Utopia or Imagination?

  Sometimes, it is all in how you see things rather than what you are actually looking at.  I know that does not make a lot of sense to those not familiar with a thing called an active imagination but, for those of us with one, it is the norm.  We often see things a good bit differently than other folks.  Not that it is a bad thing since it does keep us amused.  

  Early this morning, I took the old dog out for his usual walk.  Since life now revolves totally around his needs, I can never be far from him.  He falls and cannot get back up.  (Someone needs to invent one of those Life Alert things for dogs.  I am not being flippant there...it really would come in handy.)  That said, I can not  go to the pier.  It has been ages since the sunrise has been photographed (or even enjoyed) from over the water.  I have had to start looking for gaps in the treeline to get any pictures, whatsoever.  This morning was no different.  It was a gorgeous sunrise but the walk took us behind a thick grove of trees.  One small gap gave me a glimpse of what I was missing but, also, gave me a different perspective of the horizon.  I photographed what I saw as a "floating island" amidst a surreal landscape.  A lone oak tree gracefully spread its branches while the sun reddened the waters about it.

  In reality, the large, sprawling oak tree is the top of a lanky pine tree.  The bayou of reddened waters is merely the sunrise shooting rays on the clouds.  The "island" is lower branches of the same tree.  I did not see it that way.  I saw it as utopia.  That magical, mystical place where one could escape the worries of the world and find peace.  Maybe I just need that peace right now.  Maybe I need a magical, mystical place to escape.  Maybe the Bayou just feeds the imagination and, yeah, I want to go there.