Category Archives: Photography

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2016 Photo Calendar

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As a positive-thinking person, I am sad to hear so many people saying that 2016 was a bad year. So, I decided to go back through my photos of the year and pick just one from each month to remind myself what I was focusing on and maybe get an idea why it wasn’t so terrible, horrible, no-good and very bad after all. Here are my monthly picks:
January – 

optimistic 2

February – 

feb

March – 

march

April – april

May – may

June – MKE flower industry

July –

monarch

August – edge-2

September – droplet

October –october

November – 

magic-mist

December – dec

I don’t want to say that the year was without disappointment. At the beginning of 2016, I was also campaigning for Bernie Sanders by phone and door-to-door.

victory 2On the last day of November, I suffered two losses that hit me very hard: my boss resigned and a dear pet died. I guess my point is that perspective is still up to me. Where I give my heart, where I direct my eyes, where I train my efforts and thoughts is still up to me. And no system can take that away. 

May all beings be happy in 2017; may all beings be free from suffering in 2017. Thank you for visiting my blog!

victory

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Resilient

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Resilient: able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

rose-snow

“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow lies the seed that with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes the rose.” – Amanda McBroom

To all of you who hold a seed deep in your heart – a seed of peace, of love, of tolerance, of equality, of community, and of hope – I give you my warm wishes for a wonder-filled New Year. To all of you who shine love on the seed that is deep in my heart, I give you my undying gratitude for your support. 

Resilient

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Path

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I can totally relate to Cheri’s picture of taking a boardwalk path through a fragile eco-system. 

I can also relate to my personal path changing dramatically in 2016. I, too, moved to a new place – to be closer to my job – and then experienced an abrupt twist in the path when my boss resigned.  Paths can always lead to the unexpected, even a path you’ve traveled many times before. 

Humans have a strong tendency to try to control and predict, to make crooked paths straight, to eliminate as much random chaos as possible. And that means we can often be frustrated, disappointed, or anxious on the path we’re traveling.  But we don’t have to be. We can be delighted, wonder-filled and accepting. The path is what it is. How you travel and with what baggage is up to you. 

PG hiking
Path

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Wisconsin Wonderland

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If I want to see the magic of a winter wonderland, I have only to step outside my door. No need to represent it inside my home. No need for a “holiday tree” when you have a holiday ecosystem! I only wish I had a fireplace…

I’m grateful for the world as it is. It may seem harsh, but it is home. Chickadees and sparrows and cardinals and juncos are at the feeder. Deer lie under the trees at night and walk away during the day.  Somehow, they live on in the darkness, in the cold, without complaining.

I have a lot to learn.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Anticipation

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One of my favorite Advent anthems I used to sing with our church choir was titled “Anticipation”. It was a jewel of tight 20th Century harmony supporting a beautiful poem whose author I cannot find. It goes something like this:

The sky is black
The dawn is but a promise
and here I wait
impatient for the light.
My dearest friend is coming back
Tomorrow.
Anticipation fills the endless night
and soon the sky will fill with golden sunlight.
The day will break with joy beyond compare, 
and I will fly…I will fly…
to meet him in the air. 

I haven’t got the music or the lyrics to cite the source, but it haunts me in these long nights of darkness waiting for my dearest friend, The Sun, who warms me and enlightens my soul. Soon we will celebrate the Solstice, the return of the Sun, and days will lengthen steadily. That is a hope and a joy to anticipate! 

mystery

foggy-sunrise

arboretum in winter

 

 

Anticipation

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Weekly Photo Challenge: New Horizons

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A New Day dawning…

magic-mist

…in a new place. Since the first of November, I’ve been living on land owned by the Conservation Foundation where I work. However, at the end of the month, my boss tendered his resignation. What direction will the Foundation take going forward? I’m not quite sure. As the only employee there now, I have a lot of work to do. It will be an uphill slog along an obscured path, maybe more like this photo:  horizonSo, “we’re not out of the woods yet”, but frankly, the woods is where I want to be. That is where new life is pushing up from under the decay. growth piercingAnd that’s pretty exciting! So, my resolution: keep practicing conservation of resources and doing no harm, no matter what others around you may be practicing. Live with integrity and love with generosity. 

warm-rose

Happy Horizons to all!

New Horizon

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Weekly Photo Challenge: RELAX

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I can’t help being reminded of a T-shirt my late husband wore. It was commissioned by his barbershop quartet; they wore them together on a barbershop weekend retreat for practicing, hanging around the lake house, and just “chilling” (in Palm Springs). The shirt simply said: RELAX.  A lot of the people near and dear to me have been experiencing heightened anxiety – myself included.

November has been a difficult month. To cap it all off, my boss resigned on the last day. My boss and I are the ONLY employees of the Conservation Foundation where I work. And I just moved onto conservation land at the beginning of the month. I have a lot of questions about my local future to add to the bigger questions I have about a global and universal future.  

*sigh* So…what do I do to relax? I go outside. I walk. I watch the trees, the sky, the animals, the sun doing what they do without anxiety, on a larger scale, and with the simple grace of the present moment. It never ceases to be helpful to my mood. So, pull up a bench…and relax with me. 

benchLook closely at the beauty all around, and wonder in silence.

moss

Now, don’t you feel more relaxed? I do. 

Relax

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Magic of Light

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Light is magic. I’m enjoying watching the light, from sun up to sun down, at my new home in the country. Foggy dawn changes…magic-mist…to afternoon gold…

afternoon-gold

…to evening moonrise.

moonrise

Then there are the more nuanced fluctuations of light dancing off cold and warm surfaces and reflective crystals.

frosty-leaf

warm-rose

Isn’t that what photography is all about? The Magic of Light!

Magic

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Tiny

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ladybug

Having recently discovered my camera’s close-up setting, I am having a great time photographing tiny details.

dropletI still find that my camera doesn’t quite depict the way that I see the world — the awareness of the juxtaposition of what’s outside the frame with what’s inside, for example.  

birch-barkAnd the colors and scope of a sunset and simultaneous moonrise.

sunset-moonriseWhere is the camera that can take in all that my eyes and brain and heart envelope? Non-existent. And that’s good because I’d hate to think humanity could be replaced by technology. 

snow
Tiny