Scenic View

Sitting around a campfire last week, a few of us were talking about taking photographs. "Jim" loved to take photos of everything, "Jason talked about taking photos of ‘his stuff’ and "Thom" expressed a love of photographing flowers and sunsets. I prefer scenic photographs and shy away from pictures with people, unless it is a “family outing” type of snapshot. Everyone was quite surprised to hear that I didn’t like photographing people.

The next morning, I was making my way across the beach and realized that a man was taking photos of the morning sunrise. My path was taking me directly in front of his camera. Quickly, I turned away and started to walk in another direction in order to avoid ‘ruining’ his photo.

No matter how smart you are or how talented one may be, if you do not continue to learn and grow throughout life, you rot! As I veered out of his way, I apologized for walking into the photograph. The gentleman turned out to be a visitor from another country. He opened his arms and gave me a big smile. What he said to me was priceless.

As one person trying to reach out to many by blending my hobby of photography and an education in human wellness, I want to express the deep-rooted connection that we all share with Mother Earth. On this morning, I learned a valuable lesson. The lesson is that if, I am wanting to communicate the delicate, harmonious balance that people share with the land, why don’t I have people in any of my photographs?

So, on that note, the quote of the day is (What this kind man said to me):

“Everyone belongs to the scenery.” tc

Food for Thought

Thanks to Emeril and Rachel Ray, to name a few, food is more than a necessity. Food has become a commodity to exploit. Food is no longer just a basic need of survival. It must be bigger, tastier and full of who-knows-what for Americans (at least) to enjoy it. Have you noticed that almost every holiday and special event revolves around food. People get excited to eat. They exert innumerable amounts of energy invested in preparation and cook time. I have even seen an attitude being “that if the food is ruined, so is the whole evening or at the very least…the cooks!” This is outrageous.


When we look at how unhealthy our society is on a whole, this is not a positive thing. Obesity is out of control. The acceptable standard for body weight and size has increased over the past 50 years and the excessive weight has increased many diagnostic health issues that people suffer from. Coupled with a decrease in nutritional value and taste, food has simply become a genetically engineered filler.

What is happening? There are people starving around the globe and many Americans continue to eat an abundance of unhealthy and poorly nutritional foods. Things must change. When the euphoric standard of desire for food is properly balanced with good nutrition and ‘enough,’ rather than an abundance, people will wake up from their caloric slumber. They will take a stand against the inundation of suppressed nourishment that they are being force-fed and temper nutrition and quality with quantity for life.

So, on that note, the quote of the day is:

“Balanced nutrition creates a balanced person.” tc