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All I know is...

that I am here... in this moment...

at this place... at this time... and I am alright.

I am tired... so very tired... but I will be OK.

Today's ride in the country was preempted by a spontaneous picnic at a local park with my niece and her kids. We ended up completely surrounded by Jr. football players... random kids ... cheer leading tryouts... more people than I had imagined would be there. It was rather chaotic... and in a way... completely and utterly peaceful. And so... we had fried chicken... potato salad... fresh fruit... corn on the cob... and spice cake muffins. We watched the kids play.... and I got to wander thru the park taking photos ...and it was wonderful.

Sometimes the very thing you need... is the the thing you least expect...

*photos by Elaine A. Russell

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...................................................................................(photos by Elaine A. Russell)

I am late in posting today... I have intentions of posting earlier in the day... and somehow it just doesn't happen. I don't know if it's from all those years of working night shift... but I really do more productive work at night. Plus... it's kind of a meditative thing to write my blog post summing up my day... at the very end of my day.

Still in the Lupus flare... annoying. I have been inordinately tired... and not getting much done. But it is simply nothing compared to what is going on with my parents. Tomorrow, they are driving a fair distance to go to a specialty hospital so that my dad can get some surgery done to combat his newly diagnosed bone cancer with mets. I am not sure what all they are going to do... and frankly, neither is he.

And so... feeling a bit low... and frustrated... and sad... I went down to the river late this afternoon towards sunset. I love the water. It always has a very zen/ meditative effect on me. I used to always dream of living near the ocean... but really; any body of water will do. And so, I trekked down to the river's edge. It was awesome. There were Canadian geese, ducks, bunnies... and the more I walked about... the calmer and more clear I felt.

Simply Living Tip for the Day: relax. Life can be sooo stressful sometimes... and if you let it build up inside... whammo. The good news is... there are as many ways to de-stress as there are stressors. You just need to find the ones that work for you. Pick one... and try it every day for a week or two. ... then take note of how it made you feel. If it worked.. great! If not... try another...

Here is a good link with the top 10 ways to de-stress: HERE

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(photos by Elaine A. Russell)

Normally... I would be posting a review of a local gallery today. But, I woke up after only 2 hours of sleep with a fever and a sore throat.... so all bets are off at the moment. This is not an unusual event (having Lupus)... but I also know that it probably means that I will be "toast" for the rest of the day.. and not to plan on doing anything major. Tonight is the "First Friday" gallery events here in ABQ... so hopefully I will be better by tonight so that I can go.

Ah.. but enough of that.

As you all know... I have been taking photos forever... and have more than the average person's stash of photos lying about. It has been my goal to eventually get them all scanned and saved into digital files so that:

1. I can access them more easily
2. store them more easily
3. not have a closet full of photos

Yesterday I was looking at a bunch of my photos that I have saved on my husband's computer from last year (*before I got my own laptop). The photos for today's blog are 2 shots that I took last February. In fact, almost to the day... a year ago. There is something so reassuring about the river area here in ABQ. I have always been drawn to water... but there is something majikal about the combination of river and the huge cottonwood trees down there that is just amazing.

And so... I will leave you to gaze upon the beauty that is the Bosque....

Living Simply Tip for the Day: Try to keep your collections small. If that is not possible (say you have a collection of several thousand photos---ahem... )... try to keep them organized and in one location. In my case... scanning and saving all my photos to digital files is a long and arduous task... but one that I will definitely reap the benefits of in the future.