While walking on chilly sunset hike, I came across these views while in Essex, Ct this past weekend. I have seen these spots many times, but often, the good stuff is in the details. For me, Winter is the best time to pull out your camera as everything seems raw and unencumbered. There's a certain clarity to it all. 

As the numbness of losing a sister is slowly lifted, I would like to take the time to thank everyone who sent their heartfelt affections towards all of us who love Patti.  We thank the friends that came from near and far to meet in NYC at St. Ignatius Loyola Church on the upper East Side. In this beautiful church, we could feel her presence in a new-found, spiritual way. There is no one who would have been more thrilled than Patti herself to see a gathering of the people she held closest and loved so much. 

For many of us, saying goodbye to Patti seems surreal. I hang over my thoughts, wondering what are the right words to articulate my love and affection for her truly beautiful soul. We met long ago during a time when youth extended a lifetime of opportunity ahead of us. Life would take us on so many adventures together. We would share a university experience in our youth, then be forever linked through a mutual love of family. We would carry our sisterhood into motherhood, a journey that is best traveled together. We are forever bound. So now, with so much left to share together, the void I feel is great. 

I am sure that so many that knew Patti's love and friendship also feel this void.  I want everyone to realize and feel heartened that Patti hasn't really left us. Patti was one of the most giving people that I have ever met. She gave a little bit of herself to each person she knew and loved.  She truly made the people who were lucky to know her feel welcomed, important and loved. Perhaps she shared with you her secrets to her uncanny ability to organize virtually anything. She inspired her sisters to dig their deepest and always see love above all else.  For her boys, she gave them the gift of her protection, courage and a love strong enough to last their lifetimes.  She taught my brother that life's struggles lead to life's many rewards. She shared a real love with him, one that was timeless and committed. For Patti, the warmth and friendships she found in California were a true gift she had been given. Now, she has come back to you in spirit and dwells in your warm sunshine.  Her gift to her fashionista friends came in the fact that she knew how to wear a tailored Calvin Klein ensemble and somehow made it look comfortable. In her distinguished years at Lancome, Calvin Klein and Coach, her close friends surely must have known it was her smile and not the blush, blouse or stylish leather purse that truly made the woman.  Each little gift of herself that she shared with you, now lives within you to carry on her spirit. I urge you to embrace her in your everyday. 

Glenn, Cooper and Glenny Jr, as long as you have the love of the people who knew Patti, than you still have her. Keep them close and you will thrive and feel her love everyday. 

I promise sister, that I’ll carry you with me each and every day, on adventures both great and small. Each photo will carry your inspired watermark.  I’ll keep watch over your boys. I’ll remember your beauty and be inspired to live by it.  The kind and loving nature that was your gift to others can live on in all of us.  

For weeks, my camera has been wrapped in bubble-wrap waiting for it’s owner to open her eyes once again. Everything seemed too familiar and routine, perhaps lulling me into an idle repose. It took the loss of my beautiful sister-in-law to jolt me awake. Sitting at the edge of my driveway with a half an hour left of sunlight, I pushed the accelerator not caring which way I went. I have covered every inch of this area to ad nauseam. Somehow the newly winged angel guided me along until I came to a stop. Miles approved, bounding along, mucking through mud and marsh. I had been here a thousand times, but the setting light made it feel magical. I snapped only a few photos and quickly realized that my elusive imagination wants to be reawakened. 

Someone I loved dearly passed away today. She became my big sister and afforded my brother two beautiful boys and a lifetime of memories for all of us. Many of you never met Patti, who I would liken to someone with the grace and style of Princess Diana. We sat together on the night that princess Diana died weeping together for a beautiful soul that was lost too early. Patti, how ironic is it that you would join her celestial court at virtually the same age, both ripped apart from the boys you loved so dearly. Over the last three days, I watched over your boys and did my best to protect their broken hearts and I promise to continue to do so from today on. When I came home today, as soon as I laid eyes on my own babies I fell to pieces. There is nothing so powerful as the love between a mother and her children. 

Although most of you haven’t met her, you knew Patti through my blog. I wrote the first entry the day she received her diagnosis and since then, every photo over the past three years was inspired with her in my heart. Through photos, I tried my best to embrace all that she couldn’t throughout her long illness. 

Friends; don’t let go of the ones you love, and if they must go, hold on to them forever in your heart. They're never really gone. 

I've hit the wall. It was bound to happen as I spent the last three years taking photos of just about everything that moved (or didn't move). The deep freeze has finally come and like any hibernating bear, it's left me some time to think. Believe it or not, my favorite camera still sits in bubble wrap three weeks after being serviced for overuse and abuse. My incarceration resulting from my cameras injuries has me feeling kinda..off. I swear that time has become frozen, leaving my brain idling in neutral. Down time just feels weird and the separation between myself and my camera has me feeling like a disembodied shell of usual myself.  As I  look outside of the frost covered window and gaze upon winter's frozen sunset, I long for a slight tilt of the earth upon its axis to bring us some warmth. I have little hope that I can find it within myself to reap the season's offerings of reflection and rest. Despite heeding winter's sleepy advice, I find myself looking for new adventures so I can strip that wrap off my camera and start living for life's next image. 

I need some inspiration or this camera will stay under wraps. Meanwhile, I passed some time by looking at old photos of opportunities I've had to travel. The kids peered into digital albums as I clicked from one photo to the next, awestruck of how much they have grown. The camera is a wonderful time machine.  I began to think, if possible, where would you go if you could just go? Would you find warmth among the palm trees or around a fireplace near a ski slope? Do you travel near or afar? Do your trips have a scheduled itinerary, or do you just head off in a general direction. Either way, I would love to know.