Nothing To Do But Breathe

This morning as I was meditating I found my mind going in a dozen different directions at once (not at all unusual for me). And then through the cacophony of thoughts I heard a voice in my mind that said, “There’s

Nothing To Do But Breathe,

that’s all you need to do.”

So I breathed and I watched my thoughts flit here and there and I breathed some more. My days have been quiet recently. I’ve been having a lot of pain when I walk too much or do too much activity so I’m not doing as much moving around in the world as I would like. But I find beauty all around me each day even in my own yard and neighborhood.

Last week I bought annual flowers to plant in my flower beds and in a couple of pots. They’re nothing fancy but I have been enjoying photographing them.

At last evening’s photo club meeting one of our club members submitted a photo that inspired me to play with my camera and some of those flowers this morning. Our club member had made photos using intentional camera movement on a bed of tulips to create a soft colored background. Then she copied a tulip from another photo and placed it on the soft colored background. I loved her image.

And it reminded me that I too have played with camera movement, but not for a long time. So this morning I was outside doing everything I could to create long enough exposures to capture intentional camera movement.

Fleeting Beauty

I realized that using this kind of camera movement combined with still shots could help me express how I feel about the fleeting beauty of this season where the spring flowers are here and gone in a matter of days.

I feel like I need to soak in all of the beauty of this season breathing in all of the scents and sights and savoring them fully every single moment. So that’s what I’ve been doing with my breath and with my camera, breathing in the light and scents and sounds of the season.