It’s a blog! I know, right?

 Yay for me and all that…

But well…

Now what?

How does one actually start a blog?  I mean, I’ve got things to say – lots of things – deep spiritual… life changing things… brave, wonderful, revolutionary things!

But where do I start? How does anyone start?

I guess I can tell you, I took the photo above.

It’s basically me.  Hiding my face, and holding my new baby out for the world to see.

Yep.  That’s me in a nut shell, or more accurately, an orangoutang suit.

Okay…so maybe we can start there.

You see, I’m not actually a photographer… truth be told, I know nothing about photography.  But when my oldest son moved to Nashville and left his Nikon behind, I picked it up.

For the next three years, I channeled a photographer.  A damn good one actually. I sold prints, published photos and won awards. But there was only one problem.  It wasn’t me.

Oh sure, it was physically me.  I mean it looked like me, walked and talked like me.  I held the camera, walked around and pressed the shutter.  But it wasn’t me “seeing” the shots.  And it sure as hell wasn’t me managing the aperture or exposure. In fact, once I showed up in a nature preserve in NC, without glasses – not noticing the camera’s settings had all been changed.  As a result 80% of my photos were way too dark, but 20%?  OMG! Amazing!

Yep.  That’s pretty much how it happened.  Over and over again for three years.  I pack up my son’s Nikon, drove to a garden, nature persevere, or animal sanctuary, (basically any where I could think of). Then I’d find a quiet spot,  sink into meditation and allow “someone else” – some other part of me to step forward.

I guess that might sound creepy.  It really wasn’t.  It’s not like I lost consciousness or anything. I knew who I was and knew what I was doing… but I also knew for a fact, it wasn’t me.  I assumed (both then and now), that a past life energy was expressing.  I welcomed her.  I named her Bertha, and basically, enjoyed the ride.

Towards the end, I published two photography books: Worth A Shot Gallery’s Embracing Impermanence and Attitude is Everything.   (Available on Amazon – all processed are donated to animal rescue and rehabilitation programs.)  But as luck would have it, shortly after the second book was completed, “Bertha’s” energy was gone.

Poof!   Gone.  Nothing.

Of course, I continued to drive to gardens and I continued to shoot:

Crap!  Complete and utter CRAP!  Nothing – not a single photo of merit.

After about three months of that, I finally had to admit,  she was gone.

 It was just me – and as I said, I am not a photographer.