Finally, a bit of rain.

Autumn Rain

All of North Carolina has been in the category of Exceptional Drought. This is the National Weather Service’s highest category of drought. We hadn’t had measurable rainfall in many weeks or perhaps months. Our normal summer, which we usually saw a bit of rain almost every day, was dry and very hot.

Well, Wednesday night, it finally started to rain, thanks to some tropical storm that rolled in from the Caribbean. As it hadn’t rained in such a long time, I wanted to get out in it and photograph. I felt that I wanted something different, something that would show the rain and the fall colors, but I didn’t know what.

Through the windshield

To take a slight diversion, here, when I went to Asheville a couple of weeks ago with my friends, one of them, Brett thanked me for letting him know about the book, The Power of Now. He said that he downloaded the audio book and listens to it quite frequently and that it’s made a remarkable change in his life. Mind you, there’s no magic in the book, but it certainly offers a different way of looking at life. It offers a way of looking at life that offers contentment and a way to find that peace that everyone seems to be looking for through external means. The main premise being that you already have what you need to be happy (content with what you have and who you are) at any moment in your life, you just need to know that no matter what you have done or will do in life, happens one moment at a time, now. There is only and will ever be only, the ‘now’. Past is a memory, not real anymore. Future is a thought, not real, but an idea. Focusing on the past or future means living in thought and missing what is happening right now. The big question is: What is missing right now? Also, if not ‘now’, when?

Leaves and wormwood

Anyway, I read the book about a year ago and just purchased the audio book. I started to listen to it. There were many things that I needed to hear, to remember. I went to lunch, went to the park with my camera, and began to shoot. There is something different that happens, I think, when I get those brief glimpses of ‘now’ and no-mind where the mind stops its incessant chattering. The top picture is the first picture that I took when I got out of the car. I’ve never done anything like it before. I like it. It’s a different type of expression.

Mostly everything that I read seems to center around the Tao, not intentionally, but it all seems to tie together.