“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.”
~ Mary Oliver
quotations
Can I get an amen?
I am a glutton for tranquility.
~ Wole Soyinka
Art and science
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.
~ Albert Einstein
Otherwise you’re just a lizard
You’ve got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you’re just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.
~ Ken Kesey
No disrespect to Kesey’s sun-worshipping philosophy, but I think lizards have pretty much mastered the art of basking in the sun.
A direct reflection
I believe carrying a camera helps me see what I might otherwise overlook. Yesterday I spotted a mighty oak tree, blue sky, and clouds reflected in a puddle and now I can’t stop looking at this photo.
The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within us.
~ Gabrielle Bernstein
Watching you watching me
The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
I took this photo over two months ago and still feel such a connection to the osprey who patiently endured my presence as I snapped multiple photos and then came back to shoot some more. But the tilt of its head tells me the osprey wasn’t merely the observed, but was also an observer.
However, it’d probably be a stretch to say we formed a mutual admiration society.
This hell beats the alternative hell
Today as I do research for the work-for-hire book assignment I’ve accepted, I’m trying to keep this quote in mind:
Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay
Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit.
~ Rafael Sabatini
I hope ol’ Rafael was right, because I’m currently experiencing some hefty regret over taking this assignment. There’s a slight comfort in thinking the alternative may have resulted in an even worse hell.
Patio snow sculptures
Photo taken March 27, 2018
Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality. ~ Andy Goldsworthy
Wading through the revision muck
When you’re in the muck you can only see muck.
If you somehow manage to float above it,
you still see the muck but you see it from a different perspective.
~ David Cronenberg
Today as I work to revise my contemporary young adult novel that’s been in my life for what seems like FOREVER, I send prayers that the goddesses will grant me a different perspective on these pages and pages of muck. While an ibis thrives on muck, this writer does not. I’m ready for wings to help me float above it all and see this manuscript differently.
Butterfly secrets?
Camouflage is a game we all like to play, but our secrets are as surely revealed by what we want to seem to be as by what we want to conceal. ~ Russell Lynes
Today I imagine the poppies in my future
The February sunshine steeps your boughs
and tints the buds
and swells the leaves within.
~ William Cullen Bryant
#Caturday with Marcel
Marcel on Halloween 2015
I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. ~Unknown
Will we betray nature?
Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.
~ William Wordsworth
I just called my Democratic Senator and Representative in Washington, D.C. to tell their staffers I absolutely support Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey’s twin resolutions for a #GreenNewDeal. Neither staffer could tell me how my so-called representatives felt about this bold plan for stabilizing the climate via jobs and economic/social/environmental justice. We’re headed for a fiery, hot crash and many of the people in power don’t seem to care. I’m exhausted by their willful ignorance, but at the same time I believe we-the-people can and must rise up to protect our natural home. We cannot betray her.
I hope you’ll join me in fighting for the planet. Please call your Representatives and Senators today to urge them to support the Resolution for a Green New Deal.
House (Finch) party!
It’s 21 degrees right now and I’m happy to be inside where it’s warm and dry. Meanwhile, these House Finches are busy outside my window with the task of staying alive, somehow almost making it look like fun.
Party on, Garth.
Focusing on the light
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
~ Aristotle
My January lifeboat
This afternoon I sat in the chair I’d situated just-so in a patch of sunshine and remained there until the sun dropped below the foothills. January is always a struggle for me and in anticipation of posting something here, I went to brainyquotes.com in search of a quote about the excruciating difficulty that is January. Instead, I found this:
I like starting projects in January.
That’s the best time to start something.
It’s so inward.
~ Carolyn Chute
That quotation feels right for today because as I struggled emotionally earlier this 
afternoon, I kept returning to the two opening sentences I’d jotted in my ideas notebook. There’s a story in those two sentences, I’m sure of it, and my mind keeps going back to them in an attempt to figure out what that story might be. Those two sentences are like a lifeboat to me now and I’m grabbing on tight.
Who knows? This cold and dark January might kickstart something truly wonderful.
The Joy of Looking
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.
~ Albert Einstein
Perfection of the whole
Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Martin Luther King Jr.’s roadmap for humanity
We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (excerpt from his “Beyond Vietnam” address on April 4th, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis)
Saturday Funny
I unearthed this document while cleaning out a drawer. I’m the “T” and Wildebeest is the “F” in this exchange from his elementary school years. (In case you can’t read my scrawl):
T: For someone who didn’t want to go to the Lakewood Heritage Center, it sounds like you had a swell time.
F: (nodding vigorously) I got cheered up after the front of the bus caught fire.
Hello, Dolly!
Strolling Kapok Park right before sundown, looking for birds, when I happened upon this.
I’m rarely creeped out by most dolls, either in real life or in literature, but I know many people who are. ~ Ellen Datlow
Not fragile
True delicacy is not a fragile thing.
~ James Broughton
This geranium isn’t fragile and neither am I. Sometimes I need a reminder.
#Caturday: the flexible Marcel edition
You’ve got to be flexible. If you want to win, you have to do whatever it takes.
~ Miguel Cabrera
And here’s the photographic proof . . .Marcel’s flexibility won him a cozy nap in the sunshine.
Must haves
Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
~ Hans Christian Andersen
Today I’m grateful to have two out of three plus the knowledge that the vinca will bloom again in the spring.
Year-end image + plea for monthly donation to Sunrise Movement
In this part of the world, we’re in the final hours of 2018 which has been a shit-year in so many ways for the planet and its inhabitants. I don’t have any profound insights to offer. I would, however, like to share this photo I just took from my dining room window.
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
It’s not a great picture, but it makes me happy. There’s much going on here (falling snow, flight, eating, turf battles, perching, etc) and I wanted to include this image because birds never, ever fail to brighten my day. I’m hoping they’ll do the same for you. Either way, it feels right to include feathered friends as I say goodbye to a difficult year.
The one other consistently bright spot for me this year has been the Sunrise Movement. No one is fighting harder and more effectively in the face of climate change than these young people with their action plan, aka the Green New Deal, that includes massive job creation. PLEASE consider pledging a monthly donation (mine is $5 per month) to this incredible organization that’s given me more hope than I thought possible.
I wish you and yours a Happy New Year! Here’s to continuing the good fight in 2019!
