Today's Picture to Ponder Photos
a Tablecloth on the Beach at Delray Beach, FL

This issue brings us back to play for those who like finding the faces that I often see in images. The top photo is Atlantic Ocean coming in and pulling out on a tablecloth that had been left on the beach. The lower two are the tablecloth itself. The view on the bottom reflects the image that captured my attention in the first place.

When I was selecting photos for this issue, what caught my eye and imagination in the top photo, when I saw it on my computer monitor, was the Medieval face I saw looking out at me, perhaps a king, with a square hat and long hair flowing out to the sides. (Note - For those not seeing it, the chin would be squashed down. The nose is above the dark space, bottom center.)

There is also little mouse, or other creature, crawling up the head on the left.

Self-Reflecting Queries
I went to the beach for sunrise recently and, as I was walking the wet, white cloth caught my eye as the surf was coming up to meet it. I decided to observe the activity with my camera and took photos until the cloth as ultimately flattened out and disappeared, at least in the spot where I was.

Initially, I thought that the bunched up white material was a t-shirt and was surprised to discover that it was, in fact, a tablecloth. As I was thinking about it again today, while pondering queries for this issue, I realized that, for me, this is a striking example of an situation where my initial response was based on what I "knew" - "people take off t-shirts at the beach and may forget them." Certainly it's a more common than seeing tablecloths there.

Bringing it back to life off the beach, I have noticed in at least two or three situations, in the past couple of days, where I assumed something was a certain way and then started looking at the whole thing through the filters of my assumptions. I actually lost a lot of time trying to understand something and ultimately realized that the challenge was I had not come to the scenario with an unencumbered view.

Are there places in your life now where you, too, may be being held back from something because you are operating out of your expectations that it is a certain way? Is so, I invite you to step back, find the filters and remove them if you can, switching to a "clean" pair of lenses.

Then have fun with what might open up for you. The tablecloth certainly provided much more variety than a t-shirt would have. If nothing else, the latter was not likely to be able to open, in the end, as flat as the tablecloth and provide as much variation in movement and changes.

PICTURES TO PONDER - Either as a downloadable book, or in hard copy, you can get inspiration as well as stress relief, from flowers and queries, to empower your day. Use for journaling or simply for the energy that emanates from the photos. The flowers are larger than you see them in the Picture to Ponder ezine. They are thus even richer to appreciate. See book.