Category Archives: Aging

Morning Light

Feb
08
2013
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2013

A quick update to last week’s post:  “Three Pictures A Story Make”.  Several people didn’t understand the point of the real estate sign.  Review the pictures:  1.  The restaurant sign welcomes people to come eat. 2. Birds fly in … 3.  Birds eat on roof of restaurant … 4. Since only pigeons are coming to eat, the restaurant was closed and thus for sale.  I laughed for 30 minutes after finishing the post … it’s a good thing I’m not in the comedy business. 🙂

Today’s image comes from the lobby of the outpatient pavilion at the University of Colorado Health Center. Beautiful glass geometric triangles are pieced together like a three dimensional patchwork quilt hanging in a four story lobby providing light and perhaps comfort to the many stories that must have been occurring there today.

My own visit was a treatment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) ,  the most common disorder of the inner ear’s vestibular system, which is a vital part of maintaining balance. The little “crystals” behind the eardrum, basically leave their post and float into an area where they don’t belong.  Result: vertigo when turning over in bed or making sudden positional changes .  Solution:  The doctor and her assistant guided me through some assisted moves on a “tilt” table to recreate the dizziness and then, in effect, “rebooted”  the balance system in my left ear, by sending the “crystals “back where they belong.   Who knew?   I knew for sure that I was cured when I walked in the lobby, looked up and starting taking pictures … and no spinning.  Horray! More pictures in focus!

IBK

 

Also posted in Blessings Tagged , , |

Gratitude

Aug
24
2012
by IBK | 2 Comments

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, but not often enough I “get over myself”and just relish the dance in the moment. Last week I joined a photography “Meetup” at the Denver Botanic Garden for a member’s only 7:00 a.m. entry before the general public admission at 9:00.  How delightful to be able to “capture” morning’s soft light offering and it’s cool breeze.  When I put the camera to my eye to frame a shot, all of the tensions of a hundred details attended to in the previous week, float away, and  the music of intentional seeing starts its tune.  Here a color, there a texture, water flowing, interesting patterns, butterflies landing,bees pollinating, reflections on the pond, water lilies opening on their own schedule …. and I’m released from mine.

 

Todays image could be cropped to capture only the most beautiful  strong proud “pick of the litter” (I live in Denver where there are almost as many dogs as flowers … I digress) and that’s where the focus usually is, but if you saw the image in full size you’d see the most beautiful light illuminating the bent stems of the drooping flower.  The flowers are still alive, but just not strong enough to stand upright.  A reminder perhaps that sometimes we have to take a leave of absence  from our, activities, challenges, schedules, burdens, losses, and incessant doings. A  garden to dance in and to wait, watch and listen as one season follows  another, one flower dies another shoots up new life.  Meanwhile the light shines in the darkness and the early morning light.  How divine.

 

IBK

Also posted in Letting Go, Seeing In New Ways Tagged , , , , , , |

Take Me Back

Aug
09
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Dear Readers:

After a two week hiatus or possibly three I’m back at it and delighted to be.  I’ve had visits from friends; our almost 9 year old grand nephew flew in for a visit; and tomorrow our younger son returns to D.C. after a delightful  time with us and other family members.  As grand as it’s been we all are ready to get back to our normal normals.   Watching the olympics and hearing the backstories before the ascent to the medal podium, reminds us again that the steps we take every day are the ones that will come to fruition in some way or other in the next week,month or four years. The time we invest with others, or to learn a new skill or overcome a prejudice or accept a health challenge, etc. does start with just one step.

I remember the exact moment I was finally relieved of the burden of believing that when everything is right and I had  the right tools, and I’d learned enough and I had enough money and …. then I would do x.  Now I know that as I begin somewhere the joy comes from the result of the discipline of using the tools, learning from doing the thing, budgeting money for my choices and by “doing x” I’m actually  able to look back with satisfaction that where I had been was not where I was now.  One of my late mother’s gifts was the phrase: “Every age is interesting and has its own blessings.

As this very active summer begins to wind down and my body is needing to be back in touch with a new normal, I’m reminded of a commercial from my childhood for a bath salt product called © Calgon.  A tired beautiful woman in the city would get into the back of a limousine equipped with a bathtub.  After a long soak (60 second commercial) she would step out of the vehicle dressed in evening clothes and ready for a night on the town with a waiting beau.

The tagline for the commercial: ” Calgon, take me away.”  It was my fantasy for a long time to take a bath in a moving car.  Fortunately, I took up photography a few years ago and can be “taken away” by todays image in Acadia National Park in Maine.  When I need a rest from the busy the sea serves me well.

Thanks for letting me meander and offer two blogs in one.

Joy,

IBK

 

 

 

 

Also posted in Blessings, Insight, Seasons Tagged , , , , , |