Tag Archives: Indecision

The Cat, The Turkey Neck, & A Change In My Direction

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Alfie, is a neighbor’s cat who comes over almost daily to have his ears scratched and to see what food he can scrounge. At Christmas he found his way up to the temporary bird table John built to feed the birds over the winter after an older one fell apart.

It always amazes me what John thinks the birds will enjoy and I’m surprised to see them eat things at times that I thought they would never go for. Take for instance, the cooked turkey neck hanging in the top right of the photograph.

The birds would not touch it, but Alfie … he seemed to really want it!

I photographed him through the sliding glass door while standing behind the Christmas tree thinking I might see him leap into action.

He came back for several days. He’d leap up three feet onto the bird table and then he stare at at the turkey neck and look around like he was thinking about the best way to reach it.

I really wanted him to take a chance and go after it, but he never did. I waited, hiding behind the tree with my camera hoping to see him jump to get it or climb up and reach down from the boards above, but he always seemed a bit unsure and afterwards I labeled his hesitation and lack of follow through as a failure.

After a few days, John took the turkey neck down and threw it out.

Seeing these photos made me consider a big decision I made the other day. It was something I had thought about for a while, but just could not move forward for a number of reasons. I was kind of like Alfie, part way there but not all the way and I had to wonder what was holding me back.

My biggest obstacle was me and my sometimes screwy way of thinking that things can only be seen one of two ways such as good or bad, black or white, and almost always, as a success or failure. This kind of thinking leaves no room for changing your mind or choosing another path which is clearly what I have needed to do for a while.

Choosing ‘Daily’ as my word for 2012 felt big when I did it and loaded with practicality. I did not imagine it would help me make such a big decision so soon, but when I used the daily five to break it down, the answer was simple and instead of angst, I felt relief.

I need a day or two to get a photograph together and I’ll be happy to share this change in direction with you then.

When Is Good, Good Enough?

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Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.

~Harriet Braiker

I frequently struggle with what to keep and what to discard when it comes to my images. I can easily see exposure issues with this flower that cannot be resolved without losing detail in certain areas … yet each time I move to send it to the trash something stops my hand. It’s not perfect, but there is something happening in the very center that makes me want to give it another look. What about you, how do you let go of the need to be perfect and make peace with good enough?

Ground Control – We Have A Problem

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Sometimes life offers you so many choices you may have trouble deciding which one thing is the very best. I wanted to use one of my images from the other day for a blog post, but in trying to decide…well, I couldn’t. So went to John and asked him which one he preferred and he quickly pointed out the first one you see above. Still not completely satisfied, I then considered what was it exactly that I wanted to say this morning and which image might best suit the direction of my thoughts. This didn’t help either because each photograph has something about it that makes me think of how it might illustrate a variety of topics and even though the images seem very similar, I see a different image to topic “match”  for each one of them.

So that’s when I decided that the real topic for today is not about which photograph to use, but rather how my indecision and desire to do everything ” just right” creates an ugly scenario where little gets done. People talk a lot about having writer’s block which I always thought of as a problem grounded in a lack of words or ideas, but perhaps indecision can be a blockage of sorts too.

It’s days like this when I feel as if I need an air traffic controller to help me keep my ideas organized and moving forward in an on time manner so that while one project is say, taxiing to Concourse A and arriving at Gate 10, projects 2 and 3 can be circling and landing in an orderly fashion. To illustrate my indecision, what you get today is all the images. If you have any tips I can pass on to ground control, please leave them in the comment section.

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Shining A Light On The Impact Of Indecision

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Choices…sometimes there are just too many and I am unable to decide what to do next. So I sit, stuck in indecision. The impact of this affects a variety of other areas of my life chief of which is a low level restlessness that causes me to feel as if I’m not getting enough done. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t been productive in other areas, but the simple task of creating a post to share has caused me to do a bit of procrastinating where my blog is concerned. I could use a little help from my readers. So much happened on our honeymoon trip to Paris and I took so many pictures that every time I scroll through my images, I just can’t decide which to use and what stories to share with you. Here’s where you all come in…I’m going to post a few pictures and I’d like for you to leave a comment as to which ones intrigue you and leave you wanting to know more.

Please leave your response in the comment section by Sunday noon…that’s noon wherever you are and I’ll write about the picture or pictures that create the most interest.  Thanks for your help and I look forward to seeing your comments.

If there’s a comment for each one then I’ll respond to each in return so don’t feel you have to choose one based on what others have chosen.

(1) E with Painting

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(2) Artists

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(3) Cat

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(4) Monk

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(5) Window View

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(6) Painter

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(7) Doorknob

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(8) Backside

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(9) Woman

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(10) The Watchers

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(11) Dark Light

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(12) The Ring

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(13) Help

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(14) Help X 2

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(15)  Chagall ceiling


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That’s all for now and thanks for your thoughts.