… a coin at the bottom of a suitcase, and with it, memories of a lovely trip to Japan. I tossed the coin on a tabletop and that’s where the sun touched it.
Posts Tagged ‘musings’
Found …
Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged colors, currency, Inspiration, Japan, musings, Photography, travel on May 6, 2012| 3 Comments »
light/dark in old words
Posted in Inspiration, tagged Contributing Writer, friends, Inspiration, journal, life, light, musings, personal, Photography, poetry on April 26, 2012| 2 Comments »
In an old journal, I found the following words. Perhaps one day I will polish them, but even a bit rough, I feel inclined to share them, paired with some new images. I suppose I should be sharing a poem, given that it’s Put a Poem in Your Pocket Day, but perhaps there is poetry embedded in these words and images.
Journal Entry: Several friends think that I never go to the dark places. That I always see the light in the world. The glass is always at least half-full. Lemons can always be turned into tasty lemonade. There is no dark so dense where some bit of brightness cannot be found. At such accusations, I usually say nothing or I perhaps point out the beauty of fallen petals upon the ground. I do not to say with indignation, you are wrong because I do go to the dark places. Don’t we all? I do not say, I have seen the dark clouds descend from once-bright skies and settle over once-clear roads. Haven’t we all? But, for me, you know what always happens … even upon the darkened road … eventually? Winds come and blow the clouds away. If there is a lingering dark fog, the sun rises and burns it to a cooling mist, refreshing upon the skin. When I’m in the darkest place, pitch black, I don’t always see the light but I know it’s there somewhere. It has to be. I can feel it even if I cannot see it. Don’t the blind feel the sun on their faces?
Maybe that’s why I write, why I photograph. To show that no matter how dark, light penetrates and reveals certain glories. In the contrasts, the shadows created, the silhouettes that emerge, unique beauty is revealed. That is what I want to convey, in whatever medium feels right in the moment. The simple beauty in this life.
I do not want to ignore the dark, or the fears that spring to life though I may not always share such fears with friends. I will walk the dark roads until the sun rises. I will carry a flashlight or a lit candle and if these items should fail then I will take a deep breath and raise my eyes to the sky and focus on the tiny beacons of the stars. And who knows, I might even see a sliver of moon. All I know is I may walk in the dark – we all do at some point in our lives — but I will not stay there. I will not.
through the looking glass(es)
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged home, Inspiration, landscape, light, musings, nature, Photography, spring, trees, windows on April 17, 2012| 4 Comments »
Today I was a bit housebound with various projects. Still, the sunlit landscape called to me on many an occasion. As I have written before I am lucky to live in an old house well-kept in its old style with many windows of ancient rippled glass on all sides, some of which are double and even triple paned. It is both exhilarating and calming to move from pane to pane, over time, and try to capture an ever-shifting beauty from sunrise to sunset.
Dead Tree, Beautiful
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, tagged blues, Branches, Inspiration, musings, nature, Photography, trees on April 15, 2012| 3 Comments »
One day, the landlord will have to cut down this tree before a strong wind blows it down on top of the house, a car or a person. Branches have already begun to break loose and litter the ground. But for now it stands tall, if a bit rickety, creating great beauty in its silhouette. I took this photo through the sheer cotton curtains covering the kitchen window.
Beauty in the Darkness
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, herbs, Inspiration, light, musings, nature, Photography, shadows on April 4, 2012| 1 Comment »
Ever have a period in your life when you’re feeling just a bit out of your routine, or as my fellow likes to say, “discombobulated?” Well, I’m certainly feeling that way at the moment. Not sure if it is cosmic in origin (there’s a lot of cool astronomical stuff happening right now) or if it’s regular life stuff (lot of different projects coming due). To give myself a break over past day or so, I’ve wandered with my camera outside and around the house. I have found myself drawn to the concrete, like the above dark pansy growing in what has become a local restaurant’s outdoor ashtray, and to the more nebulous and ethereal like these shadowy branches of a dead tree dancing on a wall in my apartment.
Yesterday, I found myself in the kitchen mesmerized by herbs in silhouette like this dill against a clay saucer and rosemary in relief upon the table.
There was the lovely coil of copper surrounding a single strand of thyme …
… and three shells collected I can’t remember where, but now sitting in the hallway amidst all sorts of plants.
Part of me would love to sit with these images and see what writing they inspire. Perhaps later. Right now, I must rise from this chair, and get ready for a gig. There I will do my best to stay disciplined and quite focused, and not lose myself in the shadows and other dark beauty revealed by the spring light.
White Tulips
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, Inspiration, musings, nature, Photography, tulips, white on April 2, 2012| 5 Comments »
I splurged on a bouquet of white tulips this weekend. An indulgence in simple beauty. I gently placed them in a vase and you know what? They immediately drooped.
But you know what else? It didn’t matter.
Their simple beauty remains.
Rainbow Passages
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged art, culture, Inspiration, musings, Photography, rainbows, religion, science on February 29, 2012| 2 Comments »
The man with whom I am involved I tend to describe as a science guy who works with light. He says that’s not quite accurate but it works for me. Since the beginning of our relationship we have shared many an illuminated experience that we have described quite differently. There was the infamous halo around the moon. I will forever describe sunlight on water as “dancing” but now I also see the resulting light-filled ripples as “caustic.” Most recently we have talked of rainbows.
I see rainbows all around on earth. I am amazed at the places I find them like on the back of this silver tray left forgotten in a corner closet. Or the rainbows formed on the surface of CDs left out of their case on a table near a sunny window.
I see them less often in the sky mostly because I usually have my head ducked down in the rain. And that is the source of rainbows in the sky, my science guy reminded me at the dinner table recently, rainbows are formed by sunlight striking raindrops in the air. White light is divided into all its splendid colors. I listened attentively as he described how the water drops act as prisms, how light is refracted not reflected, and so on and so forth. It was like a cool Cliff Notes version of The Science of Rainbows 101.
As the lecture wrapped, I stood up, my mind swimming with the science of it all. Suddenly my guy added, “Of course, my dear, you do realize that there were no rainbows before Noah and his ark.” He smiled gently. “Or so that story goes.” With an exaggerated sigh, I sat back down. “Remind me of that story please.” You see, my science guy’s bookshelves are not only filled with the science writings of Feynman and Einstein, they are also filled with the religious writing of Chesterton, Crossan and even a little Thicht Nhact Hanh. It is amazing to walk in this world with this fellow (and with others) and to have my eyes and mind and even on occasion my heart opened to the different ways of experiencing the world, even something so seemingly simple as a rainbow.
Bits of Color in the World
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, beauty, colors, Inspiration, light, musings, Photography on February 28, 2012| 3 Comments »
I almost feel like there’s a story in this image, of the sun shining through flowers, like a red orb rising.
New Tulips in the House
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged color, flowers, Inspiration, musings, nature, Photography, pink, tulips, white on February 16, 2012| 4 Comments »
Four days ago, when I entered the flower shop, one goal was to find white tulips to photograph. I finally selected a bouquet that looked mostly white with just a few petals here and there laced with pink. I figured that was okay.
But as the tulips sat in the kitchen window bathed in sunlight, more and more pink appeared across all of the flowery surfaces.
At first I was a bit chagrined. You see, my last experience with pink tulips had been fun but I really had been trying to photograph something different. Luckily, one of my mottoes in this life is “go with the flow.” 😉
Today, I noticed that the tulips had more fully opened revealing once more that interior beauty.
I really don’t have a flower budget, so I am not sure how many more bouquets of non-pink tulips I will try to buy. But I’ll ponder that challenge later. Right now, I’ll just enjoy the tulips that are present.
Light Thoughts on a Sunday Morning
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged blue, butterfly, colors, light, musings, Photography, photos, pictures, stars on December 11, 2011| 1 Comment »
Imagine if Van Gogh had experienced light pollution comparable to what is experienced in many urban cities today. Most likely, he would never have painted Starry Starry Night. Mention “Milky Way” to a teenager living in New York City or Los Angeles. Given the young people I’ve spoken with, they know the candy bar and they remember the term from science class. But they really have had no experience of looking up into black velvet night and seeing the milky sweep of the galaxy that is ours. So many of us write about inspiration, but what source of inspiration has been lost as we have, often by necessity, dimmed the heavenly lights so that we may brighten the light upon land?
Words + Images 