Tag Archives: postaday
Weekly Photo Challenge: …and Baby Makes Three
I had only just bought myself my first digital camera for my 50th birthday 8 days before I went hiking at Lapham Peak State Park and this family of sandhill cranes flew directly overhead. I knew it would be a long shot that I had all the settings on it correctly programmed, but I snapped away in hope. There they are…
…and there they go….
Of course, three is a magic number. We all learned that from Schoolhouse Rock, didn’t we?
Trio
Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory
“Victory” is a word that makes me rather uncomfortable. It brings to mind a dualism that causes suffering. In other words, if there’s a victor, there must be a loser. I feel sad when someone is put in that role. I do not like competition. I do not like war. I do not like capitalism. And I do not like losing or feeling “less than”. So often, winners are unkind, insensitive and arrogant. I was the fourth daughter in my family of origin, and I probably felt like “the loser” in lots of ways as a child: redundant, younger, dumber, less skilled. It doesn’t feel good to be on that side of the scale. I prefer to imagine a way that everyone can win, that we can all share and get what we need regardless of how much or how little we are able to contribute. I used to tell my own 4 children, “Fair doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing. Fair means everyone gets what they need.” May all beings be happy. May we all feel that we can get what we need. I am hoping for a kinder Victory for my country, for my children, for myself.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Naturally Ornate
My first association with the theme word is the Ornate Box Turtle. I was just listening to a herpetologist on NPR using that word to describe a different species of turtle; apparently, there are a few that have earned the description in their common name. I met Boxy when I was volunteering at the Wehr Nature Center. Boxy is of an endangered species that inhabits the sandy areas of southwestern Wisconsin. She (I know because her eyes are brown, not red) has a cleverly hinged carapace that allows her to draw her head and limbs in and seal up almost completely when threatened. This is a picture taken through the not-quite-clean glass of her holding tank. It doesn’t do her coloring justice. She appears grumpy because she had just had her beak and nails trimmed at the vet. When it is grown out longer, the corners of her mouth don’t appear so down-turned.
Here is another example of the naturally ornate: wild turkey feathers. These are on a stuffed bird at the Madison Arboretum. The structural iridescence of feathers is a fascinating thing. They are not pigmented. They are prismed (if that’s a word). And each branch of the hair-like parts is barbed so that it will knit back together with its neighbor to form a more solid surface. When birds preen, they are re-knitting their feather edges.
Of course, Nature is often showing off in flowers. Ornate, breathtaking, in color and detail that is microscopically fine, often symmetrical, and elaborately patterned. Here are a few examples: a lily and Queen Anne’s lace.
Nature is extravagant, abundant, opulent, and rich in so many ways. Oh, and it is free. Just appears without us having to do anything. In fact, it becomes even more fantastic when we leave it alone. What a wonderful world!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Life is a Treat
“We can’t wait to see what brings you happiness!” says Word Press.
I’ve enjoyed more than 50 years of sensual pleasures: tastes, smells, sounds, sights, and tactile delights of all kinds. I live in the wealthiest country in the world, so I’ve had my full share of opportunities to be treated to finely-produced, man-made “treats”. Consequently, they’ve become a bit dull. I find that what really makes me smile are all the unexpectedly lavish surprises of Nature I can discover right in front of me, for free, every day.
The best treats in life are free….born in freedom. Like Maple Drops.
And Puffball Mushroomallows.
And Teasel Pops.
It’s a world of Pure Imagination! If you want to view Paradise, simply look around and view it. (go ahead, click the link to see Gene Wilder in that scene from Willy Wonka that set me dreaming of chocolate for months as a kid!) Enjoy your treats this weekend.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Please Be Careful
Ever get “Assembly Required” furniture from IKEA? I remember we got 2 sets of loft beds with student desks beneath them for our youngest daughters who shared a room. There were so many screws and wooden pegs and brackets included. God forbid we leave one out and our child plunges to the floor amid splinters of wood!
“To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” – Aldo Leopold
Why are we not as careful with our planet as we are with our furniture? You see a bug looking at you the wrong way, and you squash it. You see a weed growing in the wrong place, and you pluck it. If you don’t think you’ll need it, you plow it under, rip it out, poison it or shoot it to extinction.
Many years ago, my son in his pre-school ignorance was walking a trail in the redwoods of California with his grandfather when they came upon a banana slug, bright yellow, slimy and directly in their path. “What is THAT?” he asked. “A banana slug,” replied Grandpa George. “How do you kill it?” was the next thing out of my son’s mouth. That little exchange was later reported to me by my father and has haunted me since the telling.
We are all ignorant of the full worth of Nature. Let us be careful to tread lightly and reverently.
Weekly Photo Challenge: (Extra)ordinary
A beautiful everyday thing, for most people. Walking. Feet to the earth. And in the USA, most of us wear shoes. That, in itself, would be extraordinary for many inhabitants on the planet. It was extraordinary in this country 200 years ago. You walked to church barefoot, and put your shoes on when you got there, keeping them seldom worn so that you could pass them on to your younger siblings. When you had to go out in the chicken yard, you wore wooden shoes.
What do your everyday shoes look like? What do they say about you?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Happy Place on the Prairie
“Where do you go when you need to think? What do you do when you need to restore yourself, to ready yourself to take on the coming week with energy and verve? How do you get your sense of humor back? How do you recharge your groove?”
Ah, WordPress. If you only knew.
For twenty years, I was living in a northwest suburb of Chicago, raising 4 children, and partnering my terminally ill husband. Needless to say, I needed a “Happy Place” to go to…frequently, slowly, meditatively. Luckily, there was a prairie preserve just one block away. That became my spiritual sanctuary and furthered my relationship with the Earth beyond my childhood infatuation to a more mature and deep passion. In this place, I breathed, I prayed, I cried, and I began to write poetry in alarming profusion. And when my husband died, I came here to grieve.
I sold my home in Illinois and moved north to Wisconsin almost 5 years ago. I now work for a conservation foundation that has several natural prairie restoration projects in various stages of development. I find myself in Happy Places frequently, looking more closely at the community of life that reminds me on ever-deepening levels that I am alive, that all is well, and that happiness is always at hand.
Happy Place
Weekly Photo Challenge: Boundaries and the Unbound
My partner Steve and I have often discussed the usefulness and the detrimental nature of boundaries. To be safe is often important for growth…until it’s not. Steve’s ultimate objective is to grow beyond boundaries and explore the Oneness of reality. After all, boundaries are a concept that we can erect and dismantle at will. Where is your will? Do you elect to put up boundaries or break them down?
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Stick to the rails or take to the sky?
Do you go through life humming “Don’t Fence Me In”? I feel that’s the position I take more and more.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Change is Constant
“What does change look like to you?” It is the reality of life’s dynamic dance.
It is the touchstone of humility that reminds us that “perception is deception”.
It is the freedom to choose, to grow, to adapt.
It’s a challenge to strive in the Present…
…and to be at peace with the Present at the same time.
scillagrace 