Untamed

Wild Horses in Keller
Bear Creek Park
Keller, TX

Have always wondered what the fascination was with the west and wild horses. I think its our obsession and desire to be unfettered, to be able to roam at will, to graze anywhere we stand, to run freely, letting your hair down, throwing caution to the wind.

The nine months I spent in Tucson gave me the opportunity to explore the vast expanses of the Sonoran Desert and the panoramic views of endless space obstructed only by sensuous mountains at the end of almost infinite horizons. It was a personal oasis and a spiritual beverage. I was intoxicated by exploration and physical exhaustion. It easily made up for the amenities, I know longer had.

During my lone hikes, I enjoyed the music of solitude and the score nature provided me. I found myself enjoying a totally different beat. My success was measured not by accumulation but by the miles I traversed up canyons and mountains and high desert grasslands.

Behold the wild mustang, what an enviable creature in deed. If only I could latch on to him if only in my dreams at night freeing me from the cares of the mundane and the noise which accompanies it.

What's Your Cookie?

Iglesia Rancho de Taos
Taos
New Mexico

When we moved from "The" Bronx to Winsted, CT, I was five years old. I spoke very little English but I new a few words to get buy; enough to make friends with neighbors, all it took was bag of Oreo cookies. "Do you want an Oreo cookie?", I would inquire. It didn't take me long to make friends.

My mom told me that my solicitation didn't just stop with the Oreo cookie offer either. In fact, she told me that she would place me in the grocery cart while at the store and I would start to sing: "I like people and people like me". The song was not original it was part of a Lifebuoy soap jingle I had heard. (Apparently, I loved that as much as my Oreo cookies too.) Both worked and I made friends.

It's been years since then, but I've managed to continue my cookie charity and singing my song to myself but not out loud   If you  are in any kind of sales you have to both have and be a cookie. You should genuinely like people. Be real, be you. It's important that you be willing to first give of yourself, before you ask someone for anything. Differentiate yourself from others by offering a cookie. Be interested in their wellbeing first.

So what's the cookie? Why it's you of course! Offer yourself. Be of value. Why should that person wish to speak with you again? What do you have of value to  offer them that they should want to speak with you today?

My blogs and photography have been my cookies for years. Sometimes both photography used and words spoken have been related but separately each was its own cookie for you.

As you knock on a door or get ready to call someone think about the cookie. By the way, my name is Al Hernandez and I am a financial advisor. I like people and people like me because I make the complicated seem simple. I happen to have an Oreo cookie would you like one?

Catching UP

Trans:
Woman Trapped in Cactus Body
Sabino Canyon
Tucson, AZ

Life has gotten in the way. Have had to earn my keep and have had little time for me and the outlets that provide balance for me. Those outlets include self expression both with the written word and my visual perceptions of the world seasoned by my version of the truth. (Let's face it, we all have a version of the truth filtered and distorted by our own reality perception. No one is innocent.)

Took liberties with an image I captured several years ago in Arizona. My claim then was that I had spent too much time in the solitude of desert and with lack of companionship. Today I look back at the same image and see a politically incorrect woman trapped in a cactus body. It's hard for me to see it any other way.

Lighten up and laugh. It's an election year and there's plenty to laugh about. We should all be disgusted  enough to throw all of these pandering politicians out. I stand by my woman trapped in a cactus body. That's reality. I can almost hear: "What's a nice cactus like you doing in a place like this?"