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I have come to love this photo of the ‘Damaged Leaf’. 

 After I completed this photo, I began to wonder: “Why am I showcasing a damaged leaf? Why didn’t I showcase a ‘perfect leaf’; like so many other photographers would?” I knew the answer immediately. I showcased the leaf because it WAS ‘damaged’.  There is nothing in life that is perfect and I realized, I love to showcase things that are especially ‘not perfect’.

 Then my mind went into my past, when I was a taxi cab driver to make ends meet. I heard over the radio a broadcast to pick up a fare at the mall and take the fare to a restaurant over on the other side of the mall.  I knew I wasn’t the closest cab to the location so I waited, expecting another driver to take the fare. The dispatcher repeated the call, over and over and still no driver would take the call. So I took the call.

 I picked up the fare.  She was a woman in her mid-thirties, thin as a rail, with way too much makeup on for my tastes.

 She was so glad to see me.  She said she couldn’t walk very far, because she was dying from cancer and didn’t mind telling me her story.  She had no family, that was interested in her troubles; but was one of the brightest spirits I have ever known.  We had the best conversation she had had in a while and thanked me profusely when I dropped her off at the bus stop by the restaurant. I still remember that lady to this very day, twenty plus years later. When I think of the makeup, I always smile.  She was going ‘down’, but she was going ‘down’ with class, ‘All Flags Flying’.  She was beautiful.

 The other drivers wouldn’t pick her up, because there was no money in it for them.  To me, she was priceless.

 We are all ‘Damaged Leaves’.

This is a fun time of year. People are decorating for Halloween and having a great time doing it. We love the autumn’s colors and people creating fall scenes in their yards.  Happy Halloween.

Why do I have a Tab on my Website called Nearly Abandoned?

What can we learn from things that are Abandoned or Nearly Abandoned or just plain Forgotten?  The old farm house, the one room school house with the roof caving in, the closed factory where people once earned their livelihood and supported their families. What about the forgotten railroad, that now leads to nowhere?  The answer for many people is absolutely nothing.  They drive by and don’t notice a thing. But like all things that are worthwhile in life; if we take the time to look a little bit closer, these things have a story to tell.  But what story and what can we learn from them?  The answer, at least to me, is where does my imagination take me?