I feel winter kills everything or at least freezes it so bad things can’t move. Snow all over the place making streets etc messy, and hard to travel. It’s so cold I wear long johns. Sorry ladies, it ain’t about being handsome and attractive. It’s about staying warm. Susanna is from Japan and she tells me I’m a spoiled man cause I can’t deal with the cold. Well, I can see she’s wearing long Betty’s. Oh yeah, I can tell. Yes, winter has all but killed everything. Susanna has these wool gloves and on the right one, a very small nip cut off the trigger finger. Hmmmm I thought…. very good idea.

So all is at a standstill for work cause winter did a number and will do so for a while too. Well, I’ll tell ya’s this. I am not one to succumb to weather or anything that takes the enjoyment out of life. I fight the good fight and hold my stance even tho I freeze my butt off. I will not fall.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Pen F

There’s a real beauty in the struggle for life. Not just weather conditions but any struggle for life, by anyone or anything. We think we find a way to overcome weather but we fool ourselves. All we can do is try to find a way to live with what we can’t control. That goes for everything on the planet. Finding compromise with anyone in life is more then a days work. Remember most times that action will be a 2 way or more conversation. Dealing with weather for example, and make that really cold weather, another story. I must admit that it could be a very hard experience. Like, weather will not compromise. It will do what it want’s anytime and anywhere it wants. Now I do know a few folks that will get on a roof and bark at the moon. This happens usually after a bottle of Tequila of J&B or anything the perpetrator deems necessary.  It is a one way conversation to talk to the moon and well, maybe you end up in a house of moon barkers but that remains to be seen.

So, we can’t always compromise with things and that means we must find a way to carry on our work under any conditions.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Pen F

What weather, other forces, people and everything else should not be able to do is…… destroy our hopes and stamina and most of all, our spirit. It was around 9F when I made the photos. Cold. Very cold. The critters in the yard struggle to find food, lodging etc. The street is covered in ice and I see the irony in the diptych of the first image.

The last photo is of my favorite Rose Bush. She turns out the most Angelic Roses on the planet. They have this beautiful orange color and they form in the most perfect shape. Here, she is all but dead just like so many shooters spirits. The will to survive. The struggle for life. All this presents to me that I need to learn from the garden as it dies but stands as a reminder that life prevails and I must keep that in my heart.

I learned from my dear friend, the beautiful Susanna, to nip a small part of my finger on the glove so I can work intelligently and have a meeting of the mind with Mr Winter.

Be careful out there and in there. Not all threats to the spirit are well seen.

I’ll be back………… shooter out