room with a view

Downtown Seattle from SMC ~ Seattle, WA ~ 06.28.06

listening to Winelight by Paul Brown

positive outlook

View from a room @ Swedish Medical Center ~ Seattle, WA ~ 06.27.06

one of two things

Bird on a Wire ~ Bothell, WA ~ 06.27.06

"When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things must happen: There will be something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly." ~ Patrick Overton

listening to Ooh la La by Jeff Lorber

more

Storm over the Sound ~ Seattle, WA ~ 06.14.06

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~ Anais Nin

listening to More Than Fine by Switchfoot

rain delay

06.16.06 ~ Shot a little movie while waiting out the rain. You can view it here.

waiting out the rain

Rain & sun ~ Bothell, WA ~ 06.16.06

listening to Feeling Good by Nina Simone

oh happy day

Oh happy day, it's a wonder kat blogs is one-year-old today. How about a flower or two to celebrate the occasion?

Flower - Redmond, Wa - 06.07.06

Flower - Redmond, Wa - 06.07.06

No idea what specific kinds of flowers these are. If anyone knows, please share.

listening to Stitched Up by Herbie Hancock, featuring John Mayer.

get out of the box

"There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it,and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or how bad am I?' That's where courage comes in."
~ Erma Louise Bombeck

enrich the world

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." ~Woodrow Wilson

This quote showed up in my e-mail this morning. It was exactly the thing I needed to hear (or in this case, read). Thought I'd pass it along. : )

documenting life

Snail crossing the front step @ Jeff's ~ 05.06.06

I guess I'd never seen a snail up close and personal before. Because I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time photographing it, making a little video of it as it traveled along the step. Later in the day I witnessed it's (unintentional) death, crushed under the weight of a shoe. No, not my shoe, no video or photos of the horrific moment either. Yeah, it was just a snail ... but I winced and felt pain as I heard the crunch nonetheless.

and the moral of the story is...

"Intending to make a new and better life, but never to find time to set about it is as...to put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to the next until you're dead." ~ Og Mandino

"How simple it is to see that all the worry in the world cannot control the future. How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now. And that there will never be a time when it is not now." ~ Gerald Jampolsky, MD

do be do be do

"Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it's about doing, being and becoming. It's about the choices you've just made, and the ones you're about to make, it's about the things you choose to say - today. It's about what you're gonna do after you finish reading this." ~ Mike Dooley

tip toeing through the tulips

Look close, the shadow of a tiny spider shines through a petal ~ 04.22.06

listening to Pure by Superchick

lilac

Jeff's lilac tree ~ 04.09.06

on the hunt

Usually Easter Sunday yields photo upon photo of small children hunting eggs. This year, inspired by a friend who was in search of amazing images, we went on a different sort of hunt ... a photo hunt. Luckily, after days of gray skies and rain, the sun came out to play too.

Climbing the rocks in search of great images ~ Alki Point Lighthouse ~ 04.16.06

Ah, the beach along Alki Point, great weather, great fun. ~ 04.16.06

"Kiss your life. Accept it,just as it is. Today. Now. So that those moments of happiness you're waiting for don't pass you by." ~Unknown

sightings

I went to Port Orchard on Saturday. Shot an entire 1G card of photos on the ferry there and back. Heh, anyway ... here are a few images from the journey.

We're both (the horse & me) thinking this ferry ride is a bit rough. ~ 04.15.06

Storm clouds loom, as I shoot from the warmth of my car ~ 04.15.06

Perched in the rain at the Vashon Island ferry dock ~ 04.15.06

Someone once told me crows are teachers ~ 04.15.06

*For the few of you who might be interested ... no, these specific images were not shot with the p&s digicam.

illuminate everything

A view of downtown Seattle ~ shot from Bellevue, WA ~ 04.11.06

listening to the soundtrack from Everything Is Illuminated ~ love it!

sending in growth to sub for progress

"Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first." ~ Frederick B. Wilcox

I would sub in the word growth for progress ... maybe then it (the quote) would be a homerun. Ha!

The sun is shining in Seattle today and we have daylight until about 8pm now ... woo hoo!

blog on

The last few days I've run across a couple of blogs that truly get to the heart.

One, I was already familiar with and check in on often (though less often lately as I've been overwhelmed with daily stuff) ... but is written by someone I only know through blogging. The other is fairly new to me, but is written by a friend I've known for a very long time. They are different. Both well written, one with sporadic entries ... the other daily. Yet somehow they both reach out and grab me.

Meet David.
Meet Seren.

listening to Smile by Chris Botti & Steven Tyler

who gives a $%#@!

I had a discussion with a friend recently, about grammar. Which was more heated than it needed to be, but I digress. At some point, the discussion briefly morphed into another topic ... profanity, and how it doesn't mean anything. Well, anymore. It used to mean something. Didn't it?

I remember when I was a kid and someone would say shit or damn and I'd be like, "Ummmm, I'm gonna tell". On rare occasion, I would hear my brother use the f-word. Which would send a direct signal to my brain telling my hands to cover my face, less the neighbor kids would see me blushing. Matter of fact, I was over 25 before I could use that word without blushing. And now, well, now it flips off the end of my tongue more often than I care to admit.

My point is that once we adjust to hearing it, my friend is right ... it means nothing to us. I ran across this article on the topic at cnn dot com. In it a woman is quoted as saying, "Everybody is pretending they aren't shocked ... and gradually people WON'T be shocked. And then those who want to be offensive will find another way." It's obvious to me, some of us really aren't shocked anymore. Does this say something about our society? I'm not sure anymore. I'm currently of the opinion that any effort to control anything is futile.

But really I think that quote can also be a metaphor for what's happening in our world. We pretend things don't bother us, or that nothing can happen or be said that would surprise us in this day and age. Then suddenly, without warning ... it's true. At least with the day to day things in our lives. Will this eventually cross over to natural and man-made disasters, murders, war? Will there be a time when we can't be shocked by anything? I personally know people who are already traveling this road. Do you?