The last of my kids, grandchildren and their dogs have left the house. Another Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and it is serenely quiet. It was complete chaos and anarchy here with a lot of great food to break up the action. Now that it’s over I am in a more contemplative mood and can’t help but think about the strange times we live in. Hate and violence seem to be an everyday event.  Our leaders lack leadership, and for many the values that once were central in our lives don’t seem to be that important anymore. I try to maintain them in my personal life and promote them with my family. But outside of this I often feel I’m swimming upstream.

What more can be done? Every day we can also try to make some kind of difference in big and small ways. The more time goes on the more I am convinced it is the little things we do in our daily lives that matter most. These little things have a positive and cumulative impact on us and those we encounter.  At least that is what I think, and I’m sticking with it!

Another thing that helps me is to search for happy, funny, inspiring or otherwise entertaining moments to capture when photographing. I mean why not, there are enough downers out there and they can yield important images, but in these times how about something else to make us laugh and feel good about things and those that do good things for us!  I’m not giving up on serious the pictures, but I’m especially looking for those happy, funny, inspiring or otherwise entertaining moments … and am thankful when I find them!