Locus of Perspective

Restaurant at Stockyards
Fort Worth, TX

Fall hit north Texas yesterday. A cool front brought much needed rain and day time temperatures dropped a comfortable fifteen degrees. We received a much needed reprieve from the humid temps soaring a hundred and above.

Took the opportunity to become a tourist in my own backyard, Fort Worth. Decided to saunter through the stockyards with nothing but an iPhone in hand. Forced to take shots which hone my composition skills. Actually its how I view life any way, a series of memorable warm vignettes, this is me.

It's not that I choose to dwell on the positive, it's simply a fact that the positive resides inside of us and cannot be reached externally. You determine how good or how bad. It's your judgement/perception of any situation. How you process that information is ultimately what determines the degree of good or bad. Gratitude makes a whole lot of difference. Bottom line be happy with what you have today and what you can enjoy and do today. The world is there for you to live and see.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

Faith

Bell Tower in Grapevine
Grapevine, TX

After a life filled with worry the universe and life experience have brought to my attention that worry stems from lack of faith; one crowds out the other. The two cannot co-exist.

All it takes is one torch bearer to light a dark room regardless of it's size. If each of us would simply provide the light we have, we could/would fill many lives with light. Faith crowds out worry sustains us and lights our path. Faith practitioners can become beacons to others who have had worry dim their light.

Share your light, share your hope, and share your faith. In a world filled with cynicism, we can replace worry and anxiety with renewed hope and the faith that things do eventually work out. Faith/hope sustains us.

For those who doubt these words all I can say is that through my ordeals, I've personally experienced this and am truly grateful for my family and my friends who constantly stood by my side and shared there faith and hope with me. Faith is more than a religion its a lifestyle.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

Jody Humphrey

In Memory
of
Jody Humphrey
May 18, 1931 - August 7, 2013

Jody Humphrey’s

Born: Jo Ellen Mooring

On May 18, 1931

To Joe and Grace Mooring

Joined her Husband Ben and her daughter Lou on August 7, 2013

Forever in Pink. (Mary Kaye Eat Your Heart Out)

A Texan with a Gentrified Lifestyle.

For Jody’s benefit, I will speak very slowly and deliberately today.

I’ve got good news today; our friend Jody is very much alive today in our hearts and forever in our memories. And we choose to limit our mourning because her pain is gone and best yet she has joined the arms of her companion, our friend and hers, Benny.  Our mutual bonds of friendship and kinship gather us today and we see fit to celebrate the life of our sensational friend who with her class, dignity, and humor seasoned and enriched our lives while she blessed us with her charm.

I don’t know if you knew, but Jody was privileged.  That’s right she was from the right side of the tracks while many of her friends were altogether off the tracks.  She came from means but by no means did that mean that we were not welcomed in her home or in her heart. She was unapologetically simply groomed for another type of life, which if properly cajoled she, would share with you.

So, I will share with you a very brief part of that life which ultimately touched mine by 1987 until today.

Once upon a time there was school named Gulf Park By-the Sea Junior College:

Jody told me about her pampered past in a very deliberate southern drawl.  The finishing school was all about learning the finer things in life from manners, setting the table, to staging parties.  She learned to be the perfect hostess white gloves and all.

Her education included mastering fencing, diving, synchronized swimming and sailing.  Times were very different then.  I will tell you though that Jody has blessed my family with her social graces from back then.  She and my mother-in-law, Shirley, planned all of the details of our outdoor wedding, poolside near our friend's gazebo.  The prim and proper lady practiced and wove her craft and ultimately charmed us with her attention to details.  Jody simply had a way of making everything pretty.  Her flair was wonderful and she spread her joy of a finer time the way things should have been her entire adult life.

In Junior College, she was voted by her peers as the most popular of her graduating class. Jody remained the most popular friend in our neighborhood and in our family even during those last years and months as she struggled to live and to breathe.

Ironically we breathe easier now because she’s at rest. We loved her and because of our love and friendship, we can take comfort in the assurance that she’s at rest with Benny. We should not mourn her loss because there is no way that we will ever forget her. To that extent she will always be alive provided that we keep the embers of her memory and joy stoked in our hearts and minds.

Jody perhaps you remember your Alma Mater song but just in case I will read it to you one more time:

ALMA MATER

This our Alma Mater will forever be

Loved and honored and cherished, Gulf Park by-the Sea.

We will sing thy praise, and to thee be true,

May our loyal sisters from thee blessings accrue,

Give them of thy bounty, and thy happiness too.

Albert V. Davies

Not So Routine

Morning Sunrise
Keller, TX

Although I am now home I am still in the throws of change. Nothing is quite the same including the addition of a new pet. We acquired a "rescue" lab, Grady, who is very large toddler and requires quite a bit of supervision. The fact is that I am a stranger in his home. In addition, there's the change of a new job and the accompanying stress of proving yourself all over again. While being home is a relief the new changes require adjustments.

What remains constant is me and my passion for photography. My walking and my camera keep me grounded when I otherwise would feel completely overwhelmed. My needs help offset the requirements imposed on me by change. 

Yes, I am home and again reunited with both my family and friends. That's a huge comfort. However, I miss the incredible landscapes of Southeast Arizona and Tucson. For nine months, I tried to make sense out of all the landscapes I witnessed. Each time I glanced at the mountains, I would try to discern the subtle changes both light and and occasional rains brought. By studying the natural changes, I was able to accept those changes which were occurring within me. Changes which both my body and situation dictated. I had to change how I viewed my life and world. Rather than succumb to change as the end, I recognized the change of new beginnings. That's why I welcome the possibilities that each morning brings to me.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

Tombstone

Tombstone: How The West Was Won
Gallows Near Courthouse
Tombstone, AZ

Several weeks before my Tucson saga drew to a close, I set out to visit the familiar sights of southeast Arizona familiar places such as: Bisbee, Patagonia, Sierra Vista, and Tombstone. The real home of the old west. (Keep in mind that the state of Arizona recently celebrated its first centennial of statehood.)

On one of my treks, decided to explore the town of Tombstone, home of Wyatt Earp and all things the world knows as cowboy. As I ventured into the well preserved old courthouse and peered just outside of the court chambers there was a view I had never witnessed before, a fully functioning gallows. It was how scores were settled and the law enforced and preserved right or wrong.

The west was won by intimidation and fear not by kindness and mercy. To rule the unruly, justice was served swiftly and without thought. Mistakes were made and some innocents I'm sure swung from gallows at the end of knotted ropes like these. The Apache, the Comanche, the Sioux, and the Navajo all had to conform to the greed of the European white man. Native Americans believed that the land was not for the white man to take, it was meant to be shared by all but the greed of gold and the dreams and thirst for land and ownership blinded those hell bent on ownership and the conquest of the west regardless whether its claims were Mexican or of Indigenous people was the most important objective; the outcome was the same. Justice was served either at the end of rope or the end of a gun.

It was unfortunate drama but it was one that unfolded over and over again. This land was not our land, it was their land, and we the sons and daughters of Europeans took it under the guise of God's will. It's been this disdain for the land that has now brought us to  our modern issues of global warming and our constant thirst for fossil fuels. We simply can't subdue our greed or curb our consumption. We choose to resolve all issues with might vs will. We should learn the lessons from the noose and the rope and the copious bloodshed on the terrain we now know as the "West". 

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

A Number

Nancy: Comfortable in Her Own Skin

Met Nancy Bender and her husband Carl owners of the Whistle Stop Depot back in Tucson a nearly two months ago. They both made lasting impressions on me with their zest for living and their youthful attitudes. Although I prefer photographing landscapes vs people, I chose to make an exception. Quite frankly the setting ( a warehouse made from 100% recycled materials) and my super friendly new found friends inspired me to stage a photo shoot.

Nancy is real and its quite obvious she is content with the woman she is and where she is in her life. She worked as an educator nearly all of her life and now she is working with Carl to develop their business, an event room, well suited for wedding receptions and parties. Yes Nancy really is what you see. Baby Boomers please take note, we are not over the hill in our mid sixties. We have lots of adventures ahead of us. People like Nancy and Carl clearly point that out and remind us of our potential if we only allow ourselves the opportunity. We can be young at any age.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com

Onward

Great Grandfather Bobby & Tribe: Carter, Annie, and Brennan
Keller, TX

They say you can't get to the next chapter if you are still reading the last. So over the last few weeks since my return, I've taken care of old business both physical and mental preparing myself for the new and learning to live now. This is not only difficult for me but also necessary. The birth of triplets into our family adds to its importance. You must be happy and you must enjoy the life you have.

Today is Sunday and we are getting ready for  a two hour trip to see our grand babies who now are nearly 8 weeks old. In fact their due date was actually tomorrow. We are happy for the joy that these three have brought into our family. Three more reasons to celebrate life and to keep moving forward.

For three hard years, challenge after challenge surface and there appeared little hope that things would get better. They did and it was in many ways completely for different reasons than I would have imagined. What changed wasn't circumstances but rather my own outlook. The ordeal of fire changed me as a person even as my assets were being depleted I became spiritually stronger to meet tougher challenges. The real me had an opportunity to emerge.

We adapt to change even if we do not embrace it. The nine unanticipated months in Tucson forever changed me. I will never wait or idly wait for things to happen in life. If there's a peak I will climb it simply because I can.

www.photographybyalhernandez.com