Sand Art

I thought this photo was appropriate to what I'm thinking of this morning. I went to the beach with a, well, at the time he was a friend, then he was a summer romance, then he was out of my life. But that's another story, gone in the past. On this trip to the beach we discovered sand art that people had created in the sand scattered across the sidewalks. There was everything from birthday wishes to hop scotch squares, complete with a giant Mickey Mouse. This one was a cute message from the artist, whoever that may have been. Reminding us to stop, look, listen and SMILE. So many times I think we forget to do these things, all of them, not just the smiling. We get so wrapped up in the busy daily pace of life that we forget to stop and look around, take everything in. We forget to listen to the birds and the wind, and to each other. We get so caught up in our to do lists and deadlines that we forget to smile. Smiling is such a simple act, yet so important. Smiling is good for the soul.

You're probably wondering why I said this was an appropriate picture for today's post. I've been doing some thinking (prompted by the two lovely bloggers who were kind enough to comment in my blog here). I feel the need to be writing more, I just never seem to make the time for it. I've had a LiveJournal for a couple of years now, but really don't post much anymore. I thought that maybe if I got a shiny brand new blog that maybe I would post more. Maybe if I created a couple of blogs, a place for my photos, a place for creative writing (which has been created but in which I've still yet to write a word...unless you count the "about" section) I went to create yet another blog on here this morning, with the intent that this one would be for pure writing about daily life and thoughts. But I realized what a stupid idea that was. If I can't even keep up with one blog, how do I expect to actively maintain 3 or 4? After much thought (well, maybe not all THAT much thought, but at least a good 5 minutes or so) I came to the conclusion that I would combine my efforts. This blog, my photo blog, will become THE blog. I don't have to comment just on the photos, although I'm going to make it a personal requirement that every post includes a photo with commentary, since that was the original intent of the blog. But that doesn't mean I can't write about other things in here. After all, I'm the one who made the silly rule, so it seems reasonable that I can change it to fit my needs now. That being said, I will make a renewed effort to post daily. It will be a great personal exercise, and I'm sure my blog would appreciate it. It's felt somewhat neglected as of late. Who knows, maybe I'll even update my LJ once in a while too, since I have a close friend or two who I know that read it. I am going to make this my main blog from now on though. I'm really excited about this.

Photo specs:
~taken June 16, 2007
~setting: auto, no flash