Good things and bad things going on

Why do we have to get sick and have things go wrong? Seems I have recently been surrounded by sad news of people's health issues. It sometimes scares me. If I had my way I would just die and skip all the doctors and hospitals and cures. And hey, who knows, maybe I will.

I have been extremely lucky in my life and been pretty healthy. My mom fell recently and cracked a hip bone, her husband has started getting visits from Hospice in their home, my dad had a pacemaker put in his heart, my brother is about to undergo a major surgery to fix an old accident, and a very dear friend of mine is being checked into Hospice after years of battling cancer. There is other sadness around in my small group too. I love them all and hate to see all this weariness.

But my faith is not wavering. For I know that there is a reason for all this, and I am ok with it, even knowing I may never completely understand it all in this lifetime.

However, I have to see the other side too. My boss is going to a grandma for the first time, two girls on staff are having babies within a month of each other (in the same department too), one of the directors that reports to Ed is pregnant, another on staff may be having twins.

There is good as well as bad in our world. It is something that needs to be accepted and something that continues to build my faith, for I know that whatever happens to me, I am loved by the ultimate! I love my God!

Photography class

Finally, I am taking a real live photography class. My friend, Joyce, and I are in week five of this ten week commitment together. I have a great camera although a few years old now. I am always amazed how fast the technology moves. My phone has more mega pixels than my Nikon SLR! But my phone camera has no control at all, no lenses, nothing, nada. So my Nikon is still much, much better on many levels.

My goal was to learn how to use my camera. I am always embarrassed to admit that everything I take is with an automatic setting. My reasoning was that I was trying to capture the 'unusual' shot, and the specific settings were irrelevant, and would take care of themselves in auto mode....Wrong!

This class is teaching me that my thinking is not so brilliant after all. And if I want to take really good photographs, and not just pictures, as one of the teachers calls it, I need to learn a whole lot more! Our first class was on composition, and now all those pictures I thought were so cool?? Well, not so much anymore. (If you got one of my calendars, I am really embarrased now!)

Our class went on a field trip (kinda), across the rives to learn how to take some night shots, and that was fun. The photo ops are great there, and we were lucky to have a very clear night. If I weren't such a chicken walking across that bridge I am sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Our next field trip is an all day affair, and we will end up in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, where yes, it is true...they have a dog for a mayor. That will be fun. I am looking forward to it....if I don't have to walk across a bridge!