Original Photo: August Sunset - Copyright James E. Martin 2012
The tent camping endeavor this past week was enjoyable. I can't say that one of my objectives in life has ever been "the pursuit of happiness". Particularly in later life, its attainment has been elusive amidst the responsibilities of perceived "duty". I would not assert that I have had a lot of "fun" necessarily along my Journey for several years and various assignments. Except where I was having fun with my professional technical work achievements. But I have numerous daily joys particularly as it relates to my immediate family, my five-year-old kindergartner, and a very small group of close friends. My satisfactions have always come from commitment to my values and working towards goals and objectives.
This week's Journey was fun. I enjoyed adapting to events and circumstances as they presented themselves and working to make the best of things as they happened to be. I guess that is Living in the Moment. Surveying a camp site, making simple choices to optimize the orientation of the daily home base, and relaxing with simple pleasures like a morning coffee around a campfire were part of the satisfactions. Simple dialogs with spouse and daughters in a different venue was fun and valued. Although I did not have the time and availability necessarily to paint or sketch along the way, I had numerous photo opportunities to feed the daily painting pipeline when I so endeavor. I enjoyed each quiet morning before the rest of camp society woke up. To some degree, I feel as if the achievements have been many thus far in my life but not necessarily set up in an orderly fashion for presentation. A cairn and waypoint has been established at this point in time but things may be different going forward and thus require a different approach. Things will look different. Things will be different.
My wife and I recently attended a wedding for two of my young, former co-workers. It's always nice in a certain way to renew one's own vows in the presence of another new ceremony. It's a reinterpretation of sorts. After the wedding and reception, we took the next day to travel the New Hampshire beaches from Salisbury to Hampton to Rye Beach along Routes 1 and 1A.
The small, balanced and orderly stone stacks were appealing on this entire trip. We made one of our own stacks of stones on a New Hampshire beach along the sea wall. I say "we" but my wife chose five stones and stacked them...one for each member of the family, I guess. We are at the bottom with the three daughters above [Big Bit, Little Bit, and Itsy Bit].
Along our beach walk, one set of older kids was visiting with their Mom on her birthday. They had found and partitioned off a small portion of the beach with beach pebbles and engraved in the sand surrounding it - "a perfect portion of beach" since the water had smoothed the sand with no ripples or imperfections. They had retained the segment of perfect beach for Mom's view during the day. A very special gift, I must say.
My present task is not dissimilar in that I must apportion a part of the shifting and imperfect sands around me and set aside a portion of the day that is perfect for me for that day. The daily tide may erode the reserved area after the day is done or the rain may dribble it's imperfection upon the surface but each day brings a new day and a new perfect apportionment. It's a nice anecdote and mental image for a Lesson Learned. Thank you, Beachcombers! A pleasant gift.
Original Photo: A Perfect Beach Preserved - Copyright James E. Martin 2012
So this week was a semblance of a return to core values from younger days. It has been an Artistic Endeavor of daily photography not of daily painting. The Outward Travel molds and shapes the Inner Journey.
"You can imitate,
but at some point,
you have to start identifying
who you are as a painter -
the 'who am I' of the inward journey
that every artist must take".
Camille Przewodek
