A Day Well Spent

My plan today was to re-work a short story I wrote a couple of years ago, a story about an adventure my sister Carole and I had while exploring one summer.  It was still in the draft stage and needed a lot of editing, but I thought it an appropriate blog post for today, the fourth anniversary of my sister's death.

An  over-zealous hike on Friday left me with sore hips and back, which sitting at the computer for even a short while aggravated.  So, in my attempt to pace myself  (and because I just couldn't get the story to come together the way I wanted), I took frequent breaks to do little tasks like filling the bird feeders.

I returned to my writing, but I'm easily distracted and soon abandoned it again to make some bird treats of coconut oil, peanut butter and bird seed poured into pine cones, chilled, and then hung on the trees and stuck into the planters on the patio.  The weather has turned cold and the birds would need the extra calories to keep warm. As soon as the first ones were chilled, I put them outside and immediately the birds checked them out.

And, well, that was the end of my plans to write.  I parked myself on the floor with my camera, lens aimed at the window.  Allie was curious about all the action outside the window, so now and then I swung the lens in her direction.

When the birds finally finished feasting two hours later, I had hundreds of photos (which of course required more computer time to edit), a numb bum, a dog needing a walk, and no great desire to get back to writing.

A few minutes with the computer told me I'd captured at least some of what I was aiming for  - and not just the images, but the joy that comes with taking a day to just watch nature, to neglect all else and enjoy the moment.  And that is just what my sister would have done - sat on the floor, camera in hand, lens poised, back aching, lost in the moment.

It was a day well spent - remembering Carole, using her camera, enjoying being able to capture images to share with others - just as she shared her images with me.  A day well spent indeed.