Life: Through the Lens

As I've mentioned before, we belong to a camera club . Monthly meetings 9 months of the year bring us together to have workshops on various photography topics and skills, as well as to have themed competitions. February's competition , Motion, was great fun. Members can enter either digital or print images; slides have gone by the wayside, I'm afraid. But this makes the set-up very easy and the meetings run smoothly between the two venues. Three judges enter scores for the entries and the results are averaged. If someone enters photos and is also judging, this person enters a "0" when their photo is displayed, and the other scores are averaged. It works. The highest score you can get is an 18, which means you've earned a "6" from each judge. Fortunately, neither of us is fiercely competitive, so though our photos compete against each other we haven't had a major meltdown yet:) Here's a perfect example, from this month's competition. Thi...

And he's home.! Photo ops were numerous, to say the least. So many excited children and tearful husbands and wives. And my sister and her husband, and the rest of the family, were among those shedding tears of joy. Justin looks great, and was SO excited to get himself settled in an apartment off base and begin life States-side. It sounds as if there's a decent system in place for helping our soldiers re-enter a more "normal" life. And Justin has people to talk to. This will help. At least three days this week there were flights arriving from overseas 2-3 times a day. And at least three days this week, more groups were departing. God bless those home, and those now so far away.

I'm trying to live one day at a time. Really. We left on Saturday morning for our drive to Clarksville, TN, to see my nephew return from Afghanistan. The further south we drove the nicer the weather got (well, after a couple of hours of the dicey stuff in southern Michigan and northern Indiana). But then the clouds lifted, the sun came out, and milder temperature reigned! It was wonderful. Even our arrival on Sunday was greeted with mild temperatures and sunshine. Then Monday arrived, starting with rain....and moving quickly to snow and cold. Tonight we will sit in a hanger waiting for a midnight arrival...bundled and expectant. A "little bird" revealed the forcast for our journey home. Lovely. But our mission will have been accomplished and a wonderful event will take place before that journey. Welcome home to a group of very deserving soldiers!

A good old-fashioned blizzard, the kind we haven't seen in years. Swirling fingers of snow dancing across the landscape, and up into the air. And then calm settles in, and the sun shines upon us. It's hard to appreciate nature's gifts when the cold has settled deep into your bones, but the view was mesmerizing, and the coffee was piping hot!