I’m going to do a regulars on my work to preserve my space in the face of enormous challenges to privacy, dignity, patience and self-determination. We live on a world of obsessive messaging, arguments, intrusions and warnings. There is no concept left of privacy, of space, of boundaries. So I am going to work on that, I have to figure it out if I am going to be the writer, the lover, the photographer and the person I want and need to be.

Technology and social media are the two most pressing sources of pressure on my space, my inner self. They test my patience, my energy, my focus, they are the greatest threat to my good work even as I learn to use them more. I have learned to share these challenges, to be open about them, I have always found I’m not the only one, that others are sharing this problem, from panic to depression to diabetes.

How do I stay patient in the face of constant provocation? How do I make decisions and choices and share them without surrendering them? How do I protect my space, the inner part of myself that needs to be calm, loving, centered and creative.

My photography is one way, when I go out in the morning and see an image like this and capture it, I stop and l look at my loving wife, her great love for me and for our animals, and I take a deep breath and close my eyes, and I say this is what is important, this is the image in my head, this is the mood I want for my work and life. I look for more moments in a day, this is the real message I want to hear, my own “like”, the best comment. Step one, I think, it is an antidote to the invasion of self that passes for communications in our world. Is is spiritual, nourishing, silent and healing.

I am beginning to get a grip on this idea, I think of it as an anti-biotic, an antidote, a balance.