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I was nearly blinded by the sunlight as I pulled out of my parking spot behind my building and headed down the alley.<\/p>\nI was nearly blinded by the sunlight as I pulled out of my parking spot behind my building and headed down the alley.<\/p>\n
I know there are scientific reasons for this phenomenon, the brightness of the sun in October, but I always seem to be surprised by the glare, how treacherous it feels to drive in the direction of the sun in the fall.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing to think about how much lower in the sky that special star beams its light at this time of year.<\/p>\n
At this time of year, I hate driving east at seven in the morning or west at six o\u2019clock in the evening.<\/p>\n
Why does this matter so much to me right now?<\/p>\n
When I feel helpless, as I do under the power of the sun, that\u2019s all I can think about?<\/p>\n
Or is it?<\/p>\n
Despite the blinding rays that made me uncomfortable driving, I completed my errand this morning. I placed a package between the outer glass door and inner wooden door of a friend\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
This was the second time I took on the task of leaving the package for her in last two days, and I was irritated at having to perform an encore. The glare of the sun on my windshield was a fitting symbol for my mood.<\/p>\n
The package, a priority envelope containing several padded priority envelopes, originally came to my home. A couple days ago, I left the 9″ x 13″ package with my address on the front and placed it, as requested, in my friend’s mail box.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, I could have re-packaged the contents in another box or bag, one that didn\u2019t have my name and address visible, but I didn\u2019t think of it at the time. Since I was asked to get it in my friend’s mail box as soon as possible, I assumed she had instructed a neighbor to fish it out right away.<\/p>\n
But the mailman got to her home first and decided to tape the plastic envelope, which I had torn open, back together, and the package was delivered back to me.<\/p>\n
So, I was out at 7:15 in the morning to make things right.\u00a0 My friend texted me. \u201cWhy did you keep them in the original mailing envelope? This is a problem for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was angry at this response. Making a second trip was a \u201cproblem\u201d for me too. I felt that I was being blamed for a situation where we both were responsible, and my mind raced with ideas of what I could text back.<\/p>\n
What could I say to defend myself?\u00a0 I felt attacked. I recalled other situations when I had a different point of view from one of my friends. There was no chance either of us was going to let go of our point of view. Not any time soon.<\/p>\n
And I recognized that the more I tried to defend myself in this situation, the harder she would stick with the way she saw things. We could have gone on an endless cycle of texts. I knew the only thing to do was to disengage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Not that it\u2019s good to ignore anger or resentment, but I realized there was no need to keep it in front of me. That would be like staring at the brightest, most glaring spot in my windshield.<\/p>\n I had a choice. What to focus on was up to me.<\/p>\n On the way home, after simply texting that the second delivery had been made, I stopped at a playground.<\/p>\n I marveled at the fall colors, the different hues of leaves and the crisp blue sky. I even smiled at the shadows and light dancing naturally with everything there was to see. The same sun that I shook my fist at was responsible for contrast and illuminated the objects in front of me.<\/p>\n Everything was especially beautiful because I wasn\u2019t looking directly into the light.<\/p>\n I remembered a key principle in outdoor photography. It seemed to be the perfect message for this situation, for not surrendering your peace of mind to anger.<\/p>\n When taking photos, remembering to stand with the sun behind you is no small thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was nearly blinded by the sunlight as I pulled out of my parking spot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[681,683,54,682,684],"class_list":["post-7265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-blog","tag-disengage","tag-fall-colors","tag-no-small-thing","tag-outdoor-photography","tag-priority-envelopes","grateful-dozen-musings-imaginings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n