My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”
Barack Obama
This is looking out my windshield when I pulled up to the coffee shop this morning. I was surprised to see a half dozen people riding bicycles on my way to the coffee shop. They are hardier souls than me! We awoke to overcast skies and this gentle but steady rain, which is nurturing both nature and our souls. I hope they are correct when they say it may rain like this all day. As a beautiful metaphor, I would like to suggest that each raindrop is a symbol of each of us, which in union with other raindrops gives much hope for positive change and nurturing which our world desperately needs. Yes, let’s believe it is possible for us to be the change our world needs and live it!
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao Tzu
Early Sunday morning we had a nice .25 inch of rain. Around 2:31 am the rain began beating on my window and waking me from much needed beauty sleep. It was cool and damp when I headed out the door for my ride to Mugs. Everything was wet. When sunlight touched any of the dewdrops there was a sparkle. Just outside the coffee shop I noticed the dewdrops clinging to leaves and sparkling. For the fun of it I used the WordPress AI for the first time to add enhancement and using their Anime theme. I hope everyone had a good Mother’s Day. And please spread some Kindness!
Violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering.
Parker J. Palmer
My sister Sheree and I arrived home about 1:15 pm yesterday afternoon. We left Phoenix on Tuesday morning, stayed the night in Raton, New Mexico then finished the trip yesterday. It was a good day of travel. We had a near miss with a deer just outside of Raton, New Mexico yesterday morning and then one driver almost swerved into us somewhere in Denver a few hours later. Seems road construction was/is everywhere! Both of us were tired by the time we got home. My sisters keep different hours than I do, staying up later but on this trip I did also. So I was even more tired. I emptied the car, unpacked everything and then sat for some meditation and quiet. I slept in this morning. In spite of the fatigue, I had a wonderful time with my family.
It’s been a cloudy and cool with a 40% possibility for rain. Because of the possibility for rain I drove to coffee this morning. At the present time the possibility of rain has been about 23 1/2 drops of rain. Well, maybe 25. Guess I need to dance faster. The gray skies offered a day to relax, journal, and read. I have also been going through some of the things belonging to mom and dad that we brought back. I have already discovered some jewels and shed a few tears. All good stuff! I still pray for the end of violence!
once a snowflake fell on my brow and i loved it so much and i kissed it and it was happy and called its cousins and brothers and a web of snow engulfed me then i reached to love them all and i squeezed them and they became a spring rain and i stood perfectly still and was a flower
Winter Poem by Nikki Giovanni
We have clear blue skies and sunshine this morning. I awoke at about 4:46 am and said ugh, I don’t wanna get up! And, I didn’t. Slept in till 5:45 am. I loved this simple poem and wanted to share it with you. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
It has been overcast this morning and possible rain later today. May do a little rain dance shortly in case it can help. I am meeting a few high school classmates for our monthly luncheon today. I really do enjoy these small gatherings. Have a great day!
Warm morning light and shadows in my bedroom
Frequently people in power are not as strong as they might wish to appear. Many people who desperately hunger for power are weak. They seek power positions to compensate for their own fragility and vulnerability. A weak person in power can never be generous with power because they see questions or alternative possibilities as threatening their own supremacy and dominance.
Cottonwood leavesCattails and reflectionsClouds over Big Bass Pond
The healing of our present woundedness may lie in recognizing and reclaiming the capacity we all have to heal each other, the enormous power in the simplest of human relationships: the strength of a touch, a blessing of forgiveness, the grace of someone else taking you just as you are and finding in you an unsuspected goodness.
Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom
I sit on a rock bench looking out across Big Bass Pond at Arapaho Bend Natural Area. It’s about 1:57 pm. I feel the warmth of the 77 degree temperature but accepting the grace of relief provided by the cloudy skies. I notice the small world of life all around me that I so often overlook. Bees, butterflies, and beetles feasting on the nectar of the rabbitbrush. Ants, spiders, grasshoppers and unnamable bugs scurry or jump around me. Cottonwood leaves become intricate works of art as the autumn equinox arrives. And the cattails showing the golden tips of their swords. I am grateful to slow down and experience the healing given by being present to this world. It is a gift that has much to teach me. Now a rumble of thunder gives notice for me to move on. By the time I reach the car, raindrops have begun to fall. (Entry from my journal.) So here are three images from the afternoon.
This morning a steady, gentle rain falls. It began just after I got up, around 4:30 am. My weather app predicts it will continue until mid afternoon. I have my front door open so I can hear and take in the fragrance of this refreshing rain. It’s a good day to journal, read and work on this blogs transformation. Thanks for being here and have a great day!
Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity, and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between the two. Hence, positive silence implies a choice, and what Paul Tillich called the “courage to be.”
Thomas Merton
After my meditation and quiet I ventured up to Pineridge Natural Area to spend time in the silence I find in this sanctuary. Baby cottontails greeted me as I arrived. Rabbitbrush and sunflowers danced with the light wind. No words in this silence but so much is said and heard. To me this is positive silence. As I stood there and watched the sun break through the clouds a light rain began to fall. The light rain was refreshing with both its feel and fragrance. May you have a wonderful Sunday and the “courage to be.“
Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.
Ansel Adams
I clicked the shutter on this image this afternoon after the rain storms had moved on. It looks like sunshine the next four days then more rain. The rain we have had over the past 4 days has sure made things green and after today, my car is a muddy mess. And, I just love this quote! Hope you had a good Friday!
I was awakened during the night by rain gushing down the rain gutter outside my window. It sounded like a river but we only received about a quarter of an inch. This morning it is still overcast, looks threatening, and more rain is possible. The high today is only expected to reach 56 degrees so about 20 degrees cooler today. Tomorrow is expected to be the same so I have makings for cream of chicken noodle soup for the crockpot in the morning. It does not feel like June which made my Old Town Mocha seem like just the right medicine I needed. Thank you Dean!!
On Monday I photographed these two goslings that seem to be orphaned. They are following a group of 10-15 mature Canada Geese but not seem connected to any one or two of them. I’ve even watched as some will move away when the little ones get too close as if they want nothing to do with them, even snapping at them. Makes me wonder if they were being chased by a raccoon if any of them would try to defend the goslings. I titled this post cute and fuzzy but even at this age they are a pooping machine! As my dad would say, “In one end and out the other.”
Sadly, as of yesterday I only saw one of them and this morning no sign of either of them. The way of Nature is not always my way. I leave shortly to have lunch with my oldest daughter and then meet Duane at 1:45 pm. More rain predicted this afternoon.
