A long walk is always time well spent. Find a place where you can let go of the craziness and uncertainty that fills our days in these troubled times. Let the fresh air fill your lungs and clear your head. Or have a quiet conversation with yourself or your maker, and take count of your blessings.

    Nine years ago this November, I took this photo of what was billed on that day as the "Supermoon." It was

to be the brightest moon for twenty years to come because of its proximity to the Earth that night. I had wanted  to capture the beauty of Chicago's lakefront for many years, ever since moving to Chicago's North Side from Chicago's South Side in the late 1980s. But I wasn't into traditional 35mm cameras and a flip-phone camera wouldn't cut it, which my local bar-keep suggested that I get when I popped in one night after having been out howling at the moon. I needed a camera-phone that took a picture that rose to the level of art. Eventually, the camera-phones improved. And after the local weather forecasters couldn't stop talking about this "Supermoon" for days, I knew I had to catch me a moon that night. But I had two big problems. I was on the wrong side of  the city and it was getting late, and I didn't have a camera. Shit! Oops! Sorry.  

   I had spent the day caring for my aunt, Dolores Lopez, in the village of Oak Lawn, Illinois, a Chicago suburb just adjacent to the city's southwest border. But it was getting late and I needed to get a camera and drive from one end of the city to the other during rush hour...  

... Well, after almost buying the wrong camera-phone, I made it home to capture that lovely "Supermoon." More than 40,000 pics later, I'm still in love with all the beautiful imagery all around us.