As metal strikes metal, sparks come to life. And they know they are not to last. They know they will be short-lived. Thus they show a fierce, indomitable spirit to enjoy every nanosecond of their very brief lifetime.



"There is no reason to mourn" they say as they know their faith is inescapable. "Let us explore every piece of the world we can make it to" is what they think. For they are rooted in the Present and take every breath they can, while they still can. So they rock and they roll in a fiery vitality.

And when they vanish out of existence, they do so with no regrets at all. They haven't lost time in sorrow. They haven't lost time in wishful thinking. They sought the Present, and they were right. They were wise.

There's nothing such as a right time to enjoy life. Life is way too short and far too precious. I always strive to be rooted in the present, in the moment and appreciate every minute, every second of it whenever I can.



The clock featured in the picture belongs to my mother-in-law. She got it from her father who brought it from Germany some years after the end of WWII. It was made during a time when people had more… time. A time when you wouldn't trash something that worked for something newer, faster or for whatever other marketing pretense. A time when consumerism was a sound thing and respectful of the Earth we are living in.

It's not like nowadays clocks that rely on electricity. It is mechanical, made for people who wouldn't care spending a few seconds now and then to spring it back to life. It looks sturdy and carefully crafted, unlike the mounds of plastic horrors that take boats everyday and come all the way down from the other side of the planet.

I really like this clock. The cracks in the ceramic material are beautiful. The drawings are handmade. The frame is made of metal. It doesn't tick. It always show the same, frozen, time. A true sign of the present.

I dream of a time where we will have more time to enjoy ourselves and Mother Nature. I dream of a post-industrial era where all the horrors that we are perpetrating on a daily basis in the name of consumerism and against Mother Nature and against ourselves, as a specie, are a thing of the past. I may not live enough to see that era but I hope that one day, our specie will wake up and make my dream come true.

This text and companion picture are dedicated to Agnès and François. May your path be full of joy and happiness.

For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'
Bob Dylan.

It's Spring or so they said on TV.



At least, some flowers have started popping in our garden. My elder daughter has collected a few and put them in a doll's cup with a bit of water. But as you can see, the trees in the background have no leaf yet.

I frequently go to Angers, a nice mid-sized city to the west of Paris, France. Most of my in-laws live in its vicinity. Walking downtown is enjoyable and, if one is wise enough to avoid the shopping areas, relaxing. I met the beauty queen below during one my walks.



While I walked many times on the street where she "lives", I had never noticed her before since I don't usually look upward at the buildings and houses that surround my walking path. Which is kind of a shame. One should really take their time to look everywhere, particularly in places that are supposed to be familiar. Beauty may lie anywhere.



That day, I was waiting for my wife to get out of a small shop. On the other side of the street where I was standing, there was a very nice flower shop and my eyes were attracted by the building where it is located. Looking a bit more into details, I spotted the beauty queen and I was really delighted by her sight.

I took some other shots that you may want to see. They were taken using a Panasonic DMC-FX150 compact camera in program mode. Some pictures were "cropped". Otherwise, no software change has been made.