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Chapter 1: take nothing for granted

Jun 13 • Uncategorized • 12945 Views • 6 Comments on Chapter 1: take nothing for granted

 

Daisy on black background, take nothing for granted

Daisies, so familiar and yet not exactly what we thought. Take nothing for granted.

 

 

If you want to know what this blog is about

What does this “take nothing for granted” actually mean?

 

Well, this simple phrase condenses the way I face life. It is the key, my key at least, towards making the most of our lives in any given personal situation. It means a lot of things I consider relevant if you want to lead a happier life. The following are some of the ideas I associate with this motto. Try to read them slowly and absorb their sense.

  • It means we need to learn to look at everything with the eyes of a child, as if it was the first time.
  • It means we need to make a conscious effort to recognize the worth of all the little good things that happen in our lives every day, and cherish them.
  • It means we need to make a conscious effort to take into consideration all the little things that annoy us in our lives every day and act upon them.
  • It means happiness can be learned, but it requires a conscious effort and practice.

  • It means looking is not seeing, and we need to see.
  • It means existing is not living, and we need to live if we want to be happy.
  • It means we can not hurry to accept second-hand ideas, opinions, judgments, that we have to reach our own conclusions. We decide what is right or not, not others.

All of us have been sick in bed one time or other. We all end up thinking the same things, like on a normal day I would be doing this or that like any other day and I am here stuck in bed instead. And we miss it! If we had not been sick we would have spent that day absent-mindedly, as if days were an infinite good we can waste. Well, they are not. It is just us taking them for granted and forgetting how valuable they are until we lose them.

It often takes a real problem in life, like an accident, the loss of a close person, or a serious illness, to discover we were getting upset and losing our joy to live around which were mostly stupid things we tended to blow out of proportion. It is always when you are about to lose all you have that you realize of its real worth. The trick is to will ourselves out of this routine of taking all those things we consider insignificant for granted and of magnifying all this little problems, so we can see how lucky we are, how wonderful is to be alive. With a little conscious effort, we can do this without going through any dramatic situation. Those little things are all important. Problems are mostly insignificant. We will talk about this, about courage, and about other aspects of this motto in other days.

 

What to do, then?

 

Starting now, take nothing for granted. Live just a little slower in order to have the time to stop and appreciate all those little things, the smell of fresh coffee, the sound of rain, the colors of the sunset, the moon, reflections in puddles, a kiss, a nice word, the smell of recently mowed grass, the changing colors of the streets, a good conversation… you do not have to see them all every day, but learn to not ignore them. Learn to see them.

There is the daisy, our inspiring image of today. I love those flowers, so humble, so pretty, so simple. The flower any kid will draw if asked about a flower. We have seen them around all our lives, they have always been there, in pictures, paintings, jars, gardens, in the fields… Still, after having come across countless daisies, we have not seen them, we do not know their true nature. And when we take our time to really see them we realize daisies are just amazing. We had just taken them for granted.

I suppose we all know we are not really talking about daisies here, right? Life is so amazing. So,

 

Take nothing for granted

 

far side of the daisy

The far side of the daisy, always there, always ignored.

 

About the Pictures

 

I saw this daisy by the road on my way back from one of my trail running sessions. I picked it up two days later, along with a couple of sisters, and brought them home. I cut the stems, placed them on three makeshift cylinders on top of a black cardboard background resting on my windowsill and shot from above using natural evening light and a tripod. I made a single shot and a HDR series then worked both and blended the HDR on the single shot. The process is similar on both pictures. I made these pictures because I knew about the colonial nature of daisies, but was delighted to discover the beautiful back-side.

This pictures can be printed in photo paper, canvas, metal or acrylic surface from 8″ to 48″, or in greeting card format. You can check them by clicking the images above.

I am all in for customizing pictures. All of them can be retouched in many ways, texts altered, changed or deleted. Ask freely.

 

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6 Responses to Chapter 1: take nothing for granted

  1. […] there I summarized it, in a nutshell, take nothing for granted. Enjoy all the sunrises, all the sunsets, all the kisses, the smiles, the caresses, the hugs, the […]

  2. […] Children that are raised in a loveless environment will lack emotionally and will usually have problems to cope. We are all made that way, me you, the richest guy in the world, or the President of the US of A. We all need love to grow up balanced, with the right amount of self-esteem and confidence and with joy for life. Take love of the equation and the balance goes overboard. We can get an education later, there are other needs that can be lost in the way and coped without to some extent, but a kid cannot be loved later. So, when we talk about love, let me get a little serious and forget all that crap about cheese. We cannot take love for granted. […]

  3. anabelee says:

    Love the simplicity and beauty of these flowers, and your message 😉

  4. Kirt Tisdale says:

    Excellent work, Weston! Well stated!!

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