One of the things on my mind today has been feet. I had to take the car in, so I have been doing a lot of walking. This has made me aware of my feet. Not to mention I have to run tomorrow so the legs and feet will be at the forefront of my mind then too.
We stand on our feet, they form the foundation of our stability. With this in mind I think of many of the people who have helped me build my own personal foundation; my parents, my friends, my siblings. This one is for all of those who have helped me stand and walk and even occasionally run. Especially, to the ones who are gone that I can’t thank in person.
Some days things don’t go as expected and if you are like me, you have the tendency to get agitated with things and then you get upset and sometimes things that are just small inconveniences turn into overblown crises.
Today I had car trouble, and often I would be stressed about it, but somehow I was able to look at things with a more grateful mindset. Sure it sucked and depending on what my mechanic finds it could be expensive and much more inconvenient but I did get home safely. That got me to thinking about other good things that were going on.
As a result of this reflection, I decided to make some origami cranes with the gold and silver paper that I had from earlier. The crane is the “bird of happiness” and has meanings of peace and luck. I was feeling lucky today and choosing to be happy about all the blessings that I have.
Sometimes you just like the way a picture turns out.
Today’s picture just turned out to be one I liked. Sometimes there isn’t any deep significance in the picture but the composition turns out to be pleasing. There is an orange ribbon and a bike part, but really I just thought this turned out to be interesting to look at and wanted to share. Not every experiment is as successful.
I’m not sure I have a lot to say about this one. I was photographing some pedals and the pictures just weren’t working out to my liking. Then I saw the orange ribbon that I was using earlier and decided to do this. I felt like it worked out alright.
I can’t tell you what my brother spray painted on this rock years ago, it’s not really appropriate.
I went out walking trying to come up with an idea for a photo. I ran into Nate’s widow and stopped to talk for a while. We talked about Nate and cancer and things. It’s amazing just how much cancer changes things and not just temporarily. The effects go on long after the disease passes. And people say that after a loss that things will get better with time. In some ways that may be so, but it often doesn’t feel any better for a long time. After Matt died I couldn’t bring myself to go the the bike shop for months. I still miss him but I’m not sure that I would say that the fact that I don’t hurt every day or as acutely really makes it better, just different.
I hope that I have learned some things and that I’ve learned to be better to people and be more mindful of the people around me. Whether that is the case or not, cancer sucks.
I’m grateful that I got the chance to have a talk with a friend that I don’t see as much as I used to. By the time I got to where I could see the tip of suicide rock, it was getting too dark for a good picture. Though the quality of the picture may have suffered, I think that the time spent talking to a friend about Nate and life and things was way more valuable than getting a nicer picture for the day.
Matt was a big fan of Eddy Merckx “the Cannibal” and I don’t think you can blame him. If you are going to choose a cyclist to emulate you probably can’t do much better.
Matt didn’t have the cycling resume of Eddy Merckx, but he was my cycling hero. I spent a lot of time on his wheel being pulled along. My first century I didn’t have the legs for a 5 hour ride, so Matt went ahead finished in less than 5 hours and then came back and pulled me the rest of the way.
I have a lot of different thoughts when I work on a project. With some projects I go into them with a theme involved and that guides the things I choose to photograph. That can make the project cohesive and the pictures seem related. The longer projects seem to be a lot different. Especially when I have periodic deadlines. When I have the freedom of time I can create and then think and then create again when I have what I think is a good idea.
What I come up with when I have short or set deadlines makes a project like this difficult. While the purpose of this is ultimately to raise money for cancer, and I think a lot about people I know who have had cancer, the disease itself and what I have that I might be able to express with a picture, what I can come up with varies greatly from day to day. Some days I lack time to do something that I want to, some days I lack ideas. My thoughts during the day make a big difference too. There are days I just don’t want to think about cancer, and some days I just want to do something fun.
Today I was thinking about how cancer really messes with our lives. It strikes everywhere and it doesn’t just affect the person with a positive diagnosis. It spreads out in random directions and touches people near and far. It wreaks havoc on people financially, physically, emotionally and in pretty much every way imaginably. So as I dropped food coloring in some water and watched as it did its thing. It took on a life of its own, starting from a single drop and then oozing out in all directions.
