Opening my Eyes

I was looking over some thoughts I wrote down for another blog that I used to write.  It wasn't that long ago that I stopped doing that blog and started this one.  Besides making my heart ache over that subject matter, it also gave me a smile.....for people who used to follow that blog will know what I am trying to say....

PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE

AND HEAR WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR

PEOPLE TURN A DEAF EAR AND CLOSE BLIND EYES 

I admit I am guilty of the above.........I am learning to see more with open eyes and to listen as well.

It's not very often that I can sit in a passenger seat and look around while someone else is driving.  I'm usually the one behind the wheel.  My job occasionally takes me out of state or out of town.  Living where I do, here in Utah, it offers a vast array of different landscapes.  From mountains full of trees and pines, to rock formations that resemble castles, to red rocks and desert scenery.

Starting my day at 5 am is not my cup of tea....I'd rather be looking at the backside of my eyelids at that time.  Early mornings are not me when I am in the city.  At the lake on the other hand, predawn is my best friend.  

Normally scenery is whizzing by me when I am driving.  I see what's ahead of me....give the wheel to someone else, and my eyes are all over the place.  A road trip for work is fun when someone else drives  and I can look at what I usually miss.  

Heading up Spanish Fork Canyon you are greeted by a field of
windmills.  It's the beginning of an adventure.  A scary one at times since
this is one of the deadliest canyons in the nation. 

Price, Utah...mining country and the beginning of Castle
country.  Rock formations begin here that resemble
castle fortresses.  Dinosaurs once roamed these
rocky formations.  

When you see the windmills you know your trip down
the canyon is almost finished.  You can breath a sigh of
relief.  What started out as a beautiful cloudless sky of blue,
ends with skies gray and angry.  

The wall of the storm we are heading into.  A trip that
 takes 2 hours to drive, took 3 hours thanks to
the sky opening up and releasing copious amounts of water
all over..........

The older I get, the more I realize that taking anything for granted is out of the question.  I'm seeing now that it, meaning anything, is a gift to me that I should cherish and hold on to.  Sometimes I do.  Sometimes I don't.  I don't live in a perfect world thus I cannot be perfect either.  Starting this day with clear beautiful blue skies and ending it with an angry one,  is an example that each day I am given to breath once again may not be as perfect as it was when I woke up.  I will continue to get up after I am knocked to the ground.  I will continue to put one foot in front of the other after tripping over an obstacle.  I will continue on a daily journey with eyes open, my ears ready to listen, and my arms ready to hug the moments given to me...................

Twitter @CotySimon

Instagram/Howunique310

Open Eyes...........

Top of the mornin' .....coffee, sunrises, and the lake. It's
a perfect trio.......

I'm up before the birds sing...... I love catching sunrises at the lake. I can sleep in when I am at home.   Everyday is different.  No two sunrises are the same.  This is my reverent time.  My time to stop and look at what I miss when I don't get up before the birds.  It's my time to listen to what not is going on around me.  No people, no trucks or cars, no outside big city sounds.  Just birds waking up, flocks of geese flying over, the sounds of a breeze going through the leaves, the lapping of the lake against the beach.........A sky that starts to turn different colors, opens my eyes up........ I see colors of red, orange, pink, yellow..........A sun that peeks over the mountain tops and shines down on the water that is as smooth as silk..........Each sunrise is a gift.  It's a reminder that I am alive... A gift I gladly take and capture.

Running on empty is never a good thing, mentally, physically or mechanically.  Taking the time to refuel and rejuvenate is necessary in order to keep on going, keep on moving...... Even if it's for a brief moment.

I will type away on the keys of my lap top and listen to the rhythm of the falling rain hitting the canopy roof, the sound of the thunder that gets closer and louder.  It's late enough in the day that if the clouds empty themselves of moisture,  I might have the priviledge of catching a sunset that will take my breath away and leave my mouth gapping wide open.......what will be my breathless moment tomorrow I wonder?  Whatever it may be, it will be a gift that I will open carefully and love it dearly.................I write about this lake often.  I love this lake.

There is sunshine even on a cloudy day

Sooner rather than later I will head back up to the lake.  Sooner rather than later I will clear out the mind of all things negative.  Sooner rather than later I will fill up my soul with all things positive.  Sooner rather than later I will look rather than close my eyes.  Sooner rather than later I will listen rather  than ignore.  Sooner rather than later I will................................

Twitter@CotySimon
Instragram/Howunique310

It's time......

It's almost time for the annual trek to the lake and mountains.  The countdown begins.  T minus 6 days, countless hours and seconds to go.....................

It's time to get away from the sights and sounds of a bustling city and head for the mountains..........the air is clean, the grasses sway in the breeze, the fences bend just enough to let you roam free, get lost, but always find yourself back home.  It's time to listen to nature.  It's time to hear the birds sing, smell the air that is full of different scents, campfire, wildflowers, the lake, pine.........it's time to feel the breeze blow softly and the sun shine down and feel it's warmth.  It's time to look up and see the clouds float across the sky.  It's time to see the changing colors of the lake.  It's time.....................

It's time to let my mind wander................

It's time to leave the makeup at home, wear the clothes I don't care if they get torn or ripped.  It's time to let vanity stay in the city................

It's time to focus on whats important.........and to let go of what I cannot change..............

It's time to regroup with myself and reflect on what I need to do or not do............

It's time.......It's all about "time".........it's time that is quickly going faster and faster each day that I wake up.  It's time to be grateful, thankful, for each breath that I take and each step I can put one foot in front of the other.  It's time................that I remember that.......................

It's time............. that I remember who I am............... who I am...................is me.............

Twitter @CotySimon

Instagram-Howunqiue310

Through my Eyes....

A year ago I started this blog.  It replaced a blog that brought me great joy and happiness.  It was time to move on.  I miss writing on that old blog, but it was time to move away from it.

My hope was and still is, to capture life through my eyes.  I am the heart and soul of a human being.  I am an inner child.  Time flies when you are having fun.  This past year has brought happiness, tears, laughter, and tragedy to me and to people I know and love, and also to people I have never met but feel as if they have been in my life since day one.

The older I get, the more my eyes become wide open.  I no longer take anything for granted.  Life is a gift. I'm trying to use it wisely.  That doesn't always happen.  it does give me room for improvement.  I still find myself with a "I don't care" attitude.  That is a work in progress and I am making great strides in making that better.  It's not that I don't care, because I do.   I find myself in situations  where decisions need to be made and I don't want to make them.  Thus the "I don't care" attitude.  Procrastination is the appropriate word I have to deal with in my human host.  Being an inner child, I can use myself as the excuse.  But the human who houses me, she has no one to blame but herself............

I am having fun. I am having fun taking pictures.  I am having fun as I look through the lens and see things so differently now than I did in my youth.  I am getting older, but I am not getting any wiser.  I fear that getting wiser will make me fearful and not take chances.  i don't want to get so comfortable that I won't leave and try something new and exciting.  I want to take the bull by the horns, but I also don't want to get hurt either...........

Flowers make me happy.  Flowers make me smile.  They show beauty in
a world that is sometimes ugly and gray.  Their colorful petals
spread joy and hope......I take pictures of flowers so I can
look at the bright side of life whenever I feel sad
and gloomy.  I'm not perfect.  I do get sad!!!

Sharing my camera captures on this blog, I'm hoping it lets people see that life isn't all serious.  It can be fun, uplifting, and a pleasure to enjoy.  Many people cannot get out and see the back roads, or take that next exit off a highway and venture down a road less traveled.  Maybe, just maybe, I can help them live a little through my eyes.........

This place puts a smile smack dab on the kisser.....My heaven, my
sanctuary.  A place I will never tire of,.  I leave this place with a sad heart, but
I always come back .  it never fails to put happiness in
my heart, and smile a mile wide on my face.  This is my pot at the
end of a beautiful rainbow...........  

Next to flowers, sunsets give me great eye candy to look at.   The sky really looked
like this.  Walking out of a building to flaming orange was breath taking.
This was one of those "one in a million" looking skies resembling
a world about to ignite into a ball of flames.  

As much as I love Summer,  Fall  is a favorite of mine.  I have a
love/hate feeling for it.  Love the colors it throws out.
I also know that a blanket of white will soon
cover the ground, the leaves that were once full of
rainbow colors, will be brown, dead, and blowing
in the wind.  

Driving to West Yellowstone, rounding a bend in the highway this
rainbow appeared.  I've never seen anything stretch so
beautifully like this rainbow from one side to another.    

I have found in my older, but not so wise life, my pot of gold.  Its not monetary....it's what makes me happy.  It's what makes me smile...........

I thank you for reading, sharing, and rolling down the highway with me.  I take pictures of flowers to share with those that don't have flowers in their life.  I take pictures of sunsets for people to see who may never look up.  I take pictures of my happy place to show people that you can find happiness anywhere.



Twitter @CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

Eye of the Beholder

What I see through a camera lens is not always pretty.  Viewing the world through a camera lens is not always filled with color.  The desert landscape is drab, colorless,  has no life........Finding beauty in the desert is left up to the individual.    

The desert uses a color palette of brown, with splatters of red, orange, yellow thrown in the mix.   Mountains are not always covered with green foliage.  They also can be huge masses of rock, fused together over centuries of time.  When driving through a mountain pass and you come upon a sign that says "watch for Falling Rock(s)"....keep in mind that there is an Indian princess just waiting to be found by the name of Falling Rock.  My father took great delight in telling me that story each and every time we ventured through a mountain pass that had the falling rock signs posted.   As a little girl, I believed him.  I believed there really was an Indian princess out there waiting to be found.  No clue that it really meant watch for the damn rocks falling off the mountain side.  

Life can be colorful or dull with no sense of well being.  It's what you make out of it  You want things cut and dried, then life will be black and white.  You want excitement, life will be have a color scheme for you.......

There is beauty in everything, well just about everything.  Find the beauty in your life.  It's true what they say.........Beauty is in the eye of the beholder................find yours.  I find mine through the lens of my camera and by just looking around, looking up, and seeing what's around me...........




Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

New Mother Nature.......

It'a no secret that I love going to a particular lake that is on the Utah/Idaho border.  I've been going to this lake for a lot of years.  I never get tired of looking at the surroundings up there.

People can take pictures of kids, family, animals, landscapes or whatever seems to find themselves in the cross hairs of a view finder.  I do the same.....I also like to mix it up, shake it up and do something different.

While at the lake recently, I picked up a couple of sea shells, a feather from a bird, a leaf, some twigs, and a couple of rocks.  I placed them in a plastic sandwich bag.  These were my treasures and I had an idea for them.  They were my bag of goodies.  I put them in my pocket and forgot about them until the next morning when I placed the lens cap off my camera into my pocket and found the bag.  I took the bag out of my pocket and placed it on the table.  

The lyrics of an oldie but goodie started playing in my head.  A song that wouldn't leave me alone.  It stayed on repeat and played over and over in my head........

........the situation must be right

a bag of goodies and a bottle of wine

We're going to get on right tonight......

"Cause it's the new Mother Nature taking over

it's the new splendid lady come to call

it's the new mother nature taking over

she's getting us all

she's getting us all

Playing with the contents of my bag of goodies, I imagined myself a new Mother Nature.  Rearranging, composing, organizing the contents and taking a pic of them.  I found a rock that looked like a petrified Mickey Mouse.  Round head, mouse ears.  Maybe I will paint the face to look like Mickey Mouse.  Maybe not.............one thing for sure, I will be going back real soon.  I'll start a new bag of goodies, open another bottle of wine, and see what I can find through the lens of a camera...................

I'm downloading the Guess Who's greatest hits on to my IPod so I can listen to the song American Women/New Mother Nature, over and over again through my ears instead of listening to it from my brain...................



Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

Not ready to make nice

Growing up I was told by my elders, that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

Social media to me is a venue that you can write and post whatever you want, well just about...........so people that do post on the more popular sites and voice their opinions, there is always someone right behind them, claiming that they are rude.  So what?  Reality TV is a breeding ground for opinions of such matter........

I don't have to name the show that is on ABC on Monday nights at 7 pm MST, or tell that it has a cast of a number of men (or women) vying for the attention of one, very single woman (or man).

With some creative editing, it's real easy to dislike a persons(s) even though I don't know them at all.  Not even remotely....with that said.....I'm not ready to make nice so I am taking myself out of the social media circle for one night and keep quiet.  What better time than now to head to the lake, bask in the sunshine, and bury my tootsies in the sand.  Charlie the dog and I will soak it all in, take some pictures, read a book, and then toast the end of a perfect day with a good glass of wine.

***************

I give you thee, the beauty & serenity of this lake....Bear Lake

The east side of the lake maybe very rocky, but it's the best side
to take pictures, listen to the water lapping at the rocks,
and overall enjoy the sounds of nothing but
natures vocals. 

Charlie the dog

She's not paying attention to me.  I've been snubbed by a
dog in favor of bird watching.  

*********************

I had every intention of sending this out on Monday, prior to my departure to the lake.  It didn't happen.  I arrived home yesterday feeling rested, sunburned, and ready to tackle Monday nights episode of my humans reality TV show...........I swear after that episode I should have stock in Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex........actually my own vineyard would be nice, too.......

This blog is and will never be, nothing but my adventures with a camera, but sometimes it's everyday life that makes the adventures seem more meaningful.  Getting to see how ABC handled the death of Eric Hill was nice.  I  am glad they included his death as part of the show, how they handled the news themselves, and also how it affected not only the family of Eric Hill, but other people as well down to the staff and production crew of the show.  It offered for me some closure.  




Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310