My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Well, I ordered a new Macbook to replace my 7 year old one. I received an email this morning saying it is out for delivery today. I am going to back up and transfer the data myself so if I’m silent for a couple of days it’s cuz I’ve probably encountered a pilot error (Maybe two).
Yesterday afternoon we had a monsoon rain and pea sized hail. After everything settled down, the air smelled wonderful. I then made a trip to the CSU Flower Trial Garden and may have fallen in love with a new flower. Please enlarge this image to check out the tiny hair follicles and this plant’s beautiful color. Cashmere sage is a perennial flower grown for its clusters of flowers. These showy lavender-pink blossoms are arranged in tight whorls on slender stems, and appear in summer over soft green, broad leaves. Google says the tiny hairs can deter insects and other animals from eating the leaves by making the plant less appealing or hindering their movement. The fuzzy texture created by the trichomes can help shade the leaves and reduce water loss from the plant’s surface. In some cases, the hairs can help absorb and retain moisture from the air, especially in dry environments. Who would have known? I’ve learned something new!
When we make a place for silence, we make room for ourselves. By making room for silence, we resist the forces of the world which tell us to live an advertised life of surface appearances, instead of a discovered life — a life lived in contact with our senses, our feelings, our deepest thoughts and values.
Gunilla Norris
gentle morning mist
mws
nature offering her gifts
droplets for new life
Overcast skies, a constant mist and the coolness of humidity have been with us now for three days. I’ll take it and enjoy it just as the petunias are.
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
Buddha
Gratitude is founded on the deep knowing that our very existence relies on the gifts of other beings.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Latest news this morning shows the Alexander Mountain FIre to be held at 9,668 acres and is 74% contained. The Stone Canyon Fire is 100% contained. Grateful the skies are returning to their blue color! I found this bee enjoying their time on a sunflower the other afternoon at the CSU Experiment Garden. I really need to thank them more often for being the gift they are and not just as a photographer’s subject.
The way to think about photography is that the next frame you shoot will be the definitive one. Everybody takes one picture and says, ‘Well, I’ve got it.’ Take another one, and always believe that the one you haven’t taken will be even better.
John Shaw
I wandered lonely as a cloud
William Wordsworth (1802)
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
I am not sure how many days I commuted to and from work but I am grateful I no longer commute to work. However, this morning on my walk/bus ride to the coffee shop I was aware I still commute, yet it does not seem like a commute. While commuting to work, my mind was already at work, figuring, planning, scheduling, arguing, and already building resentments. This meant I was not mentally present for the commute. Wonder how many gifts nature was offering me and I missed them?
So I’m going to share with you a bit of my commute to coffee this morning. (Sorry if it bores you.) We had a cloudless blue sky. Apple blossoms reminding me it’s spring. A squirrel watching my every move. A cottontail checking out their reflection in the car. Early morning shadows. Spring flowers and new leaves on campus. Heard the cooing of a morning dove and the cry of a hawk. And then when I arrived at Mugs my barista, Emma, offered her wonderful smile and made me a mocha. Yes, I still commute but it’s different. I have an open slate on my calendar, so I plan to do a bit of reading and writing, in the sun. Enjoy your Friday.
Listening is always a life giving act.
Joan Chittister
I’ve learned that when positioning my next words in a conversation I am no longer listening. I’ve proven that too many times. I’ve also seen in the eyes of another when they are no longer listening. I have also experienced the gift of fully listening to another as well as knowing the gift of being listened to. Seems that those life giving conversations happen when both are experienced by both. My reflection and journaling on her quote have lead me to see other areas in my life where listening is important such as prayer, or when an author or poet expresses in words what I needed to hear, or a bird’s song of joy, or the whisper/howling of the wind, or the words written in the pages of my journal or the knowing voice deep within. I agree that every moment of listening is a life-giving act for both parties. Hope you enjoy your Sunday!