Vital Visuals

BushWHACK!!
BushWHACK!!

I’ll be heading to Georgia for SpringBreak with the parents, sisters, nieces, nephews, dearest friends and. And. Wacky bushes not fully whacked. This is an image from a year ago when my short mom had done all she could. Tall Stu had yet to work his magic from the heights. They were weighing the choice. It had such comical appeal…

jrk

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Vital Visuals . . .

dg-gull-laugh
Vital Visual -Seagull Silent Laughing

“It felt like a seagull body, but already it flew far better than his old one had ever flown. Why, with half the effort, he thought, I’ll get the speed, twice the performance of my best days on Earth! … And why am I so tired, all at once? Gulls in heaven are never supposed to be tired, or to sleep. Where had he heard that? The memory of his Earth life was falling away.” Excerpt from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a story (By Richard Bach)

This Friday’s Vital Visual is my tribute to seagulls.

And another Dave Grant gem…

jrk

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Vital Visuals . . .

copy-of-hawk-front
Courtesy of Dave Grant

Dave Grant took this amazing close-up of a hawk. It gets the post  today since it reminds me of the hawk’s eye on vital visuals. 

Hawks have inundated my world with sometimes haunting, other times crashing synchronicity. All my life. In my early childhood my family would travel to Texas every year during Christmas holiday, long treks in a car with 4 daughters and we’d count the hawks along the way. 2 days in the car. 2 days of boredom, counting perched or flying hawks. So, it never fails, hawks crash my world when I’m roiling and seeking earnestly for the most vital element of an issue or hope or hurt. Hawks, hope, hurt, a cycle of gain/loss/gain going ’round and ’round.

They’ve come to symbolize tenacity and vision. Sometimes our sight can be off or distracted by seemingly significant “prey.” Sometimes we need to fly higher, get a broader view. Sometimes we need laser focus. But if we don’t focus…or take notice…

So, once again, I’m hearing a phrase. One from a public speaker whose website I had the privilege of familiarizing myself with while working with Alliance for Success. He – Rob Waldman of http://www.yourwingman.com/ – had an article about staying focused I particularly enjoyed. As an Air Force fighter pilot he picked up on a vital phrase and carried it into his everyday life reminding him of how important it is to stay focused on what matters most to us: “Lose sight, lose fight.”

And that’s the line I’ve heard all day today. Lose sight and lose fight. If you lose sight of what you’re valuing, what your goals are, you lose the work of making them manifest, bringing them to being. The thing to ask is this: what is it we’re focusing on, what it is we’re valuing and why? What do we fight for everyday? Work for, play for, stay focused on. Why? Our sight is what determines the nature and path of our fight. Knowing what we’re after and why can be the make or break of our efforts. Ask why and answer. Then sit on it and come back. Ask again: Why? As you go deeper into why and focus more intently, the sight clears, gains a more personal vibe. Your vision evolves into something other than reaction against fear, or against the dread you may not reach your goal or starve. Or.

And it’s not something you must prove, that sight. The world can point at you, berate you, criticize you, label you useless as you nurture sight. You can perch and ruminate and wait while sight gains clarity, preparing a fight with calculated vision. Then take flight, circle ’round, laser focus and go for it. Not only once, not only twice but until…

and then. Then until it’s time for more. Never lose sight…maybe this is the fountain of youth.

jrk 2009

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