Poor Mr. Worthington

Poor, poor Mr. Worthington.

Ever the vigilant sentry, Mr. Worthington generally resides on the second step leading to my front door.

Right now, though, he's a little overwhelmed by the amount of snow we've had.

And you can tell he's not happy about it, but he never, ever complains.

Patterns

Wasn't the moon AMAZING the other night? I got out my telephoto lens and tripod and managed to get a couple of really cool shots!

OK, just kidding. That's not really the moon. It's frost on my storm door. But still pretty cool, no?

What drew me to take these shots was actually the different patterns and formations I could see in the frost.

And if you know anything about me at all, you know I find symbolism in almost anything. I think too much.

So the patterns I saw here made me consider patterns in general and how they're found throughout our lives. One of my resolutions (kind of a necessity, really) this year is to be more introspective and not so impulsive. I need to do this in order to identify patterns and stop making decisions that can sometimes be very wrong.
But in addition to that, these are just pretty, I think.

Moving Forward

Some of the changes that come our way are expected and manageable or even anticipated. For example, we expect to turn from this:

to this. And people are generally ready for it. Hell, some even like it.

But when we turn from this:

to this:

the changes that are forced upon us can be incredibly draining and unwelcome.

2009 was absolutely the worst year of my life, far and away. I'm not exaggerating in the least. Much of what has happened has been bad enough that it would make the producer of a Lifetime movie shake his head and say, "No, not realistic enough. No one would believe that." So at this point, I believe I have two choices.

I can curl up and wallow in misery and self-pity, or I can try to move through grief and pain, and stumble a lot on the way, but eventually, hopefully, get better. I tried the wallowing first. It didn't get me anywhere. So all that's left is the moving forward.

And some days are still incredibly difficult. But these days are coming just a little fewer and just a little farther between. I'm not all better yet, but unlike when everything first unravelled (and then burst into flames), I can see that there will be a day when I do feel better. That's definitely an improvement.

So I'm certainly not at the end of my path....but at least I'm on it.

There's a lot to do.I'm up for it.