My last blog post was several months ago. 

We were busier than I could have ever imagined we’d be – traveling, sight-seeing, taking part in our park’s many activities, and making new friends.

After a short time, I decided to just go with the flow and live life without pressuring myself to do regular blogs about it. I did keep a hand-written journal which had an unexpected side effect – I learned to write again! After so many years of relying on my keyboard and my phone touch pad for the written word, my once impeccable handwriting had gone the way of the dodo bird. Just by making a few little notes in a journal at the end of each day for almost 6 months, I’m happy to report that my handwriting is back to my pre-keyboard days, so I intend to keep up with the journal entries.

Moving forward, I’ve made the decision to switch things up with my blog.

In addition to choosing to just “live life” for the rest of my retirement without feeling compelled (and self-pressured) to detail every moment here, all of this Covid 19 business has me rethinking many things. I’m looking closely at what brings me joy, and what doesn’t serve me any longer. 

I spent many days this winter with a new friend who shared many of my same interests and philosophies. We both love amateur photography and photo editing, so we set out on many days to capture the many beautiful things around us. We used both our iPhones and our DSLR’s on these day-long photo shoots, and over the winter, we both became much more proficient with each of these camera types.

Now that hubs and I are safely back home in Canada, I’ve spent my first week of mandatory quarantine sorting through all of the photos.

The direction I’m going to try with this blog, is: After today’s rather lengthy explanation, I’ll post one photo along with some information about it and a brief thought (in the form of a quote) to go with it.

Today’s photo was from the National Butterfly Center at Mission, TX. The day we were there, the butterflies were very active, so we were lucky to get a few good shots. This Queen Butterfly lit on the butterfly bush just long enough for me to get the shot from a crouched position. 

When you find yourself cocooned in isolation and you cannot find your way out of darkness…
Remember, this is similar to the place where caterpillars go to grow their wings.
-Necole Stephens