per•se•vere: intr.v. -vered, -ver•ing, -veres. To persist in a purpose, an idea or a task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.
... As in I WILL, and/or YOU CAN!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sometimes Someday is Simple
Sometimes, life hurts.
Sometimes, you go into a situation knowing it will hurt.
Sometimes, the things you learn along the way make the pain worthwhile.
Sometimes it feels like the pain will never go away.
Sometimes pain is the only thing that keeps you from moving forward.
Sometimes the only thing you can think of is how to make the pain disappear.
Someday, the pain will subside.
Someday, the only thing that will remain are the lessons.
Someday, you will be glad you were brave enough to go on the journey.
Someday, you will be stronger.
Someday, you will be fearless again.
Someday, you will take another chance, knowing it may hurt.
Simply put, as long as there is life and love and lessons to learn, there will be pain.
Sometimes you will ask if you're going to hide from pain, or really live?
Someday, you will ask yourself, and the best advisor... will be you.
Sometimes, you go into a situation knowing it will hurt.
Sometimes, the things you learn along the way make the pain worthwhile.
Sometimes it feels like the pain will never go away.
Sometimes pain is the only thing that keeps you from moving forward.
Sometimes the only thing you can think of is how to make the pain disappear.
Someday, the pain will subside.
Someday, the only thing that will remain are the lessons.
Someday, you will be glad you were brave enough to go on the journey.
Someday, you will be stronger.
Someday, you will be fearless again.
Someday, you will take another chance, knowing it may hurt.
Simply put, as long as there is life and love and lessons to learn, there will be pain.
Sometimes you will ask if you're going to hide from pain, or really live?
Someday, you will ask yourself, and the best advisor... will be you.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Picture Day!
It's picture day at the farm!
This is a little different from getting all dolled up and sitting pretty with your most cherished loved ones; squeaky clean and primped and proper for one of those bookmark-in-time moments to look back on and say 'remember how we were then?'. Actually, the people will be (judging by the weather outside today) wringing wet and possibly a bit frazzled by the end of this session. It's the cows who are primped and preened and looking gorgeous!
We have three models today: two are three years old and one is probably four or five. Good ages. The unpredictable and often hard-to-handle spunk of a two-year-old, first-calf heifer has toned down a bit as they reach three and four. They are around people all the time, familiar with being led by a halter... but this picture stuff... well, only a few have this experience! Just like human models, they have to be beautiful! These three most certainly are.
One by one, they will be led outside to a grassy place in the lawn that has been groomed and set up to accent their frames perfectly. They will love the rain and crisp fall air. That could make them a little spunky!
It will take SIX (even as many as eight are useful) people to help each cow strike the perfect pose: one to stand at her head and keep her in place with her head held at the optimum height. One person is assigned to each foot, and our photographer will instruct each person in turn to adjust each foot however many inches forward, backward, inward or outward. This is probably the most time consuming portion of this whole extravaganza! Because as you move one foot this way or that, the cow will tend to shift her weight (and thus her legs!) to a position she is more familiar with. So you get to the third leg and she moves the first one and after about the sixth or seventh time this happens you have to wonder if this picture will ever happen! The sixth person manages the tail. No, I am not kidding! The tail has to be seated perfectly square and hang straight down, not tucked, not switching from side-to-side; perfectly still.
Another fun responsibility of the tail guy is to catch whatever might possibly decide to eliminate itself from the picture with a shovel or bucket and clean the area with paper towels. You know when it's coming. The photographer has a tendency to holler "OH SH*T!" or some version thereof. Yeah, I try not to be the tail guy! I'd rather try to move one of those big feet.
If you are lucky, there will also be a noisemaker. This person's primary responsibility is to bawl like a calf, shake a towel or do anything he or she can think of to get that cow to pitch her ears forward and look like she is extremely alert. You have to be confident to do this job, because you feel like an idiot!
At the end of the session, which could be an hour or two or an all day event depending on how cooperative your models choose to be (they have been known to CHARGE off the set when they've had enough of all the fussing!), we will have (hopefully!) a great shot of each cow, suitable for using in advertisements, framing for display if she turns out to be a "dam of dams", meaning a great cow who has given birth to other great cows; and to look back on sometime in the distant future and remember this moment in time... how the world was, who we were, the direction we were taking. It's all changing. Inevitability, well, it's inevitable.
This is a little different from getting all dolled up and sitting pretty with your most cherished loved ones; squeaky clean and primped and proper for one of those bookmark-in-time moments to look back on and say 'remember how we were then?'. Actually, the people will be (judging by the weather outside today) wringing wet and possibly a bit frazzled by the end of this session. It's the cows who are primped and preened and looking gorgeous!
We have three models today: two are three years old and one is probably four or five. Good ages. The unpredictable and often hard-to-handle spunk of a two-year-old, first-calf heifer has toned down a bit as they reach three and four. They are around people all the time, familiar with being led by a halter... but this picture stuff... well, only a few have this experience! Just like human models, they have to be beautiful! These three most certainly are.
One by one, they will be led outside to a grassy place in the lawn that has been groomed and set up to accent their frames perfectly. They will love the rain and crisp fall air. That could make them a little spunky!
It will take SIX (even as many as eight are useful) people to help each cow strike the perfect pose: one to stand at her head and keep her in place with her head held at the optimum height. One person is assigned to each foot, and our photographer will instruct each person in turn to adjust each foot however many inches forward, backward, inward or outward. This is probably the most time consuming portion of this whole extravaganza! Because as you move one foot this way or that, the cow will tend to shift her weight (and thus her legs!) to a position she is more familiar with. So you get to the third leg and she moves the first one and after about the sixth or seventh time this happens you have to wonder if this picture will ever happen! The sixth person manages the tail. No, I am not kidding! The tail has to be seated perfectly square and hang straight down, not tucked, not switching from side-to-side; perfectly still.
Another fun responsibility of the tail guy is to catch whatever might possibly decide to eliminate itself from the picture with a shovel or bucket and clean the area with paper towels. You know when it's coming. The photographer has a tendency to holler "OH SH*T!" or some version thereof. Yeah, I try not to be the tail guy! I'd rather try to move one of those big feet.
At the end of the session, which could be an hour or two or an all day event depending on how cooperative your models choose to be (they have been known to CHARGE off the set when they've had enough of all the fussing!), we will have (hopefully!) a great shot of each cow, suitable for using in advertisements, framing for display if she turns out to be a "dam of dams", meaning a great cow who has given birth to other great cows; and to look back on sometime in the distant future and remember this moment in time... how the world was, who we were, the direction we were taking. It's all changing. Inevitability, well, it's inevitable.
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