This new background photo was taken at Occoquan Bay NWR.  I actually take a lot of photos of tree branches against the blue sky.  I think it’s one of the prettiest combinations of colors there is.  Just like I love when the bright white moon is up during the day in front of a clear cerulean sky.  Gorgeous.

Sometime taking photos of tree branches includes Bald Eagles at Pohick Regional Park.

To me, beauty is meaningful.  As is the grotesque.  As is oddness.  And living things of all species.  So I am easily motivated to take photographs of things I find beautiful, grotesque, odd, or alive.  (Which encompasses almost everything, which accounts for the outrageous number of photos I take.)

And the grotesque includes the dead fish that eagles leave uneaten on the shore.

Humans are hard-wired to find meaning.  It’s part of our nature to puzzle out why things are, to learn about them, to find (or invent) meaning for them.  This is part of the intelligence that evolved along with creativity, language, art- and tool-making, and everything else that sets up apart from other animals.  Our curiosity about the world, our ability to figure out patterns, discover their meaning, and plan for the future – all this has made extremely adaptable and therefore successful.

I don’t believe that the universe as a whole has any meaning.  There is no absolute, over-riding purpose to anything… at least, not one we can be privy to.  (Although that doesn’t stop people from inventing them and trying to impose their invented meanings on others.)  But we each have the ability to decide or discover for ourselves what is meaningful to us, and to pursue that meaning.

And it is pursuing what is meaning to us that keeps us motivated to get up in the morning, to go out in the cold or the heat or the rain or the snow, to take photos, or make art, or plan for the future.  If you don’t find what you’re doing meaningful, then why bother?  Why are you doing it?  What is motivating you?

When we lose sight of what is meaningful in our own lives, though, we lose motivation.  We’re simply going through the motions.  And sometimes that’s unavoidable.  We all have to do things from time to time that seem pointless, but are required to get to some other goal we’re trying to achieve. But no one should live their whole life in pointlessness.

It is your responsibility – your duty to yourself – to find something that gives your life meaning.  What motivates you?  What makes you feel good about yourself and the work you’re doing?  What are you holding on to?  What are you protecting?  What are you creating?