joys be as bright as the morning,
and your sorrows merely be shadows
that fade in the sunlight of love.
May you have enough happiness
to keep you sweet,
enough trials to keep you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human,
enough hope to keep you."
- Irish Blessings

smile...

smile


"Smile every chance you get.
Not because life has been easy,
perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated,
but because you choose
to be happy and grateful
for all the good things you do have
and all the problems
you know you don’t have."
- Author Unknown

thoughts...

thoughts

"Change your thoughts and
you change your world."
- Norman Vincent Peale

plants something...

plants something

"Every moment and every event
of every man's life on earth
plants something in his soul."
- Thomas Merton

makes us swim...

makes us swim

"Sometimes God calms the storm.
At other times, he calms the sailor.
And sometimes he makes us swim."
- Author Unknown

oldest art...

oldest art
photo by Lee Keefer

"Nature alone is antique
and the oldest art a mushroom."
- Thomas Carlyle

looking at the world...

Adoration

I took this photo three years ago
at a crafts festival
with a point and shoot camera
(12X zoom fully extended)
so as to remain candid.
The young lady was looking up
at a friend on a piece of playground equipment.
To me the image that caught my eye
was one of adoration...
but, because of my faith,
had a deeper spiritual meaning.

"As the language or vocabulary
of photography has been extended,
the emphasis of meaning has shifted,
shifted from what the world looks like
to what we feel about the world
and what we want the world to mean."
- Aaron Siskind

follow the tracks...

follow the tracks
photo by Lee Keefer

"Men nearly always follow the tracks
made by others and proceed
in their affairs by imitation,
even though they cannot entirely
keep to the tracks of others
or emulate the prowess of their models.
So a prudent man should always
follow in the footsteps of great men
and imitate those who have been outstanding.
If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs,
at least it has an air of greatness about it.
He should behave like those archers who,
if they are skilful,
when the target seems too distant,
know the capabilities of their bow
and aim a good deal higher
| than their objective,
not in order to shoot so high
but so that by aiming high
they can reach the target."
- Niccolo Machiavelli

misbehaving...

misbehaving
photo by Erin Doyle

Zem decided our tablecloth
was his personal cat mat.

"We considered behaving,
but it's against our nature."

- O. R. Melling