Wednesday, August 8, 2012

"....kodachrome, it gives us those nice, bright colors. gives us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah! i got a nikon camera, i love to take a photograph, so momma don't take my kodachrome away. " Kodachrome, by Paul Simon

so, i have a small, digital camera. light enough to carry in my pocketbook( for all those unexpected grand baby sightings!). but my favorite camera by a long shot ( no pun intended, of course ), is a big old heavy nikon 35mm with a huge zoom lens. my husband purchased it for me when my children were adolescents, and were embarrassed by the mom paparazzi. i figured if i had a big enough zoom lens, i could get a good picture from far away and that maybe my children would be o.k. with it. so i have books, and books of photos and they mean the world to me. i know digital is the thing now, and i have certainly used my digital camera, stored my pictures on my computer, and let snapfish work it's magic and develop my pictures. however, there is nothing like picking out your own film- kodachrome- and loading that old 35mm up. i am distressed to find that what once was a whole wall of film( at walmart) is now delegated to a small section near the photo center. i am hoping that this will not be eliminated, at least not in the near future. of course, i am sure that i can order it off the internet( i am convinced that i can order anything at all on the internet. i put this to the test a couple of years ago when i was in "isolation" during my I-131 treatment. talk about surfing the web! i was riding a tidal wave, of sorts)

another thing that i like is books. not e-books, but REAL books. i do not own a nook, crook, or whatever those things are called and i do not think that i ever will. i love the feel of a real book in my hands- the smell of the print and paper when you first open a new book is marvelous. there is nothing like it. well, at least not in the electronic world. honestly, i have to stare at a computer all day at work, and i do not like to use one for my reading at home. i have a small "library" in my home. when we did our remodeling several months ago,  i wanted a place for all of my books.  we designated a room for my little library. it has built in book shelves on three walls, and the carpenter said " uh, jeez, miss, it sure is going to take you a lot of time to fill up all them shelves!" i have a news flash for him- i already need more shelves. i have some very old books that were passed down from family members. i have science books, and fiction books. i have a "children's section" that i am looking forward to sharing with my grandson. sometimes i just walk into that room and look at my books. perhaps i should have been a librarian.

you might think that i am old fashioned. i do like new ideas and current events,too. i still go to zumba! but i know what i like and that is not going to change. maybe old cameras and real books are comfort agents for me. i don't know about any of you, but when you have been sick, you tend to gravitate towards people, things, events, etc, that are comforting. i read a review of a book, and i honestly can not remember the title  or author, but the idea was that we can heal ourselves when we have serious illnesses. one of the author's ideas was to listen to beautiful music, and  not watch the news or other violent television programs. i did this instinctively, before i had heard of this idea. i just felt that i could not deal with anything more in my life at the time of my cancer diagnosis. i wanted to surround myself with comfort and calm. i am not sure that it helped in my healing, but it certainly did help my frame of mind.

so i recommend that you read a good book( electronic is o.k. if that is what you like). take a beautiful picture of a place that you love, or a person that you love. buy a belly scarf and take a zumba class. have fun! i am sure that most of us work very, very hard and need more fun in our lives. find your joy and go after it.

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