The Same New Beginning

Happy New Year to all blippers, everywhere!

Today marks the beginning of my ninth year on Blipfoto, and my tenth year of keeping a daily photo journal. Every once in awhile I explain that I had a year on Blogspot before I discovered Blip. I wanted to write some all encompassing wonderful thing to start off the new year, but I’ve felt off all day, barely able to find a photo at the last minute, never mind writing or even thinking. I was looking at my oldest journals and found this piece from the last day of 2010. It is as true today as when I wrote it, so I offer it up again, my tribute to the wonderful endeavor of keeping a photo journal:

On the first of this year (2010), I made a personal commitment to keep a daily photo blog.  What began as a lark became a practice, a training, that has had a different meaning for me almost daily, and has evolved to something more like a philosophy, a guide to living and appreciating and paying attention.
  
There were days when I was content simply to see what I was looking at and to make an image to share; there were other days when I was deliberate in seeking something particular.  Then there were the days when I despaired of ever finding an image anywhere ever again.  Sometimes I am more interested in the writing than the image, and sometimes I don't want to write anything at all.  What holds it all together is the idea of exploration, being open to seeing what's around every day.


The entries reflect where I am, who I am and the things I cherish.  I've been led on pleasant unexpected tangents; I've delighted in serendipitous moments when irresistible things have presented themselves; and I've also sighed mightily as I struggled to transform the very ordinary parts of my life into something to share. 


The blog has been fun, exciting, fascinating, obsessive, burdensome, annoying, hopeful, amusing, enlightening, demanding and very very interesting.  Happy New Year



If you want to see the One A Day Blogspot pieces, try
http://foto-oneaday.blogspot.com/2010/12/ and
http://foto-oneaday2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/