Clear Autumn Days

"Beneath the Surface"
HTC1 camera phone
f/2.0/ISO125/1/600s

It felt genuinely strange to not have any work obligations this past weekend.  For just over a month, I have been in the pattern of morning routine-commute-work-commute-feed pets-sleep, with Sundays being spent with family, preparing meals for the week, and catching up on chores.  This past Friday night, I came home and felt lost.  Now what?  There was no need to be up early for work on Saturday; this was unfamiliar ground.  What is this... free time... and what do you do with it?

Free time is absolutely vital to humans, and to artists in particular.  Constantly running against the clock and a schedule filled with obligations does not allow time for spontaneity or exploration.  It depletes mental energy to the point where a ten minute sketch is exhausting.  I have realized that some "necessities" will have to be put on the back burner if I want to make my art more of a priority.  Free time brings inspiration and the space to do something about it.

While on a drive through the rural countryside near my home last year, I noticed a trailhead that looked promising.  I had no plans on Sunday, and I decided that it would be a good day to go exploring.  The day had begun cloudy but by the time we made it to the trail, it was a breezy crisp day, and the sky was that special October blue.  It wasn't a very well-maintained trail, but after some bushwhacking, we were rewarded by making it to the Pennsylvania bank of the Delaware River.

We stopped for a while, just sitting on some river rocks, listening to the rapids and the wind gusting through the autumn leaves.  The view was extraordinarily picturesque.  I climbed onto a fallen tree and walked out over the shallows, where I saw a fuzzy white caterpillar, and focused on the cold breeze blowing in my face.  From there I spied a vividly colored leaf, submerged yet close to the surface.  It bobbed in time with the waves cresting through an eddy, lit up with the perfect light in crystalline waters.  I just had to get a picture.  I did some strange yoga pose with my toes touching the water, my body and arms stretched out over the pebbly shallows as I tried to get a good shot without dropping my phone in the water.  It was wonderful to pursue passion in place of necessity, even just for a precious few hours.