waltrip party of 4: "SO BEGINS MY 49th ORBIT"

(There are a few photographs that I've made - a few, not many - that just say it. That simply are what they are & there's no other way about it. Doesn't matter how often I reframe-revisit-reshoot... for better or worse they just ARE. To try to force them into saying more than what they've already said is pointless.

So it is with the words below, words I wrote last year that have no need to be re-written, only re-read.)

Sometimes it JUST. DOESN'T. COME. EASY.

In fact, it seems that the simple act of choosing to recognize joy is almost guaranteed to unleash torrents of challenges, deluges of doubts. And, occasionally tears.

But then, nobody ever said that joy must manifest itself in all things shiny & new. In fact it often arrives dented & wrinkled instead.

But sometimes it's the fighting for it that makes it run deep, carves new canyons in your soul & washes away the detritus of disappointment.

So it didn't come easy on this, the commencement of my 49th solar orbit, to name & revel in joy... to actually count my blessings - the bits & pieces that bless me.

But it was worth the struggle. And because I fought for it, joy is mine. And it runs deep.

As evidence, I present...

"49 Things

That Give Me Joy"