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Saturday called for a circuitous route back from the village.
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There are no perfect places to live, but having the ability to tour endlessly changing countryside is certainly a blessing.
Washington is a beautiful state and I adore mountains but living where I did out there, movement in any direction was an undertaking.
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There is never a shortage of subjects to photograph but often we come upon an image that begs to be captured.
Sometimes we spot it at the same time. This tree was impossible to miss as we drove toward it.
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With no vehicle behind us, we were able to roll slowly forward to eliminate the power lines.
This meant losing the frame and by itself the image was unexciting, so I added some other trees.
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Which deserved their own capture.
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However, the original subject was still waving for attention.
You are probably thinking that if this represents excitement to me, I must lead a very dull life!
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Excitement is the wrong word.
Excitement is a kid on Christmas morning, or passengers denied boarding of their oversold flight.
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It has been a great relief to do without the latter sort of excitement.
For that matter, the excitement of being the person left behind after a flight departs, which is too often the case when you travel on space available tickets.
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As I recall, the thrill of Christmas morning got left behind when we departed England in 1956.
Hard as my mother tried, tropical Christmas was never the same and by the time I returned from Asia the whole event had morphed into something different.
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As for positive excitement, I abandoned that when I was 12.
On holiday from boarding school, I’d been excited to rejoin my parents, but that was when I began learning about disappointment.
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My mother delivered me to my first boarding school on December 23rd because my father had been transferred to Thailand and my parents were driving there from Saigon, needing to be in place by January 1st.
Mum took me up to Dalat on an overnight train and I seem to remember regarding it as a bit of an adventure. Mum told me there was a present for me in my suitcase and to ask if I didn’t receive it.
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Just as well she told me. After midnight mass I expected to find the gift on my bed, but it wasn’t there and did not appear next morning.
Upon my request it was found in a cupboard with my laundry, unwrapped.
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Still in my possession after 65 years.
The few dolls I was given were tossed aside, but I never could discard a stuffed animal.
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The idea of going to boarding school and spending Christmas there was fine with me.
It was decades later that I was annoyed about it, when my mother denied she would ever have done such a thing!
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Perhaps I could have reminded her of other things my parents might not have done, but to what end?
The following Christmas, I was flying to meet them in Bangkok but Air France was on strike so there was an indeterminate delay. By then I’d had some unfortunate experiences and was desperate to see my mum.
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Finally, the strike was resolved and I flew to Bangkok on Christmas Eve. Walking out of customs, I excitedly searched the crowd for my mother instead recognising the face of the friend with whom we always stayed.
It was the ultimate disappointment which persuaded me to never again be excited in expectation.
The surest way to avoid disappointment would be to have no expectations.
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My mother’s friend no doubt had better things to do on Christmas Eve than collect a disappointed child from Don Muang airport.
She told me that my parents had said they couldn’t wait for me any longer and had gone ahead to Kuala Lumpur where I would rejoin them the following day.
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Mum’s excuse was that they hadn’t been able to re-book their journey because of full flights, but you should never tell a child something which is easily disproven.
My flight was half empty.
All of which matters not in the least now, but it does explain why I eschew excitement.
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Appreciate would be a better word.
Or enjoy.
Notice.
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There is so much to notice that can be deeply appreciated, if you have the time to observe.
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We are blessed to occupy a very beautiful planet.
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I am blessed with eyesight to view it.
One ought never to take any such thing for granted.
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How fortunate I feel to have lived in a time when the planet was still comparatively unspoiled.
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Dustings of snow emphasize contours.
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Musings from a Saturday morning.
I think it is lovely that you still have your Tiger. Something I have said for as long as I can remember is “Don’t get too excited, just in case you are disappointed if it doesn’t happen”. I’m not sure what disappointment that was based on, but it must have been a big one. I used that phrase just last week, but have already forgotten why.
Best wishes, Pete.
My heart aches for that child.
Thank you, Carolyn, for your fascinating memories of your childhood, despite not always being happy.
Joanna
Your tiger looks very traumatised from that terrible incident of being hijacked and stuffed in the laundry cupboard.
Wow Carolyn, such disappointment during your childhood but I love how you kept the tiger after so many decades. Your mother knew you would adore this toy. 😉
Love the ominous photos in this post – very gloomy but beautiful.