day journey

Please pardon my Dante-like story introducing my pictures. I have, for a while, shunned my idealistic attachment to God, thinking that a loving God doesn't induce slow and withering agony to persons. I shuddered to think that a God-fearing church-goer could develop Alzheimer's and die a miserable death while criminals remain alive and well. Some felons living rich.

I was really thinking nothing of that when I saw some pictures ready to take. I walked on my little journey just thinking of taking pictures and of the week coming with only two known interviews. I carried with me a bit of self-pity on which to snack on this trip, however long it might take.

Clouds with a streak (of good luck) with a nearly hidden jet in the sky.

I was drawn to a shaded area where I could take a picture of clouds with shade cast off them .

I could not believe that I found this...
what appeared to be God's mailbox and God lives locally.

I was always hoping that God would give me a plainer sign. I think God has this time.
OK, so God exists, then I wonder what does God do?

I should reflect on my life, maybe.

Should I lie in wait or be active?
While there is a certain attraction to waiting, living is better.

There is beauty everywhere, often closer than you think.

There is death. There is always death, it is the cycle of physical existence.

Should I take a seat and listen?

I should grow on old decaying ideas and learn to develop, regardless the challenges.

Bright, colorful ideas can be seen, if you look hard enough.

Bird by the roadside, quite dead.
I could fear flying, fear trying, but then I would die anyway having never known flight.

I could leave a mark here and there.
I could think of all the times I got burnt, but no.

Despite the peril, the challenge, it starts with a first step.
Here, I nearly sank inescapably. I chose a different path.

Though trains move back and forth over the same tracks, they begin somewhere, right?

"Now, why was I trying to catch a train" came to mind, but instead I think it is a well laid track for me to follow.

With a train-like snort, this deer by the railroad tracks watched me intently, but didn't run away for I didn't chase it away. I watched it, and it me.

New life, little tadpoles swimming happily in murky water.

I looked down to my left and saw a small path in the wood where I had been walking.

I got on my journey from a cement road to one like this.

In the middle of my walk, I saw a creek and the life surrounding it.
It was cool (temperature) and lovely.

There is life plain, simply neat to see and watch.

With some patience, you can see the details of things you dismiss as common.

If you walk slowly enough to enjoy your walk, you can see how you can have a unique perspective. It's not just a beetle, but one you haven't seen, haven't photographed, haven't touched before.

I started off on a purposeless journey. It didn't matter what I did for it was purposeless.
Perhaps life isn't so. Perhaps God has an influence that I just can't perceive.
I am a doubter, a skeptic, a dreamer of sorts, but call myself practical.
I also haven't been really observing, but just moving in a plane of existence.
I should have a purpose-driven life.
Now, my question isn't to God, but to me.
What is my purpose?

While my prose is terrible, I thought that I would introduce the pictures with the kick in the head I got. At the end of my journey I was sore with a sprained ankle, which I thought was just twisted. I also had to walk on it for about 90 minutes, as well as climb a barbed wire fence to get out of the wooded area. I wasn't hurt, just sore and I walked funny (or funnier).

I've taken pictures, so what? What is the point without a track, a path, a direction?

For now, I guess I could encourage people to turn off the car and walk where you have never walked before. Go, enjoy, smell scents you haven't, seen things you haven't ... touch, hear, live.

All of the photos were taken in Fort Wayne, IN in various locations.