Decisions don’t always work the way you intend them to. That’s a good thing, it keeps life interesting and it keeps our imaginations flowing. For instance, the image above comes from a corner of my garden. A huge thorn had started to grow without my noticing. By the time it came to my attention it was covered in buds. I’d like to see the blooms on that, I thought, I’ll dig it up later. Yes I’m like that, weeds are only plants you don’t want.
Well later came and having satisfied my need to see the bloom I headed toward the thorn, shovel in hand. I found a bee on it. No I’m not afraid of bees, quite the contrary. I like bees and they’ve been having a hard time of it lately so it seemed a shame to disrupt this one. So, instead of digging up a thorn I replaced my shovel with a camera and captured this shot. I thought it was rather appropriate for this post.
You see I had a completely different post on decision making planned for this week. It’s a good post and you’ll see it in September. Between now and then I’m going to take a bit of a pause. I have a number of projects underway that are all important to me. This blog is one of them. In an effort to manage all of my projects I wrote several blog posts in advance, but as my fellow bloggers know, there’s more to blogging than writing. The thing is, I simply don’t have time for everything at the moment, so I thought,
- I could put the blog on hold for six weeks
- I could find someone else to manage it
- I could hire a virtual assistant
- I could just keep posting and work late at night to keep up.
I don’t want to do any of those things.
Decisions are interesting things. You don’t always know where they will lead you. Digging up a thorn or taking a photo. Here’s my decision. I’m going to take a photo every week. I can’t promise you beauty, invention or drama. I’m an amateur, amateur photographer but, I will make an effort to share something that caught my eye, attention or imagination. Then I’ll ask you to share what you see, where your imagination lead you in the comments. I won’t always be able to respond here, but I will always read your comments and I very much appreciate them.
See you soon.
I love it Debra! Both the flower/weed philosophy, and your decision of how to take a blogging break without shutting down. Decisions can be so hard, but they do keep life interesting! I look forward to seeing more photos…
Having achieved my milestone 60th birthday, one of life’s lessons I hope I’ve absorbed is that planning is great and helps us achieve and move projects forward, but that our steel eyed planning needs to be tempered by the ability to be serendipitous when possible. Your eye and camera lens caught the beauty of the “weed and bee” moment and you went with the flow. Kudos.
Great shot. Keep up the good work. Thanks for leaving that weed for me to dig out next time I’m there( it’ll be 7 ft. tall by then) . Today I can’t decide whether to start with Tequila, then switch to Vodka, or t’other way….Thanks for helping me with this decision……;)
Hi Debra,
That is a lovely photo. When I think of decisions, especially if I have an important one to consider, I visit the cemetery nearby. It helps bring things into perspective, from the here-and-now to the eternal. Decisions determine destiny.
Enjoy taking time to catch up on projects.
Kind Regards,
Bill
Sometimes making decisions is hard – but making decision on the go and adapting them as the context changes, THAT is even harder and from your post, i gather you are used to making such type of decisions and well, too! (the adaptive ones, i mean) – never ever lose this “skill” for the lack of a better word…
Enjoy your well-deserved break, Debra – will be checking your photos… not sure if i will have anything to say about them as i am not much of an art-creative-thinking type of gal, but we’ll see 😀
Hi Debra, Well for an amateur photographer that’s one heck of a shot. Beautiful! I definitely now the feeling of having too many balls in the air. This is a clever way of keeping your blog going in the meantime and taking a little break. 🙂
Great shot 🙂 I think it’s a great move to keep a post coming each week, but to let it be something that goes in a different direction. Maybe you will give the weekly photo challenge I’ve been doing on my other blog a try.
Wow what a beautiful shot. I like the fact that you didn’t kill the bee and interrupt what mother nature intended. You deserve a break. You put so much into your wonderful blogs and that is why you have such a great following. I also check on Tuesdays to see what Debra has written today.
Hope you are having a great break, Debra. Will check out your photos.
Glad you are taking a break. I will probably be “working” on my Sketching Out blog for the next few weeks, hopefully capturing beautiful images like yours! Well, that’s not exactly work. It’s a way I relax. Enjoy the rest of the summer.
First of all this a beautiful shot! And given the writing accompanying it, it has meaning. I , for one, appreciate your leaving the bee to his business. You are right…they are having a hard time of late. Coming up with original content every week is a challenge…you’ve met and exceeded that in my opinion Debra. THIS decision has purpose…you want to see where it takes you and that’s creative all by itself. Cheers!
Chip and Dan Heath wrote a really good book, “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work”; it is about the process of making a decision. They offer some very intersting tools and insight into decision making and eveulations. I find myslef thinking about this book often.