Catching Clouds

Dear Diary,

I drove up to Burnt Meadow Pond.  What a difference a day makes.  It was at least 20 degrees warmer than the day before.  I decided to try and use my iPad to take a photograph of the pond.  As I approached the edge I noticed this shrub and a small, lone cloud reflection and it look for all the world as it the branches were reaching out to snag the cloud.  I guess I've been cooped up too long...my imagination just had to come out and play!  I decided to render it in a somewhat abstract, painterly way.

It truly was a beautiful day with bright blue skies and puffy clouds.  I'm sure a lot of the ice melted.  But it was not to last.  Within an hour the skies were turning grey and the wind came up.  The temperatures dropped too so I guess I had the best window of opportunity when I went.

Life is, I think, a lot about "seizing the moment"...carpe diem as Robin Williams said in the great movie Dead Poets Society.  I remember using excerpts from that film for a lecture I did at Harvard back in 1996.  It was about creative teaching methods.  I emphasized the practice of CHOM (creative habits of mind).  It has stood me in great stead all these years.  When the way you look at things changes then what you are able to see actually changes too.