Paying Attention

I am just like everyone else, dealing with both the brutality and the wonderment that life presents.
Recent years have had significant and heartbreaking challenges. There have also been wonderful joys.
I find that I sometimes have to make a conscious effort to practice what I have always taught my one son:
When things seem overwhelming, put your head down and plow forward.
It will get easier.

Being a designer, I have always paid attention to details, but I have chosen to have a more disciplined focus of those details that I may have taken for granted.

This is a partial view of my backyard.
It's a nice yard, but meh.....I always thought there was nothing unusually wonderful about it.
But I recently decided that it actually is quite wonderful, mostly because of the view to the sky. When I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I now do is look at this view.

I love how the sky is always a surprise, always changing.

Morning light can be magical.
Watching the sun come up while the moon is still glowing....love it!

Stormy skies totally captivate me.

When I don't stop to look....

I miss the nuances of the familiar.

When I'm paying attention, I sometimes get to witness the spectacular.
That makes the challenges easier to bear.