worth wading for

One week has passed, and what have I done with it?

Planted.

Weeded.

Wandered at will with my camera.

Fished.  Caught nothing.  Even spit on my worm a time or two...the fish were not interested.  All was not lost though, the scenery- breathtaking.  My camera, ever at my side- utilized considerably.

Dug for treasures in an aged garbage pit...found an awesome rusty Ford hubcap, took it home, added paint and tone and wa-la...made it a landscape ornament.  Also among the ruins found after the tide went out- old medicine bottles, a stoneware cottage, rusty bucket, enamel pot and my favorite piece worth wading for- an old "Men's Room" sign .

I am a picker from way back when...poverty proves that anything is possible and just about anything is redeemable if a bit of creativity, elbow grease and sincere questioning of merit of said garbage is asked and honestly answered.  Following me here?  I dig for junk.  I dig junk.  Not all in a pile like a hoarder, but in a garden, on a shed side, or maybe in a little shadowed corner of a bathroom that needs something else to speak of it's central character.  I figured out way back when, that even though I preferred the drumstick of the chicken, I had brothers who'd stick a fork in the back of my hand should I reach for one.  I learned then- to love the wings.

 I knew from a very young age that my hand me downs were not only from a contributor two sizes bigger than me but who also had no sense of style...ugly and big clothing was not my cup of tea so I learned to turn the cuff and remove one button from here and replace it there.  And probably to most eyes, I still appeared a bit shabby...but to me, by doing so- by making these things to my liking, I became a real making-sunshine-out-of-rain-kind of person.  I yearned for things that others had, but for some reason- I would eventually re-direct my energy towards wanting what I got, with a few adaptations.  Why am I telling you this?  As often happens on this blog- I reveal to the reader which I am only recently discovering of myself.  I have often pursued in my life the improbable, sometimes the seemingly impossible...and here as of late, I have had more time to reflect on why I do the things I do and why I did the things I've done.

 Have I answered all the questions?  Heck no...but I am scratching the surface, peeling the layers, finding the grain- I'm awful big on that stripping stuff.  Which leads me back to the original thought of junk.  I dig junk because in it's time and even now- it serves a purpose, evolving from it's shiny new day to it's old rusty present decay and yet still- to my eyes, it's function, it's original concept, character...may I say it's grain?! is a thing of beauty when it serves a purpose.   It's almost as if I am in-tuned to this stuff- the nature of things.  I gravitate towards the shine and shadow.  That shiny in it's day Ford hubcap would have probably left very little imprint on me...but to see it's original form affected by shadow- it's surroundings, use and nature's way- a masterpiece is revealed.   In a landscape of towering trees and rotting wood below, there that shine and shadow again is revealed in the undergrowth and I wonder, would the flowers there have been as lovely had it not been for the rot that fed their roots?

Just in a pondering mood these days... if you please, what do you think makes up for your personal views?  Are you shaped in part by a significant event in your life or by a place- even some kind of object that holds a deeper meaning to you?

take care-