Mono Monday. : : Portrait

The challenge today was to get a portrait of John smiling! I think I did pretty well, don't you? I think his smile is quite infectious....It's not that he doesn't ever smile, but he hates having his picture taken so I usually have to sneak up on him. This picture was taken with his full cooperation. I think a good way to get a good candid portrait is to snap many pictures quickly while maintaining some sort of witty reparteé...or call upon the services of the dog....

We couldn't miss the full moon last night as it rose above the hills looking enormous. I went to bed thinking about the well documented fact that emergency rooms are usually very busy on the night of the full moon. In my case, I rarely sleep very well...even on those nights when I don't realize that it IS a full moon. This got me to thinking about how many different forces there are that control our lives. This seems especially true as we navigate our way through a pandemic with all its restrictions. Just the thought of invisible aerosols laden with ever changing viruses invading the very air we breathe is enough to make me stop trying to think about ways I CAN control things.

I try to control John, but he too is very resistant...

John's broken ankle has brought about a few discussions about how much longer we want to keep living on this hill. But then we think accidents can happen anywhere. Why spend our time planning for something that may never happen (well, except for the inevitable) instead of just living our lives as best we can in the present. I think the Hindus have the right idea when they believe in karma and reincarnation.....it's not fatalism because there are ways one can improve one's karma in the next lifetime by living well in this one. 

Hindsight is NOT a form of control...just a reckoning....

My brother called last night and set me straight about Uncle Richard. Richard Nathaniel Venable lived from 1756 to 1838 and served in the US Army in the Revolutionary War. So he clearly wasn't Grandma's uncle but a more distant relative. We'll have to look into that a bit more before I move on to the the possibly apocryphal story of ancestors who were among the first Pilgrims to arrive at Plymouth Rock!