Rumpled Comfort, Sunsets, and Sweet Shot Tuesday (SST #1)

I spent three days straight in this bed with these blankets, this pillow, and vitally, this box of tissues and water cup.  Even after the worst of it, I've been back to crash more times than I can count.  

When you are sick, you hope and pray it will pass soon, and you take the comforts where you can get them. When I finally got the oomph to check in on Facebook, I tapped this status on my little iPod screen: "Today I am thankful for Puffs Plus tissues, Halls cough drops, ibuprofen, a huge cup of water, my comfy blankets, and my iPod. Fourth day of the flu. I think my fever finally broke, but still feeling cruddy."

The blankets - these blankets in particular - are more than physical comfort to me. My sister gave me the quilt this summer when we were up on vacation and she was cleaning out her home.  I love the dark but vibrant colors, the log cabin pattern, everything about it. Mostly I think of her when I see it. It's like getting wrapped in a hug. The pink thermal blanket came down with my dad, wrapped around a favorite painting from my mom's side of the family that I had requested after she passed away. I know the blanket was mom's, too, and that means a lot to me. I am sentimental like that, especially when I'm sick and need to feel wrapped in love. A bit of rumpled comfort was as welcome as any.

When I was starting to get better, I saw the way the light hit the blankets and I had to take a picture. It captured a moment and an emotion for me; that's why I take so many of my pictures. One of my goals this year is to post a picture a week at Sweet Shot Tuesday, a photography challenge. This is my first one for 2015.

Because I was so sick, I really didn't take many photos at all the first several days of January. This is the only other one I found on my "real" camera card, from the first day I was out and about and had to make a 50 mile round trip to borrow an orthopedic boot for my son. I found myself in a beautiful area of town where I rarely go (Lake Nona), and I always try to be "open to wonder" in situations like that, to see what I can see while I can see it. When we stopped at a light, I was struck by the tree.  No, it didn't fall on my van. Not that kind of "struck by the tree." I was struck by it visually, the pattern of the bare branches against the sky on the first day I had even been outside in a while. I did pull up the contrast and color saturation when I edited it in Picasa to match my own eyes' recollection of the evening.

My son took this sunset photo out the other car window a few minutes before that. I did not adjust the color at all. It was quite glorious.

In 2015, in the midst of everything going on around me and in me, I'll take the beauty and the comfort where I can get it - even if it is in simple things like blankets and sunsets and my camera.

Do you like to take pictures? Check out Sweet Shot Tuesday.