I have always been amazed by the way weather changes things.  At the same time, however, I used to laugh off this reality.  Possibly, this can be attributed to my dislike of small talk in general, which so often seems to revolve around the ins and outs of weather-related concerns.  I felt it was silly to think that weather had as much significance as, say, relational issues.  That was one of the humdrum things of life that, in my youth, I thought unimportant in the grand scheme of it all.

So I must be getting old.   Well, I know I'm getting old.

But one way in which I have noticed the passage of years I have, er, weathered, is that those things I used to think insignificant don't seem so insignificant any longer.  Like the weather.

For several days now, many parts of the world have been in the throes of a major heat wave.  And for those of us in areas not so accustomed to the heat, it has thrown us all for quite a loop.  I joke about how my "African blood" doesn't mind it much, which is, in large part, true.  I dislike air conditioning, for instance.  And I find that even when I am sweating my way through a day, it is in a relatively good-natured, bemused sort of way.  Cold, mind you, I do NOT handle so well.  But that's for another day, another musing . . .
What I intended to say, today, is that I have been noticing the ways in which the weather changes all things about a day in the life of, well, anyone.  In my own, this has meant, for one, some difficult interactions with those in my daily work and family life.  It has also led to a different lens through which I view the world: a slowing down; an ok-ness with getting less done in any given day; a nature even more prone to contemplation and intentionality than usual.

Along those lines, I post this photo.  Usually I am significantly neurotic about creative endeavors, tending to publish photos immediately.  I'm afraid I can also be a bit of a recluse when in the creative spirit, anxiously carving out time for solitude so that I can put pen to paper or, as it more often is, fingers to the keyboard.

But this particular photo has been "sitting" there for 2 days now.  I have gone about my work, made lesson plans, driven 2 hours round trip for a particular ice cream hankering with a friend--all without touching my photos.

Yet tonight I am suddenly ready to post a belatedly celebratory shot.  This documents the Fourth of July festivities in which I partook.  Sure, there were fireworks as well.  And I actually watched them.  But I must admit to being rather disinterested in fireworks.  So I did not even argue with myself long enough to bother taking any photos of them [blame it on that heat-induced laziness!].  Instead, I focused on this silhouetted sailboat, and was content to capture the loveliness of a sunset.  Nature's "light show" seems to me to be far more lovely than any man-made variety.
 
 

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