Life in Review

This column is about the time I review life, mine and the world around me. Why you ask, this time? Well, for one August 14th is the anniversary of my USGS career and having retired December 2005, I review my new career, photography. For another, my brother, see the column "Greg" for my thoughts on him. And for the last, September 4th is my birthday. This year's review was more important and for the most things in my life in the past few years.

This is the first year of my retirement and new life and career. I'm slowly realizing being a more serious photographer really is a lot more work than you can imagine. It's easy to see the longtime professionals and where they're at, but until you start working in the field you don't know it's a long road to become even close to them in the quality and body of their work. But I know it's a journey and that's more important, to being doing what I love.

This is also the first year of rejuvenating my health, getting my exercise program back on track to do more hiking and photography, especially for the Mt. Rainier photography guide I'm working on. I'm finding it's a lot harder with each passing year after 50. That's an understatement, but it's also one you don't realize until you get there. All the expectations and hopes before then don't really come close to reality. It's the small things with age that adds up.

And there is life itself. I wrote about Greg, so it's always a time I evaluate where I'm at in life, to see if I'm where I want to be, to live, to work, and so on. After all when it's all said and done, that's all you have, what you've done and the memories you leave with people. And you slowly come to the realization of yourself as person. Before you're full of hope and afterward you're still full of hope but with a dose of reality.

It's also a time to set new goals and plans, and being older and wiser, hopefully, you can make them attainable in a lifetime, or at least understand you can work in that direction, and leave the rest to time and circumstances. You can only try and let the rest take care of itself.