Let It Go

“Let It Go” is another in my informal “Vanishing America” series … a lovely old barn and silo discovered on a trip home from snapping eagles at Conowingo Dam in Conowingo, Maryland … captured in late November of 2014 with the Nikon D7000 and the 18-200mm VR Nikkor / Nikon lens.

I was originally going to title this one “Hard Work.” As retirement looms on the horizon for my husband and myself, my thoughts seem to go all over the place … to the life we’ve worked so hard to build for ourselves and our children, the plans we’ve made for our futures, and all the “what ifs” that have plagued men and women of a certain age down through the ages. We’re considering down-sizing … and the thoughts of leaving our home and all the work and love and care we’ve put into making it a place of beauty and comfort are bitter-sweet.

When I see something like this old barn … obviously a place that saw a lot of hard, hard work in its time, now rusting and crumbling to the ground, all those “what ifs” seem to gather like storm clouds around my head. All that hard work the farmers did here, day after day, year after year, and what did it amount to? Sickness or simple old age or something else struck … and this structure which used to bustle with activity … and hopes … is falling into dust.

And then I thought of another title for this little image. The song “Let It Go,” which is so popular right now, might be a better representative, both in name and in meaning.

Most of us are hard-working individuals. Most of us get up every morning and give life our best shot. We have good intentions, try to do the right thing by ourselves, our families and our fellow inhabitants of this good earth. Sometimes things go the way we plan, but sometimes that old “Man plans and God laughs” thing happens. All we can really do, is do our best, keep our chins up, smile with our lips, our eyes and our hearts … and “Let It Go.”

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