Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate
The first thought I had about this Weekly Photo Challenge word was of Simon Schama in “The Power of Art” DVD describing Bernini’s sculpture “Ecstasy of St. Teresa”. The delicate touch of an angel, the intense and spellbound concentration of presence, distills the vulnerability of human existence. It is a very spiritual moment of intimacy in which the soul is liberated and comes to the surface. Bernini illustrates it masterfully in his sculpture. I have not photographed the sculpture, nor have I seen it, even though I have been to Rome. The best I have to offer is this shot, taken one luxurious morning at a historic hotel in West Virginia. Yes, those are my legs.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons
Changing Seasons is this week’s theme, but Nature is always changing, and the parameters we use to describe a “season” are artificial. I would imagine that any nature photo would depict change in some way, so I am anticipating a lot of cool nature shots will be hitting the blogs this week. Yippee! I do have one to share, taken last February as ice was melting at Wehr Nature Center. Spring arrived very early in 2012. Climate change is noticeable here in Wisconsin, as it is in many parts of the globe. How do you live with change? Happily accepting and learning from it? Resisting and avoiding it? Oscillating on that spectrum somewhere? It’s always interesting to observe myself when change manifests. The challenge for me is to be gentle and not judgmental in that observation.
I have another picture to share, but I can’t post it except in words. Late last night, I heard the call of a Great Horned Owl outside. It was the second time in a week that I’d heard it. Steve had heard it a few days ago and called me in to his office to listen. I thought at first it was the hoot of my own breathing in my head as I grew quiet to listen. Then, unmistakably, a pattern emerged. I looked up the audio track on the internet to identify what kind of an owl it was. We went outside to look. It was coming from west of our house, but a street lamp shone in the mid distance making it impossible to see anything in the trees in that direction. Last night, I heard the sound again from the bedroom. I looked out the east window at the top of the stairs and saw a silhouette in the tallest bare tree in the neighborhood. It looked like a huge cat with pointed ears, bunching and stretching way up in the tree. The cloudy night sky reflected the city lights just enough to show an outline. The wavy old glass, dirty and screen-covered, made it even more difficult to make out, even with binoculars. But there he was, large and spirit-like, hooting in the night air. I knew this mystery could not be captured on film, so I resolved to keep it in my head and share it in story.
Wehr Have You Been?
Yesterday, I returned to the Wehr Nature Center where I had volunteered as a trail guide for their school programs before I got a job as a historic interpreter. It was good to see the place again, the furry and scaly and feathered and leafy friends as well as the humans. I was helping sell snacks for their Homemade Holiday event. Families bustled about creating holiday decorations and cookies throughout the building, while a moist, gray blanket of fog settled warmly outside. When the activities were over, I grabbed my camera and headed out for a walk around the lake. Dusk crept up, and Canada geese honked loudly from surface to sky, jockeying for shelter for the night. It was as if I was looking at an old friend wearing an expression I’d not seen before. Some things had changed: new fences were in place. The duck blind at the edge of the lake had been repaired. I felt like we’d both been out of touch for a while. I sat down on a bench to renew our acquaintance.
December silhouette
Old and new
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections
I do a lot of reflecting in my mind. Every so often, I also do it with my camera. This week’s photo challenge prompts me to share a few shots. It’s not coincidental, probably, that my reflections show the natural world off some man-made surface. A window. A puddle in the pavement. How often do you feel that you’re looking at real life through the rear-view mirror? What is it that keeps you from turning fully around and facing it head on?
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Here’s some news of the planet with a video that’s mesmerizing in the early morning (with the sound turned off). Enjoy!
Two-Minute Cosmic Worship Break
My mother serendipitously re-sent me a video that I had been searching for amongst my 4,000 saved e-mails. I am in need of this video on a regular basis, and once you see it, you’ll know why. I think I may have posted it before, but like looking up to see the horizon, it must be done often to stay sane. Enjoy, re-blog, share…repeat. (Not like shampoo instructions, which are entirely bogus. Who lathers twice in one shower?)
I can’t seem to get the screen posted right here, so click this link until I figure it out.
Well, okay, it seems that WordPress requires a space upgrade to get the screen to show. Please click the link, though. I promise your two minutes will be rewarded!
Posting in High Dudgeon or How to Rant Gracefully
The precepts of Buddhism are on my mind. I’m trying to be precise (aware) and gentle and graceful in this blog, but today, what I’m aware of is anger. And this is very uncomfortable for me because I’ve built up quite a habit of avoiding anger at all costs. I don’t like to find it in others, and I don’t like to find it in myself. However, it’s a very important part of being human. So, how do I face it gracefully?
Steve has some cassette tapes of Thich Nhat Hahn giving talks on relationships. He speaks (or whispers, practically) about how to confront your loved one by opening with, “Darling, I suffer…”
So, who is the loved one I want to confront? Yahoo! news.
Seriously, I am angered by a sense of false reporting that I feel every time I log on. Important issues are sparsely represented. Celebrity activity is ubiquitous. The site reeks of phoniness, of Lifestyle but very little Life. So, in my state of indignation, I wrote a kind of rant. I will post it here with the graceful prefix:
Darling Yahoo!, I suffer. Unemployment isn’t news. Celebrity divorces aren’t news. Pet tricks aren’t news. Death isn’t news. Where is the joyful message of Life? The new moon, the new day, the new leaf, the new mutation, the new energy, the new decomposition, the new layer of sediment, the new moment, the NOW that has never been before and will be over immediately so that the next NOW can appear? The earth, the stars, the Universe is moving and changing, and you’re afraid to report it. The one thing we’re not making up, inventing for our own fascinated misery, gets shushed and shunted because certain people don’t want to hear. What makes them so certain? Their belief freezes everything real, stops it mid-drip, or so they think. Nonsense. Wake up! Get your mind out of those delusions. You can make observations; you can’t make certain. Bring me observations of the Universe, dear Yahoo!, and less of the machinations of man.
That is all.
Cyber Monday
Scholar & Poet Books is the online book business that Steve & I run from our home. We shelter books that we have rescued from Good Will, library sales, church sales and rummage sales. We clean them up and put them up for adoption on Amazon, Alibris, ABE Books and eBay. We find new homes for old standards, eclectic oddities, and arcane tutorials. Pulp fiction with vintage cover art, lots of spiritual topics, Christmas and cookbooks and CDs and children’s books…you name it, we probably have it or something related to it. So, if you’re in the mood for some cyber shopping today that supports the U.S. Post Office, a small business, and the non-electronic world of all natural BOOKS, you can browse our collection through this link. We have a 5-star rating, but neither of us has a Facebook account. If you like what you see and want to share the link with your friends, though, we would be very pleased! Happy hunting, bookworms!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! It’s Steve’s favorite holiday, and we’ve eaten turkey for the last 3 dinners. First, it was the 20-pounder I cooked for us and his mom, aunt, sister and brother-in-law. That occasion included a lot of cleaning up and rearranging books so that the book business didn’t take over the dining & living room. The result of that work is being able to provide a comfortable place for people to gather, relax, feast, listen to music, and converse. Holding a safe space open for life to unfold is a responsibility that I willingly accept, and I am thankful that I have figured out how to do that with the resources available to me. I am very thankful for my partner and for the home that we have made together. The day after Thanksgiving, we went down to visit my children in Illinois. With all 4 of them, plus my daughter’s boyfriend and her godfather, we made 8. She cooked another turkey and we brought our leftovers to share for this second feast. I am thankful for my children, for the unique and wonderful people they are and for the fact that I have a healthy, happy relationship with each of them. Yesterday, we drove home, past Glacial Park where we had our first date, back to our clean and tidy little duplex apartment. Steve went back to work, I took a nap, and later fixed some more leftover turkey for supper. Oh, but just before that, something else happened. I had a good cry. You see, my oldest daughter went shopping on Black Friday and bought…a wedding dress. All by myself, back at home, I put on a Louis Armstrong CD, “What A Wonderful World”. I felt happy and lonely, missing her father who died in 2008. I wrote a sentimental bit of poetry, drank some vodka & cranberry juice, and let it flow. Life moves and changes and goes on. We are the bearers of our own memories, the crucible of our own journeys, and no one else shares that responsibility with us. That can feel very lonely sometimes, but it also feels satisfying. I am filled with the weight of my life and still have room for more. For that, I am especially thankful.
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