What I learned outside today:
* If you wait to long to enjoy something it will disappear. Hopefully it will do so slowly, as was the case for this surprise gorgeous rust colored sunflower. I have been saying for the past two days that I had to take a picture while it was still intact, floating its lovely petals to wow anyone lucky enough to walk (or mostly fly by). Today a few petals were already gone, but man what a color.
*We can all do with a little airbrushing. I will admit to cleaning the very first picture up a bit. There was a bit of crud on a few of the petals. It made me think about how the little flecks of my day can be tiny, but big enough to effect the whole picture. I can use the "blemish removal" tool in my photo program to simply mix all the edges with things around them in order to just erase what I don't want. I want to do more of that during my day. To pull the nice things over the edges of the not so nice until they just disappear and all I remember is the beautiful whole picture.
* That some things are worth an extra stretch. The final sunflower is over seven feet tall! I had to just hold the camera up and hope for a good shot. What I found surprised me! What a perfectly lovely flower! From the my lower level I couldn't see much, but there it is all the same, shining away.
*One more from that last sunflower- be beautiful even when no one's watching. I don't mean this only in the usual way- the be nice and do good things even when no one's around, although that's certainly important. I also mean be lovely, put some effort into yourself, how you dress, how you smell, how you look. Even when you're at home you deserve to feel great about yourself. That feeling starts on the inside. If you show yourself that you are worth the luxury of wearing flattering clothing and taking care of yourself you'll feel great!
Not bad for a nice sweltering day in August...not bad! :)
