There are hundreds of things that happen at the end of my pencil. 

But perhaps the most important thing that happens at the end of my pencil is being present. Completely and in the moment present.  I love photography, but it’s such a fast moment that happens between you and the shutter and the image capture. Drawing is a longer experience – more of a meditation that requires sitting, and looking, and looking even harder. And when I’m drawing from something – a tree, a person, an animal,whatever, there is an energy that runs through the end of your pencil from you to that object. This is how it is for me anyway. If you want to see, really see something, sit down and draw it. Get to know it intimately.

You can’t do anything else when you concentrate and give yourself up to a drawing, so you are forced to BE HERE NOW. And that’s a very good thing for correcting a life out of balance. (photo and drawing by Catherine Massaro)

For over a decade now I’ve lived in somewhat rural places, usually with a fair amount of acreage around the property. The good and bad to living like this is nature tends to creep on you. The upside ; lots of wildlife, vistas, stars at night, well water, distance between you and any neighbors. The down side – nature creeps on you.

I spent the last week pulling up sage, lots of sage, weeds of all high desert growth, grasses, and cutting back desert hardy plants like Arctic willow and , oh yea, did I mention sage? I love and hate sage. I love the smell of it as it always reminds me of New Mexico. But it will, and can, grow fast and everywhere you don’t want it to in the high desert. I would rather spend hours beating back nature from my doorstep than an equal amount of time in a clean gym pounding down on a treadmill. The satisfaction I get from yard-scaping is immeasurable . It’s a different sort of canvas for me. Rocks and dirt, sage and gravel, pine trees and boulders.

This creep of nature is humbling. It’s a no win proposition, year after year. But I love it. I love to be reminded over and over again, that NATURE GETS THE LAST WORD.

( photo by Catherine Massaro)

To make a photograph, you have to be there.

(featured image- photograph by Catherine Massaro of Sand Mountain Recreation Area in Nevada)

We have nothing to FEAR, and a great deal to learn from TREES.

Take a moment to appreciate the awesome wonder and beauty of it all.

(featured image – photograph by Catherine Massaro)

” The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

(featured image –  photograph by Catherine Massaro)