Lemon lady in Positano Italy

Italy is without question my favorite country in the world.

Granted, this designation is based on a comparison with only a handful of other countries I have visited. Still, there is just something very special about this country (excluding its economic situation).

I just returned from my third visit to Italy. This time we experienced the magnificent Amalfi coast, where the mountains truly do meet the sea.

The winding coastal roads are perched on the edge of these mountains and sometimes blasted right through them. There were numerous occasions of motion sickness – on a boat, a bus, and a car.

The Italians have it right – take it slow, appreciate the landscape, and eat well. Wine is considered a food group.

My aim for this site (and my life) is to learn and teach how to develop a contemplative mindset in the midst of life as it is happening.

Meditation teaches how to do this. When we meditate, we sit in presence and when thoughts appear, we notice them and let them go. We don’t grade ourselves on how many thoughts come into our consciousness. We don’t grade ourselves at all. We learn from this practice how to lessen the control thoughts and judgments have on our lives and experience what is happening right now.

Photography is a practice that can work in the same way – helping us to notice our lives, especially when we are on the go. My husband is getting very good at noticing and pointing things out to me that I haven’t seen.

Why is this important? Because we miss so much when we are constantly moving from one thing to the next, always focused on where we are going, and not where we are now.

I had planned to photograph in Italy from this contemplative mindset, but it was more difficult than I imagined. When you’re by yourself or in a photography workshop, it is much easier. When you’re with three other people, and trying to see all the sights within a week’s timeframe, it’s a different story. My fellow travelers weren’t as interested in stopping for photographs of shadows on walls or baskets of walnuts.

So, whether we are on vacation, traveling, or going from meeting to meeting, developing this contemplative mindset helps us to actually experience the life we are living, making it much more enjoyable. And yes, I did manage to capture a few moments of reality while in Italy.