Old habits

Are sometimes a good thing to revive. 

 

For three years whilst working at the Lutheran church, I regularly came home from the mountains very early on Tuesday morning. This was not only the price that I paid for being able to spend one more night up there, but it also had its own rewards: peace, quiet and usually if not a gorgeous sunrise at least an interesting one.

This morning I decided to do the same thing and memories flooded back: the sunrise was golden, the trip a delight so who cares if I am going to be tired early tonight – this old habit needs to be occasionally renewed.

It’s just another day

How often do we say that ?

Some people think that their lives are boring or seem to be always the same, but if one really thinks about it one begins to notice the small variations in even the most calm of lives.

Given the terrorism, the accidents, the diseases and other negative events that impact us, it’s just another day might be a good thing if by that we mean calm, ordered, the same.

But again, it is never « just another day ». Every time the moon goes down, it is in a slightly different position, the weather is a degree different, our ability to actually not only see it, but to experience that sight changes with our availability and moods.

Moon Nov.18

Every time the sun comes up, it’s also in a different place, under different atmospheric conditions, seen or not at a different time from the preceeding day.

Sunrise Nov. 18

Sunrise Nov. 19

Both experiences are never the same: what a wonderful world – « it’s just another day » becomes a privilege instead of a banality.

Une lumière dans… Light...

La grisaille ambiante. In the ambient gray 

Non, je ne parle pas des merveilleux arbres de Noël dont voici deux exemples: quoique

très lumineux et toujours les bienvenues, je pense plutôt à notre grande nouvelle : la route est de nouveau ouverte!

Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas, la route entre moi et mon village a été bloquée depuis longtemps suite à des travaux pour le changement du système des eaux-usées. Combien de kilomètres en plus j’ai dû faire ces derniers mois – dans un sens c’était 4 km, dans l’autre presque 4.5. Chaque fois qu’il fallait chercher un paquet à la poste, chaque fois que j’allais voir deux amies habitant au-delà du fameux croisement des chemins, chaque fois que j’allais faire des courses en France, chaque fois que je voulais aller à la décharge, chaque vois que…. Bien vous voyez c’était devenu très embêtant de toujours devoir faire le tour.

Maintenant grâce à Noël nous sommes du nouveau libérés de ces contraintes – ma journée et mon avenir sur les routes à Noël sont ensoleillés, malgré le ciel gris et le temps pluvieux.

As I don't think much sometimes of the translations, here is the text also in English - if anyone who reads English wants to amuse themselves  they can have Google translate the above and see how close it comes to my own English verions.

Corsier

St.Maurice

Light …

In the ambient gray.

No, I am not talking about the lovely Christmas trees (two examples here): although luminous and always welcome, I am thinking more of the latest BIG news to us in my community: the road is again open!

For those who were unaware of the situation, the road linking me to the village has been blocked for quite some time as they are working on the new system of transportation (underground pipeline) for rainwater. How many kilometers did I have to drive every time these past few months: 4 in one direction, 4 and a half in the other. Each time that I wanted to pick up a package at the post office, each time that I went to see two of my friends who live in the village, each time I went to get groceries in neighboring France, each time that I had items to take up to the recycling center, each time that I … As you can see we were mighty sick of having to always go around.

Now, thanks to the holiday season, we are finally free from these constraints – my day and my future on the roads at Christmas have suddenly been “lightened” in spite of the gray skies and wet weather.

Sunrise Dec.17, 2014

Winter compensations

Those of us who live in countries and latitudes where the weather gets cold and the sun almost disappears learn to appreciate the alleviating climate changes, which allow us to appreciate the beauty of winter even before the world is turned into a fairyland of ice and snow.

These past few days have had more than their share of lovely as the following photos will attest.

setting moon Dec.8, 2014

The saying may well go: "red at night, sailor's delight; red in the morning, sailor's warning", I say red in the morning is a photographer's dream - three mornings in a row there have been varying shade of orange, pink and red.

Dec.10

Dec. 10

Dec.12

Dec.13

Dec.13

 

 

 

Then it isn't only the NSA that is spying - someone has managed to put eyes in the sky!

Dec.12

Dec.12

The early morning run…

And I don’t mean the jogging one, although in its time it too was fun, but rather that trip to the airport or train station.

My husband travelled a lot and as we were early risers anyway, it really didn’t matter that he often took the first flight out of Geneva at 6:00. For two years we lived just 5 minutes from the airport then  - although all the way across town – there was no traffic: I could get all the way to the airport at 5:00 (remember this was back when arriving an hour ahead of time was not only feasible, but legal and doable) without seeing any other cars and the bonus was sunrise on the way back.  Also the bar was open and we often had a coffee together before he walked through the then-easy security check. When our first son was born, it still didn’t matter as just put him to sleep in his carrycot and threw that in the car along with the suitcase.

In the early 80s we were in our “new” (now 33-years-old!) house and again early in the morning I could get there in 18 minutes without speeding if the lights were all green (and they often were). Now I had not only drive in along the lake as it changed from night dark to dark blue to shades of blue and gray, but also the bonus of sunrise over Mont Blanc as I drove across the one bridge linking left and right banks.

There was a smattering of cars going in and maybe two more coming out – still no big deal.

I continued to take my husband to the airport  - and was probably the only wife in town who didn’t mind doing so at the crack of dawn – as I loved that peaceful time of the world waking up, of seeing it before about 99% of the rest of the inhabitants in our state and town.

Traffic grew, but the early morning run is still not only doable, but pleasant.

My younger son needed to catch a train this morning at 7:15 and was very surprised that I offered to take him in – but oh what a blessing to yet again experience that early-morning calm and the beauty that was this morning before the sun came up!

Sunset, Sunrise

Dents de Morcle, VS, Switzerland, Sept. 18, 2014

Dents de Morcle, VS, Switzerland, Sept.18, 2014

Dents de Morcle, VS, Switzerland - Sept. 19, 2014

I know, one usually writes sunrise, sunset, but sometimes the beauty of the order is that it can be reversed: this is how it happened for the above three pictures.

One follows the other in any case, in a never-ending process visible from anywhere in the world: some are beautiful, some ugly, both exist; we only have to notice.

There is a certain comfort in the thought that we are so finite, that something larger than ourselves, an order from the chaos, does continue in a never-ending cycle, regardless of our presence.

I still miss you little sister!

Patricia J. Aitken

September 27, 1952 - September 19, 2012

Sunrise, Sunset …

My life above the street

Fascinating how much of a difference there is when one lives “above the street” instead of on the level of, or isolated or in the middle.

Things are different from this perspective – life is slightly out of focus – based upon a different point of view.

Perhaps we should all occasionally step back, view things from a different perspective: it might allow us to better understand others, or at least to look at things from their point of view.

 

Sunrise

Sunrise

Sunset same day

A "different view" fish eye sunset

Silhouette of the photographer and camera