At long last, my photographs have caught up with my writing and sometimes surpassed them.

I’ve been writing all my life, and I believe I am writing as well or better than ever. I am free to write what I want, and that is where I need to be. Finally, no one can tell me what to write or who to be. I am working hard to be my best self. I’m not there yet.

Before I was free, I was going mad. Then I realized I had so many things to say in so many different ways; at 75, I have my Czechoslovakian Spring. I can’t seem to shut up.

One man wrote to me saying I was not humble. Duh. I hope never to be humble.

(George Forss, photographer, genius,  alien investigator, and researcher. And my friend.)

I can’t write enough; I can’t stop taking photos. That thing inside of me that haunted me all of my life and nearly brought me down has broken out, has burst the dam.

I feel a lot of emotions at Christmas.

I heed the call to do good and help the helpless. I seek to capture the color and light of the world and make sense of it. I aim to free my emotions to remember the things and people, and creatures who touched me profoundly and touch me still.

It is a season of joy and peace for me, and above all, of love.

(Good friends, Zinnia and Bud saying good morning)

Maria and I have never felt the call to send out Christmas Cards to everyone we know.

These photos are my Christmas cards, to you, to me. They each represent something emotional in my life, something lost, something gained.

Christmas morning, Maria and I will be at the Mansion meeting and talking with the people who have no families or are not with them. They have asked for Zinnia; she is important to them now. She knows what to do.

That is a sweet gift to bring, and so is Maria, who makes time to make art with the people who live at the Mansion.

Here are some of the things that touched my heart this year.

(Bishop Maginn Prom)

So here are some images that show me what Christmas is all about. I hope they have some meaning for you.

(My granddaughter Robin, bursting with self.

 

(Always the artist)

 

Lulu and Fanny

Our friend Alfreda

 

Dreams do come true. The day I got my Leica. I still don’t quite believe it.