Permanent

Location: A top a hill in downtown Erin.

Description: Looking down between two hills, a winding path leads into downtown Erin which can be seen below.

Story: To be born, to live your life in a month, to die on a windowsill, that is what is given to the common fruit fly. Yet it is their short lifespan that helps them to endure. It is not only the individual that matters, but that the whole, the species, survives into the future.

Too often we mistake what is current for what is permanent. We know that seasons change but forget that the mountains grew over millenia or lakes (like the Clearwater Lakes in Québec) were formed by meteorites. We have hills formed by glaciers and valleys eroded by ancient rivers. We see children grow but miss than huge trees are still growing too.

There are two things we should do. First, take a minute and determine what is permanent about you. Your appearance will change and so will what you do, but your core beliefs are unlikely to be completely rewritten. A metaphorical meteorite may hit your values though, so always stay adaptable. Know what you find important today and it will stay important.

Your other task is to know that permanence is an illusion. Plant a tree today and watch it grow or buy a water feature (one with a fountain running over stones, for example) and notice how it changes with time; really develop your long-term time sense. By noticing how the world around you changes, you'll be much more comfortable with changes in your own life.

Temporary

Location: In between two hills near downtown Erin.

Description: Long grass on two hills, with a runoff stream between them, dampening the grass and forming puddles.

Story: Oxygen is inhaled, taken into the blood stream, and transported to the cells that need it. An exchange occurs, carbon dioxide released, and the oxygen integrated. Food is also brought to the cells where it is consumed and waste expelled. The cycle continues each day, changing one thing into another, this for that.

Slowly, our bodies change. Atoms, molecules, whole amino acids that weren't ours become us. Our very state is temporary, and will eventually cease to be. Isn't it remarkable though, that between the past and the future, atoms from all around us came to form this being?

Who are we then? How do we define ourselves as a person? The answer is dynamic with a common core, a slow progression from what we were to what we will become. Each person is not a static personality, but a journey, a connection of instances. Who were are today is temporary, but the flow of our being through time, that is much more. Savour the change.

Wind

Location: A hill near downtown Erin.

Description: An evergreen tree in amongst others, which wind blowing strongly from the left.

Story: Four months later, it's time to hit play again. I went for a walk through some hills in Erin, and rediscovered parts of myself that I missed. It was open, windy, and so free that I realize some of what I lost. It's easy to take a step, but harder to realize how many steps you've taken.

I took a lot of pictures that afternoon, and remembered just how much I liked writing stories for these pictures. I want to continue, and my current strategy is to work ahead and take more pictures than I need, so I can allow the stories to come when they may. I'm also trying to link pictures directly to their location, so hopefully that will work out well enough.

As a side note, introspection is important. I haven't done it over the past few months, and that's a problem. As I write more of these posts I aim to introspect in tandem, so the quality of material should increase as time passes.

And now, let us move forward once more, being carried by the wind, and let land where we may...