Choosing a Focus

Choosing a Focus

My journey thus far has involved some challenges.  But there have been moments of joy as well.  In this new chapter of my life, I am trying to establish patterns and to focus on the positive.  

So I will not dwell on the glitches, although I might mention my lost luggage, since that’s an ongoing issue.  I will try to focus on the gorgeous day it was in Brookings when I left.  How lucky I am to have been able to live there. 

Au revoir, Brookingst

My suitcase went missing, but I got to watch the Orioles play baseball.  At game time, the weather in Baltimore was filthy hot and humid, but I was at Camden Yards with people I love.  Our seats couldn’t have been better, there was some amazing baseball played.  The game went long, but the home boys WON.  Again, what’s the focus—the little annoyances or the joys that presented themselves? (Especially the one where I got to sit, if only briefly, directly behind the O’s dugout and could rest my elbows on its roof.)

The joy of a night game

Batter, batter, batter

Throwing a strike

The Oriole Bird

It's a dirty job...

When did umpires get to eat on the job?

I am choosing to focus on the joy:  the flower smells made headier by the humidity rather than the way my capris were sticking to my legs.  

The same opportunity for choice presented itself when Janet and I went to Washington DC to do a little sightseeing.  We started out in the darkness of the Holocaust Museum.  This museum is exceptionally well thought out and demands much of us as observers.  It’s not light-filled or lighthearted.  It is too much, too powerful to be digested in only one visit.

Dark and somber

We deliberately came out of the darkness into the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, and­ lunched at the café. 

Remember these?

Apologies to Rodin

Italian LOVE

Giant Spider

After sustenance, we went inside the West Building of the National Gallery.  There we visited El Greco’s ghostly, white-grey figures, and I was enchanted by the Impressionist works of Gustav Caillebotte.  

El Greco

Van Gogh

Impressionist Light

I most enjoyed the contemporary photographers’ exhibit of interpretations of Time and Memory.  I knew about the first two installations, but was captured by the magic of the third.  I love art that challenges me and makes me think about things bigger than myself (and lost luggage.)

Photo exhibit favorite

 

Indeed, we chose to end our visit focusing on the light, on the positive.  It doesn’t mean that the dark should be ignored.  Rather it should be dealt with and then put behind us.  Yes, this leg of the journey has had some hiccups, but I am going to celebrate the positive.  I have had the extraordinary opportunity to visit with my dear friend Janet, and share an exciting evening at the baseball game with my godchild and his family.  And I have seen powerful reminders of the past that compel me to seek out the good things of the present and future.

Photo collage

Track of the sun through time