A couple of weeks ago, I have a “covid-19” moment. I was so over all the talk about staying in and not spreading this virus. It was a few days before the governor said, “Open this state back up.” Tension was in the air even in small town USA.

So, I went for a ride in the country. This is not a photo of my car (smile).

I love driving alone and thinking through the pressures of the day and most of all dreaming about the many hopes I have for the future. Yes, hopes and dreams and I have a future (Jer.29) and everyone else does, too. Life is not over.

I still dream and that’s Scriptural! When you stop dreaming, you stop hoping and believing in something beyond yourself and your situation. Don’t stop dreaming—ever!

Especially on rainy days, I look for moments to photograph. I have come to realize my photography is what I have known it was all along—good—but not gallery “wow.” That’s okay. I’m recording life as I see it and maybe with an added warmth of light to warm another person’s heart.

And who can resist a country donkey, right?! Even though it was raining fairly hard, only one of these guys seemed interested in what I was doing. The other hung her head as if to say, “The rain is just too much for me. I’m blue—even in this bright yellow field filled with wild flowers.”Don’t be blue!—ever!”

But this may be what some people are feeling. I want to be the little donkey on the left—up and looking and ready to check life out! Before this “virus” hit, I hated the idea of hiking in the rain. I didn’t want my hair to get messed up; but now, I don’t hate the idea of putting on a light covering and walking even in the rain. Suddenly, life feels just too precious to put it aside.

Don’t stop walking in and through the rain. Splash in the puddles. In fact, splash as if no one was looking! Splash and you will end up laughing.

So, things like these once well-used but now vacant silos speak to my heart. Why? I don’t know about you but I want my life-silo to be full to overflowing—not empty and abandoned.

Don’t stop filling your life up with good things—with moments spent and memories made with family, friends, neighbors, and most of all God.

Don’t stop living—not even for a moment. Don’t blink; take the photo and hold it and the moment you took it within your heart forever. “Whatever you hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Finally, there’s this black and white photo of a train car that is used for carrying container cars. There were dozens of these lined up and not being used—probably because our country was sitting at a “stop-sign” moment. Don’t hangout at stop signs! Those are meant as pauses and to let traffic flow. Instead, look both ways and then—go!

Growing up, I loved to wave the American flag. I confess it! I also loved the feeling of laying down at night and feeling “right” about life and this country.

We do live in troubling times. I won’t cast that thought off, but it will not control me. Don’t let it control you!

Coastal Georgia writer, Arthur Gorden wrote, “There is not enough darkness in this world to put the light of one small candle out.” . . . So, I think it’s “candle time” at my house!

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