Are we given dusk to see what
would be lost in brilliant sunlight? Do the smudgy, darker days of our lives
sometimes have a greater clarity than those full of sun? Or, is it that the gloaming
slows us for night? Night followed by
dawn. And, then it all repeats in a slightly different variation. Life, I
guess. (However,
I did get a chance to use “gloaming”…which was the word that came to me
when I took the picture.)
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
a second butterfly moment
Several years ago, on a warm
summer day a magnificent painted lady butterfly landed on my arm. It was one of
the most amazing moments of interaction with nature that I have ever
experienced. We, the butterfly and me, stood silently interacting for long moments
and then the painted lady moved on. This morning, sitting in my garden enjoying
the soft fog-littered breeze, a Monarch landed on my arm and seemed to be
observing me. It then moved to a flower, its more normal site. The photo is
terribly out of focus, but so glad to have it. The poem is from the previous
encounter.
When a painted lady touched my arm
Vanessa Cardui. Hina,
messenger of truth.
Wings in symmetrical
mandala:
symbol and man in a gyred
dance.
You migrate from a
somewhere:
on a code,
a portent, a command?
Unsure passing:
as real as death, certain
as life—
signaling the intricate
contingencies of love.
Oh, butterfly. Be not the
trickster.
Be the painted lady who touched my arm.
Be the painted lady who touched my arm.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
like the belt
Yesterday, I started to put
my belt into my newly-washed Levi’s. As I have for my entire life, I threaded
the belt into the first loop on the left side of the jeans. Suddenly, I
realized that the belt, and probably dozens of belts before this one, could just
as easily have been threaded through the right side. It simply had never occurred
to me that there was a choice. It started a cascade of thinking about choices
that are never made in life. Something seems to work and I go with it without
even realizing there are options. I know the belt issue is silly, but how I
view other important aspects of life, faith, history, politics and relationships
are often like the belt.---un-examined and not questioned.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
imported beauty
The beauty of nature in its
myriad forms fascinates me. Yet, I wonder at what point do we look to the
exotic, the imported and the unusual, but miss what nature provides at our
doorstep. This glorious peony was at the sidewalk display of my local flower vendor.
And, it had a tag “imported from Oregon ”.
Peonies were magical expressions of the fullness of spring when I was growing
up in Colorado .
My grandmothers and my maternal grandfather were exceptional gardeners and were
tremendously proud of their spring gardens: peonies, iris and lilacs. But, it
does not get cold enough here in the Bay Area for some of these to thrive. So,
we import them. I love them and love the memories. Yet, I wonder if we sometimes
miss what our generous climate gives us when we “import” beauty.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
summer in the city
It was just a normal, crazy summer Sunday in
On the light rail coming
home within hearing distance of where I sat you could determine 5 languages….Spanish,
Vietnamese, French, German and another lilting Slavic that I did not recognize.
Not one word of English. I simply loved every minute! What a day.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
life's mysteries
So many things seem to be
mysterious in my life. Why things happen, how events unfold and how the lives
around me progress….all have elements that are simply unknown to me. It doesn’t
mean they are unknowable, I feel. Yet, there is an element of incomprehension.
Does it mean paying more attention? Or, is it best to redirect attention to
what is knowable. I can balance out the priorities and, yet, there is that
challenge that I think sometimes drives me forward. Or, do I really know
anything as absolutely certain?
How about seeing the
ordinary in a way that makes it kind of unknowable at first sight? It was fun to take
the most mundane objects and try to photograph them as unknown or unknowable.
The photo is of my spoon after eating cereal for breakfast....the sun is shining from across the room.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
common ancestry
Each year the Carnaval
parade wends its way through the Mission District for several hours on the last
Sunday in May. Other than the joy of the participants and
spectators, the awareness that I take away each is year is the devotion to heritage. This amazing
“warrior” had already walked more than a mile barefoot in the ceremonial
dress of his people. My heritage is less colorful, but our common ancestry crosses all cultures and I am glad to be reminded….and
included.
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