This time of year is ripe with introspection.  Ripe I tell you.  From all sides you hear lists of favorites, best of this and best of that, what are your goals for 2012, are you where you want to be.  Well, are you?

I’ve been looking through my photography of the past year, and thinking about things I show and things I don’t.  I take a lot of photos of the sky.  I don’t know why.  I just do, whether it’s from the wing of an airplane or from the ground, my feet solidly planted.  More often than not, I feel more powerful in the sky, and my feet on the ground are never that solidly planted.

I love to watch a good storm come in.  I love being in a good storm.  I love the smell of the earth after a good storm.

When I went off to college, I told my boyfriend (who was still at home) to look up at the sky and to know that we were looking at the same thing, in an effort to keep our connection, somehow, no matter the distance.  Yes, perhaps cheesy now with my added “maturity,” but at the time, I thought I was pretty original and very introspective.  It was my only way to hold onto that which I held most dear and that which I knew, ultimately, I would lose (and I did).

The sky, still though, holds a significant draw for me.  Power, seasons, storms, passing, uncontrollable, sun, rainbows, constellations.

I think what the sky says most to me is, we’re powerless.  Powerless I tell you.  Things happen.  You deal with them and you move on.  Make your goals, start your lists, but more important is living this short life we are given.  Live it well.  Love others.  Be kind.  We are but specks upon this planet.  And it’s a big big world out there beyond ours.

And out of even the most barren of places ~ dry, rocky beds ~ the storms of your own life ~ beauty can arise.

And will.

xo

A

P.S.  Skies courtesy of Virginia, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Utah.  And God.

Merry Christmas.

xo

A