the correct focus

I've been complaining a lot lately - focused too much on the bad instead of the good, on the wants instead of the haves. It's time to change the focus - switch off the automatic focus that is on me and to use the manual focus and purposely focus outside of myself.

"If you want a better life, better health, and the sense of being connected and hopeful in this world, the answer is to give." It's a scientific fact. Volunteering beats out exercising four times a week by 30 % when it comes to promoting longevity. Article by Terri Trespicio in Body & Soul magazine.

Out of Focus...

My sister's life is out of focus, in a haze due to pain meds for metastatic cancer....My life is out of focus due to emotional pain...Everything except the cancer and its pain is out of focus...

it was all a blur

It was all a blur, at the end of a 14 hour shift. The street lights and the night breeze, welcomed me to my bed. The rain that fell on the roof, sang me the most beautiful lullaby...
: )

Almost There

(c)accidentalbeauty

Paperwork and phone calls

Dealing with too many people

The day is coming to an end

I've already lost my focus

Stepping into the evening traffic

Long winding road back

I'm almost there

I'm almost home

Running a good race is never out of focus...

This is Ben.

He is the last in his family of runners to compete in Cross Country.

His goal is never out of focus.

It's to run a good race and finish strong, and if at all possible, not last.

Out of Focus

The constant movement in my life.

Worrying about this one or that one

or the one over there.

Balancing, juggling, running to keep up.

All leaves me a little out of

energy direction FOCUS ambition breath

but at the same time

I'm completely content, even-keeled, happy.

Surrounded by this one and that one

and the one over there.

The constant anchors in my life.

Out of Focus

I've never painted anything before. So, I decided that instead of looking at all the pretty pictures I want to buy, I would try to make one. Sometimes, people seem out of focus to us because they are trying to be someone they are not. And in my house, I thought this painting would work well, as I want to teach my children to be who they are and welcome those no matter what their plight in life (because we all have them).
I'm not sure where to go with this painting now. So, I decided to work on some others...it definitely was fun to try...and while I know this is a photography sharing blog, painting is what spoke to me this week. So, I took a picture of it! (;

A Vicarious Talent

So I thought I could pick up the piano as a 40 something young gal. It seemed easy enough for my 13 year old for the past 5 years. Nine months of wonderful lessons followed by a summer break and now every thing's a blur.

out of focus

that is exactly what life has been like lately.

out of focus
blurry
foggy
hazy
rainy
dreary
gloomy
overcast
fast-paced
exhausting
tiring
running behind

...all the things that demand
your immediate attention and make you
so happy to surrender to a more simple life.

Out of Focus

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all.
-Emily Dickinson

This week has been a blur. We live less than five miles from
declared disaster areas.
Schools were closed for two days and one is completely flooded.
Homes were flooded and all possessions lost.
Cars were swept away.
Lives were lost. Nine.
We are some of those more fortunate.
More than possessions being regained, I pray for hope to be restored
to those affected by this flood.

There is beauty in the blur...

We all have to work hard to adjust our vision sometimes. Especially if we're tired or preoccupied. Sometimes, through the blur, comes clarity, sometimes it does not. But even then, we can often find beauty in the abstract, which is enough in itself. We don't have to try any harder to make sense of it.

A Heart Out of Focus

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Out of Focus at the G

Now any photography book will tell you a landscape photo should be in focus from foreground to the background. That is exactly how this photo started out but something was missing. I took the photo of Melbourne, Australia (my home town) looking over the Princes Bridge to the Iconic MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). The footy was on that day and the shadow of the light towers gently spread into the Yarra River. This view is enough to warm any Melbournians heart and make one homesick even if at home. The Footy belongs to Melbourne, it was ours before it became a National game. It was born here at this very ground a Mecca to Australian Rules Football, and it is sacred turf to many.

I softly blurred the background in this shot to help create the mood I was looking for, the mood I felt when I took the shot. I challenged the rules of phorogrpahy, I broke them and it worked.

It seems fitting that I post it now considering that come Saturday 100,000 people will pack into MCG to watch the Grand Final game. Made even more special because the 2 teams batteling it out are both Victorian, footy is back where it belongs and so Geelong (The Cats) and St Kilda (The Saints) face off to win the premiership flag.

Saturdays game is telecast around the world but may be on in the wee hours of Friday night / Saturday morning for you due to the time difference. If you happen to see the game barrack for the team in RED, WHITE and BLACK, The Saints!!! They are my team. They have only ever won 1 grand final way back in 1966 before I was born.

Footy is in the blood of this town and even if you don’t follow the football you will on Saturday.

Go Sainters!!!!

out of focus

Even when you think all is calm and serene and focused

you discover that there is always movement

and that that time of serene focused calm was fleeting.

Out of Focus

Out of focus.
Every. Single. Morning.

(Well, I mean, until I get my coffee...)

out of focus heart break

i had to say goodbye to my beloved miniature schnauzer, presley, almost 2 weeks ago. he was 16 1/2 years old, my constant companion and most hugable friend. his loss tears at my heart as the tears flooding my eyes blur my world. i try to focus on the love we shared and not the loss. i try to focus on the wonderful memories of romping in the creek and snuggling together in the porch swing.

my world is out of focus because he's not here.

out of focus

Time. Always feels out of focus. Moving too fast. Please slow down.

Out Of Focus

With so much going on in my life right now I feel a bit out of focus...Out of focus with myself.
The focus has been on my businesses, my children, home duties, another job, a class I am taking, photographing events and families, processing the photos, and now teaching art at my son's school.
This is a self portrait of my reflection in my guitar I took awhile back, and the way I am slightly out of focus is sort of how I feel right now in my life.
I know things will calm down. I also know I created this hectic life. I know soon I will have more time for focusing on me. I have plans for more exercise, meditation, being in nature, surfing, and daydreaming!
****
Update 9/25: Thanks everyone for the comments!
Writing this post really made me think about how I am choosing to create my life,
and I am happy to say I am coming back into focus with myself!
Yay!!!
(more here)
Have a great weekend!
Shell

unfocused

our bed stripped clean

from all of the sickness of this week.

I have finally taken a shower,

a REAL shower; not just a warm bath to erase

the feverish sweat away.

I have eaten rice and toast with good results.

maybe tomorrow will be back to normal.

Isn't the flu a good way to force us

to press the reset button on our lives?

Art Out Of Focus

My artist brushes lie in wait for me, as my painting skills seem to be an in-and-out work of art these days. Some days it seems so selectively out-of-focus that I do not think I even remember how to being. It’s like a far off bokeh that I see as a circle of confusion, all fuzzy and dim. I know it’s still within me, a great aesthetic quality which I was born with, a God given talent. So I must find it again and get rid of the distractions. Until then the brushes will remain at rest; as a blurred vision of neglected paraphernalia of my talents...waiting and waiting.

For now the camera has taken over my priorities.

@ Heartfelt and Homemade