You Gotta Love What You Do

.
I was watching Sunday Morning this A.M. and there was a segment on a music producer, whose name immediately fled my aging brain. It was nice enough segment but what struck me was his closing line of "You Gotta Love What You Do".

And did this ever strike a chord with me.

As many of you know, I worked for the Post Office for 37 years. While not a rewarding job in itself, it afforded me the financial freedom and time to pursue my passions in other areas of my life. That said, working forty hours a week was a drain, both physically and psychically.

But now I have freedom to choose, and what a gift it is.

Photography is my relatively new found passion. I know I would never have been able to achieve what little success I've had with photography while still working full time. For me, it's really a spur of the moment operation, taking the actual photos only as the mood strikes me. I shoot thousands of images and sometimes don't get to them for weeks at a time. Then when I'm ready, I hunker down at the computer and start post processing, which is the part I REALLY love.

It makes me feel as if I am a part of the whole, adding something to my life that is otherwise missing.

Does that make sense?

Cooking is the same kind of thing. It makes me feel wonderful to feed people, to nourish their bodies with food that tastes good. I wish I could explain it better.

Maybe it's just that I love what I'm doing?

In honor of this idea, here's a picture of my friends in the kitchen here at Ghost Ranch. Now I want you to know that getting these people to pose and look like their normal happy selves is nigh unto impossible (which is why I usually take photos from a distance rather than these kind of posed shots). But I wanted you to see their faces.

From left to right,
Arsenia, Lori, Vanessa,
Benji, Andrea and Merlinda.
These folks are so wonderful
to spend time with.
I feel really lucky.

Here's a shot
of the incredible spread
we put out one day
when we served a Chef's Salad.

Pretty wonderful, huh?
We also had more
on another salad bar,
as well as two home made soups.
We eat well here at Ghost Ranch.

And speaking of the Ranch,
we've been experiencing quite a bit
of geological activity of late.
Last week,
we were on our way to lunch
when we heard a loud rumble
and looked up to see this sight.

Here's a close up

The rock in this area is a layered sandstone, millions of years old. As the weather changes (we've had some cold nights lately) the moisture in the rocks expands and contracts.

Thus, the carving of these gorgeous cliffs continues, right before our eyes.

We drove around to the other side of the mesa (gotta love having a golf cart at your disposal) and it looked like a huge fog had settled around the mesa.

Here's another close up.
It reminds me
of a subtle Chinese painting.

After five days
of on and off activity,
we're able to see
the changes in the landscape.
The shot on the left
was taken a week ago.
The shot on the right
was taken just this morning.

As you can see, it seems we've lost one of our chimneys. I never in my life imagined I could be a witness to such epic events, its truly thrilling.

Is there any wonder
I love what I'm doing!