We all have to travel through the proverbial “valley of darkness” at some point in our life.  It is the mandatory trip that we all take.  It’s the one that builds the character that will help form who we are going to be the rest of our lives and beyond.  The trip through the valley may have begun with a failed marriage, a tragedy in the family or a failing in our own health.  Some are small and some are large but it is a journey everyone has to make.  The question becomes…what do we do with what we have learned.

I certainly don’t have any magic when it comes to finding the best way to deal with the darkness.   I am still trying to find the best way to deal with the common cold.  There are still times when I prefer to sip from the “cup of sorrow” than drink from the fountain of life.  Still I notice how many around me manage to turn darkness into light.  I guess it is about always knowing that the darkness is followed closely by the light.  The darkness of ignorance will eventually brighten as the “dawn of wisdom” is  hot on its heels.  We just need to see the darkness for what it really is.  Just a challenge to find the light.

One of the reasons I love nature, and I loved the practice of nature photography so much, is that it is all right there in front of you.  We just need to pay attention to what we are seeing and photographing.  There are indeed horrors in nature.  Every seemingly horrific act has the purpose of initiating an act of beauty.  When evolved wildlife, and by that I mean mammals like wolves, the wild cats, elephants etc.  Birds like geese and swans.  When they lose an offspring, there seems to be an actual time of mourning.  Even a while where they seem to try to force life back into the lifeless carcass that lays before them.  Within a short time their attention returns to the survivors.  They once again become the masters of their own destiny.  They often become better parents.  The become smarter at evading predators.  I have heard of coyotes and foxes that have had a baby killed by a car and find entirely different paths to guide their young on.  I have read of others that learn to stop and carefully watch for oncoming traffic.  The critters in nature learn.  They learn and then they seem to celebrate life and what they have learned.  In nature every negative has a bigger positive.  We are a part of nature.  We just need to discover what “they”already know.  We are guided in the right direction.  We too can survive the darkness and point ourselves towards the light.

” Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending”  Maria Robinson

Today’s images have no specific relationship with the text in this post.

The wild asses of Custer State Park, South Dakota.  I was eight or nine years old when my parents and I pulled our car into Custer State Park.  We were greeted by the resident herd of wild burros.  Many, many years later these “not so wild burros” are still the official greeters of Custer.

Tennessee waterfall in spring. I could lose myself in the back country of the Smoky Mts. forever with only waterfalls for company.

All late afternoon silhouettes do not have to be flushed with the colors of gold and red.  The sun went behind the clouds as I hiked my way back into the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.  After making this image the sun reappeared I did make some images with the land dressed in red.  I also lost my way among the Saguaro and Ocotillo.  Sometime after midnight I “accidentally” stumbled upon my car.  I was happy to find my car but as usual I was just as happy to leave with another adventuresome story that I could recant for many years.  I was also happy to have left the nighttime desert without a single cactus needle embedded in my body.  Several years later my friend Ron and I were exploring a group of cactus flowers in New Mexico.  I was delighted that we found a Spiny Lizard posing nicely among the cactus. I got my lizard pictures along with a jacket and pair of pants filled with cactus needles.  This of course also meant that my side and my butt was filled with the same needles.  I never managed to get the smallest needles out of that jacket.  It made the next week a bit uncomfortable at times.

One of the best months of my life was  spent with this family.  Three kits in the top shot and mom in the bottom picture

Osprey. I love birds of prey when they are in landing mode.