TUM: Shapes

Shapes - I thought I would photograph people, they come in all shapes and sizes.  But when I went out to clean up after the chickens this week and found three little eggs sitting in the nesting box my people idea flew out the window!  We have EGGS!!  My chickens are exiting adolescence, they are all grown up and are giving back!  Not only in the form of sustenance, but in material for my blog:

And the feather is beautiful, it was very artfully positioned but not by me, by my hen!  Creative little chicken ;-)

Mariette's photo also has feathers in it.  She has grown so much as a photographer over the last year, really, and this week her pic is just beautiful.  You have gone and done it now Mariette, you have raised the bar of expectation that I have when I open your photo each week - there is no going back, the pressure is on!

Claire sent through a shape that we have been challenged to decipher and whilst it feels familiar, it is just beyond my grasp.  She is planning to post the answer today, and I thought that if I held off I might be able to cheat and see the answer before my post but alas, Claire is smarter than that and is patiently waiting.  Do you have any guesses?

Linda brings in the rear this week with her photo, just beautiful and romantic and very Linda.  Her curtain tie backs which have yet to be hung:

The time to enjoy something this pretty Linda is NOW.  Set some time aside this Saturday or Sunday or soon and make a commitment to get them up (Happy Valentines day to myself from myself) so that you can love them every day.  Lovely photo, I love all the textures.

Something else has been the theme of this week, for me anyway.  I think following the journey of my fellow bloggers and reading their heartfelt posts about adversity, challenge, triumph and peace I have come to realize that there there is truth in that cliched saying about standing up after you have taken a fall.  No matter what happens to us, no matter what less traveled road our journey takes us on or the obstacles put in our path, there are so many examples of people who have overcome the most adverse circumstances to find peace, happiness and success that you have no choice but to believe that we are powerful, and we can change, we can make a difference. 

As in Paulo Coelho's book 'The Alchemist' - which you absolutely MUST read if you haven't, I think it should be required reading in high school - each of us set out to live our own personal legend, part of living that legend means letting go of and making peace with situations and experiences that only serve as weight in our backpacks, pain, regret, anger and what I call the 'victim mindset' are all things that make the journey difficult and the going slow.  Take them out of your backpack, look to the horizon and you will move swiftly towards your personal legend.

The pain and regret we leave beside the road are still a part of us, we are still affected by those experiences, they just don't need to cripple us, they don't need to define our present or our future.  They tell us where we have come from, not who we are or will be.  We shape our own destiny, and there are no victims here, only conquerors.