I never set out to be anything other than a casual photographer; using my camera to capture the daily moments of my life. I am not one to hold signs of protest, or use online platforms to let others know how I feel, or try to change their minds. And while I have attempted at different times to capture scenes from the streets, because they are important, I am more drawn to the deep, red poppies blooming, among the weeds surrounding them, in the dirt of the almost finished house next door.

I don’t want others to think I don’t care, because I do. I don’t want others to think that the pain in the world does not rock me to the core, because it does. And, while I see daily now, the mistakes I have made in the past and the assumptions I have drawn that were not true at all. I think best about how I might look at so many things from a another viewpoint, after I have spent some time among the poppies, and the weeds that surround them, next-door.

I am discovering daily now how skewed my visions is and I am ashamed and unsettled.

I come in, after time spent among the poppies, with a more settled mind. Finding I am ready to read the news with enough caution and reason to weed through what is true and what is sensationalism. I am centered enough to begin to identify specifically where I need to make changes, and I am able to move beyond some of the haziness of my past mindset.

Among the bright, red poppies next door, I am able to start taking steps forward. I am able to open up and talk with others about different perspectives, and I can start to ask questions and dig deeper, in order to understand better.

I am able to make changes within myself, and with those changes comes healing.

xoxo Cathy