Lookout

Enjoyed a nice morning walk with my better half followed by a rare sit-down meal at a local bar and grill.  Afterwards we walked for a bit along Eagle Lake, where the wind had blown the ice in against the north shore. The lapping waves jostled all the broken ice together which made this incredible sound. Very satisfying.

Wrapping up four years on blipfoto is a bit surprising seeing as my initial thought was simply to see if I could make it for 365 consecutive days. This year the process was a bit more difficult, sometimes feeling more like a chore than an enjoyable exercise. Part of my initial motivation was to document some of the important places around me, particularly around the house, since there is always this feeling in the back of my mind that we are on borrowed time here. When we are eventually forced to move away from this spot I wanted to have some external record to look back upon. Four years later, as I find myself going back more often to the same places and themes, it occurs to me that I have mostly satisfied my initial urge to be on the site. I seem to have less energy for adding journal entries and less time to respond thoughtfully to anyone else's journals. 

Even so, I'm still getting something out of it and think there is a benefit to the discipline of posting each day, even if it is something bland and mundane. Sometimes you have to show up for all those quotidian moments if you really want to be present when something extraordinary comes along. I am also appreciating the ability to look back and witness the yearly patterns that are revealed as more and more entries stack up.

So in my head I am planning to keep it up for at least one more year before reconsidering whether I still have the energy to keep going. In the spirit of deferred decision making, I'll let inertia run its course and see where things end up.

Dec 31 2020 (first entry)
Dec 31 2021 (including a good summation of how I feel about blipfoto)
Dec 31 2022 (still one of my favorite spontaneous image "discoveries")
Dec 31 2023 (a hike I suddenly think I should do again soon)