Picture This

"When I take a picture I take 10 percent of what I see." ~Annie Leibovitz

A famous photograph from the cover of a very famous musical album, The Beatles "Abbey Road" was released in September of 1969. The interesting thing about the photograph by Iain Macmillan is that so much more is behind the picture itself.

A total of six pictures were taken over the course of ten minutes from which only the one was chosen. In an article on Wikipedia, the six photographs are described as such;

• First Photo: John leads the group from left to right followed by Ringo, Paul and George. They kept this order throughout all the photos. There is a Mercedes pulling out of the studio behind them. John is looking away from the camera and Paul and George are in mid step. Paul is wearing sandals
• Second Photo: They walk back in the same order. Good spacing but only John has a full step.
• Third Photo: Left to right again, full steps this time but they are all too far left. There is now a traffic backup. There is a taxi, two vans and a double decker bus waiting to come forward. Paul is now barefoot.
• Fourth Photo: Walking right to left, once again Paul Ringo and George all in mid step. The traffic has gone through but the bus has stopped to watch. This photo is the cover of Abbey Road by Brian Southall.
• Fifth Photo: This photo was used for the cover of the album and is the only photo where we see Paul smoking. The only one with their legs in perfect formation. The three men on the left above Paul's head are Alan Flanagan, Steve Millwood and Derek Seagrove. They were interior decorators returning from a lunch break. On the right side between John and Ringo's head is Paul Cole an American tourist.
• Sixth Photo: Ringo slightly too far behind John.

The interesting thing is that there is always more to the story behind what we see at first.

While we look at the snapshot in time, so much more was happening to lead up to the picture we see. And so much more happens after the moment in time. The second picture is of the "Fab Four" waiting in between pictures. The final product only tells part of the story.

When we take a look at other people's lives and make a judgement, many times we are only seeing part of the story. We are seeing only 10 percent of their life while leaving out a large portion of what brought that person to this point in time. Many times the rest of the story can change dramatically how we perceive someone's life. And if we are judging people on snapshots in time, then maybe others are judging us by only snapshots of our own lives.

Look beyond the picture we see and understand more of the story. You may find something a lot more interesting then the picture itself.

Cartoon Pane

"Trying to break out of the box." -Peter Kiss Gallery

“Great dreams... never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or how bad am I?" That's where courage comes in.” ~Erma Bombeck

In the old western movies, there always seems to be a line in which one cowboy says to another, "this towns too small for both of us." It usually was followed by some fight scene in which the good guy wins. The atmosphere is one of pending break out to something greater for the the town. It is a bold statement that finally shows the true greatness of the hero.

We can modify the statement apply it to our own life. Apply it in such a manner as to cause the hero in side to break out to something greater. To envision what I'm saying, imagine a single cartoon pane as your life. This pane is your whole world, safe on four sides but limited in reach. Now imagine telling yourself, "this box is too small for me." Shout it out so that those beyond the page can hear you.

As you gain confidence, you grow and the box actually starts to become too small for your life. Take your hand and push through the left side of the box. Punch a hole in the bottom with your right foot. Tear at the remaining pieces until your head emerges to reveal a big life awaiting your arrival.

No, I'm not talking about rebirth or any analogies to that. I'm talking about getting outside of the box we each tend to hide ourselves in. If we bust loose and break away from the artificial binds we have created, then a bigger and greater world is ours. We can rise above to the jet stream and sail to where we want to be in life.

Break out of the cartoon pane, break out in to a great life.

JETSTREAM by DOVES

Rambling Sense

"Days of the week are helpful. Sundays are good, but I like Saturday. Sometimes I’ll write down a day of the week and wonder why it’s spelled that way. “Wednesday” is the hardest day to spell. Sundays are good for pro football, but now football season’s over. People like watching football. It’s so much colder in winter. It would be nice if we could have some warm spring days mixed in the middle of winter to even things out a little. I have a watch that tells me the time, except when the battery dies. Everything dies. That’s why I keep a spare watch battery. Why is a AAA battery smaller than a AA battery?" ~Andy Rooney

Okay, so what could I have to say today about a rambling quote from Andy Rooney on a "60 Minutes" television show? It is a rambling speech about days of the week that really seem to say nothing. Why would any of it seem to make sense?

When I read through it again and again, on the surface none of it made. But when I broke down each of the statements, each one had meaning and value. I'm not sure if that was Andy Rooney's intent or not, but it made sense to me.

Our life and the events that happen around it may not seem to make sense in the broad view. But when we stop to look at each of those individual events, each has some type of meaning or lesson. With so much going on in our daily lives, all of those details seem to blur into a rambling or haphazard series of events.

If we take a bit of time to reflect and examine some of those events, each will become more clear. The rambling will become more sensible. Life will seem to make a bit more sense.

Windows of Opportunity

"If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade." ~Tom Peters

We can go through life being told that our window of opportunity is small. When that moment arrives, we need to be ready for it. The window might be tiny, it might be large, but the window will appear for us.

I can't disagree with the fact that we will each encounter a window of opportunity. But what I do believe is that the word window should be plural. The belief is that we are presented with 'windows' of opportunity as opposed to a single one.

The question becomes just how good are we at recognizing those windows and more importantly, taking on the opportunity. If we believe only a single window of opportunity exists for us and we don't recognize it, then we stop looking for more and lose hope of ever trying again.

In my belief, these windows of opportunity happen all of the time. We simply have to learn how to recognize them and then act upon them. But how do we learn to recognize them? You can only learn by trying, by 'trial and error', by being bold and going for them. Over time you will learn which ones work and which ones don't.

Do not mistake this for jumping in willy-nilly. What I'm saying is that you have to understand that opportunity passes us by each and everyday. Most of us fail to look for them, let alone act upon them.

If we are to advance our lives and have an impact, then we must know that there are many windows for us. Look for them and then boldly discover how these opportunities can lead you and others as we live the journey of our life.