The Many Faces of Love - Kukucka Photography Valentine's Day has been a bit lonely for me since my divorce three years ago. I tend to think of love as an experience I was blessed to have and enjoy, value and cherish, even if it didn't turn out to look the way I thought it would. I realize now that love isn't at all limited to a significant other. Neither is it predictable in its appearance, often disguising itself as an "ordinary moment", if there even is such a thing (and there isn't).As I was organizing some of my favorite photos earlier today I realized that I was witnessing a beautiful theme - and that is, the many faces of love. It might be a visit with a mother who you haven't ...

Honoring the Unclaimed - Kukucka Photography, LA I had the opportunity this morning to do something I've wanted to do for a few years now.Every year there is a multi-faith, public memorial here in LA - the annual Burial of the Unclaimed - something that has taken place since 1896. The cremains of all the unclaimed souls are buried together. All those who passed alone - without a family, without a friend, without anyone knowing that they left this plane - and for some, that they ever even existed. Today I had the privilege to stand with so many others who braved this unusually cold and rainy day to say that their lives DID matter, and they DID NOT leave unnoticed. (Interesting that on ...

- The Dancer - Portrait of Teri - This will probably be one of my most personal blog posts, but that's what the "Musings" section of my website is all about. Stories and photos from my life - what I think about, remember, miss, and celebrate,  - and ALWAYS what I'm grateful for - and this post includes all of those things.Most everyone has that "one great love" - whether real or imagined, wished for or experienced, enjoyed or missed, longed for deep in your soul, no matter how it shows up or for however long it stays. I'm lucky enough to know a few of those couples who have had the unusual gift of truly being there, together, at the same time, same place in life and love, and I'm ...

- Early Pittsburgh - Betsy's Diner - Kukucka Photography - When my father was a dentist in the small western PA town of Patton, there was just one diner in town and it was conveniently located just two doors down from my dad's office. It was Betsy's Diner, and dad would always sit at the counter because he never took the time to have a leisurely lunch at one of the tables. He usually had the same thing - a BLT and water with lemon, no ice, as I recall.For some reason, my father is really on my mind and in my heart these days. He crossed the thin veil in 2010, and my mother joined him five years later. I know that Betsy died sometime in the 1970's, and her once-busy diner is now a gun ...