In the eye of the storm

You might assume, after yesterday's photos, that this is some bizarre modification of a kayak photo.  But no!  Though it IS a bizarre modification, the original photo was taken on the ferry; it was of some reflections in the hood of a black car with a bit of red blinker-light thrown in.  (Look left for the original: I think I may like it better than this altered version.)

My reading in Patricia Ryan Madson's Improv Wisdom this morning encouraged me to take risks, make mistakes, so I thought -- well, I'll just keep playing with this image til I get something that works for me.

I'm not at all sure this DOES work for me, but I'm liking the way the middle looks like waves and a wee kayak in a bit of a storm...

Was it a mistake to "waste my time" playing with this image, if I'm not pleased with the end result?  Not necessarily -- especially if I learned something from it, or might perhaps be able to use some piece of it somewhere else.  But maybe it's a good exercise just to get me where I need to be: here, and now; back home, at my computer; back into a space I've not inhabited for a while.  Sometimes we need to shift our feet and dance a bit just to get our sea legs back for whatever life we've shifted into or out of.

The best part of the morning has been just slipping back into a familiar routine: making my own coffee and drinking it, sitting in my favorite chair, lighting my Buddha candle and drifting off into centering prayer without fear of interruption...

I loved being at camp, loved living among the trees, loved watching my daughter at work, loved the wee bouquet of flowers brought to me by one of my youngest students, loved not having to cook or be responsible for a few days, loved playing with pastels and yarn and fabric and helping others discover the joy of that.

But it's good to be home, away from the noise and chaos, out of the storm; good to be able to breathe a bit, get back into routine, before whatever storms are yet to come.