quotes

Tulip therapy

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

The tulips have been glorious this spring and I just returned from a walk around the neighborhood where many, many cheery clumps of tulips bobbed their heads in the light breeze.

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine to the soul.”  ~ Luther Burbank

Next door neighbors’ passionate pink tulips.

While the neighbors’ tulips are still in full glory, some of mine are already on their way out. But there’s no hiding a tulip’s grandeur, even in those final days.

I mean, I can only hope to look this vivid and interesting on my deathbed. (Maybe I can do without the spider, though.)

Tulips, I salute you.

Twofer Tuesday: stillness

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance. ~ Morgan Freeman

 

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you. ~ Deepak Chopra

Out my window. July 30, 2021

Can’t blame her

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

I haven’t been outside at all today because of the wind. We received the tiniest bit of rain/snow last night, but today is dry, dry, dry and windy, windy, windy. Not a good combination. So, this image and the following quote feel appropriate.

It seems to me like Mother Nature’s mercy and forgiveness have run dry, as we ceaselessly abuse her and take her for granted in order for us to continue our addiction to using fossil fuels. I’ve gotta say, I don’t blame her. Not one bit.
~ Gloria Reuben

Standing at the edge

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there’s got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you’re at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

Okay, mourning dove.
It’s just you and me.
One . . . two . . .  three . . . JUMP!

Dust in the wind

/ Tracy Abell / 1 Comment

The wind is BLOWING right now. (Per my phone, weather is currently: “62 degrees and blowing widespread dust.”) It’s warm and very dry here in Colorado and one wildfire’s already burning in Park County. My wildfire anxiety is HIGH. Emma’s pressed up against my feet right now because the house shakes and the roof creaks with each particularly strong gust of wind. Making matters worse, tomorrow’s supposed to be even windier than today. Ugh.

I’m going to abort my writing plans and instead play loud music to drown out the nightmare outside while I create some art. Before I go, here’s a tree I photographed yesterday when we hiked at Castlewood Canyon State Park (where the wind had already started). We still had a lovely time.

I went searching for a wind-related quote and found this which feels like a good antidote to my current windy reality and a good match for this photo.  Enjoy.

We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part of the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots.
 ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Climate Movement Monday: MLK and environmental justice

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which makes this Movement Monday post a no-brainer. Of course I must cite MLK who led the call for environmental justice. I can’t find the particulars surrounding this quote, but his words are powerful and still true today:

“Together we are approaching environmental justice just as what it is: It is a civil rights issue. By examining environmental requirements in conjunction with our civil rights laws, I am confident that we can do a better job of assuring fairness and advancing justice.”

By Trikosko, Marion S.

MLK recognized that people living in racially divided communities are exposed to higher rates of pollution and environmental hazards. These are frontline communities, typically BIPOC and poor people. For instance, the people of St. James Parish in Louisiana who are surrounded by petrochemical plants but scored a major victory when courts ruled against Formosa Plastics building a new plant. The people organized and fought for environmental justice.

In September, I highlighted the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, a predominantly Black community.  Guess what? Their water troubles continue. The people of Jackson are suffering their third water crisis in two years, this time due to pipes freezing and bursting.  They had no running water for Christmas. Last year, the EPA determined the Jackson water system has been in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

As a white woman of privilege, I can’t fathom having to boil water before using it for cooking and bathing. I can’t imagine not having access to bottled water and, instead, using buckets to catch rainfall. As an elderly man quoted in that linked article said, “This is no way to live.”

In 1963, MLK led a civil rights march in Jackson following the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.  In honor of MLK’s leadership and the people of Jackson who continue to suffer justice, both civil and environmental, I invite you to check out mutual aid organization Cooperation Jackson and make a donation.

Solidarity! ✊🏽

The face of a dog

/ Tracy Abell / 11 Comments

I’m tiptoeing into a new project. And because I haven’t added anything to the draft in two days, I’m experiencing that panicked sensation of “what if the words don’t come today?”

What if I fail? What if today’s the day I’m exposed as the imposter I am?

Well, those feelings are exactly why I must get to work in order to disrupt that fear and show it to the door. To quote (in translation) Gabriel García Márquez:

“Necessity has the face of a dog.”

I must do what needs to be done. But, don’t worry, Emma. I’m fairly confident neither of us will be harmed during the writing of those words.

Mourning Dove at rest

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost upon either the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread. ~ John Burroughs

Don’t forget the joy

/ Tracy Abell

Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor. ~ Paul Hawken

Raven. March 13, 2022

Magic is welcome here

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Poppy’s world is a magical place, and it’s the most free part of the entire universe.
 ~ Poppy

June 19, 2022

Confession: I didn’t know there was a singer-songwriter-YouTube-personality named Poppy, but when I went in search of a poppy-related quotation and happened upon their above quote, found myself in complete agreement.

A poppy is most definitely a magical place. How else to explain these other-wordly images of my neighbors’ front yard poppy-crop?

Gratitude to these trippy flowers for helping me find joy and wonder during these very difficult days. Magic is always welcome here.

Listening to the trees

/ Tracy Abell / 1 Comment

April 20, 2022

I like to take the time out to listen to the trees,
much in the same way that I listen to a sea shell,
holding my ear against the rough bark of the trunk,
hearing the inner singing of the sap.
It’s a lovely sound, the beating of the heart of the tree. ~ Madeleine L’Engle

Twofer Tuesday: prairie dog wisdom

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.        ~ William S. Burroughs

South Boulder Creek Trail. March 1, 2022

Now I know the things I know, and do the things I do;
and if you do not like me so, to hell, my love, with you.
~ Dorothy Parker

Twofer Tuesday

/ Tracy Abell

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

October 9, 2021

As documented earlier, Marcel and Loki “cooperated” with Zippy for a very good cause in that photo session and no felines were injured in the making of this photo.

Few clever enough

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Photo by Zippy. November 22, 2021

Unfortunately, that also goes for many women. I don’t see crows mucking up things and then gaslighting everyone into thinking stuff’s just dandy. That’s purely the province of rich and powerful men/women.

Wrinkles and torn wings

/ Tracy Abell

As much as I loathe this aging thing, I’m beginning to recognize that I am now a healthier person in terms of self-worth and knowing who I am and where I fit in the world. That’s been a good trade-off for the wrinkles. ~ Patty Duke

June 24, 2021

Life does have a way of leaving its mark upon the body. But hey, it’s good to know we can still fly, torn wings or not.

Autumnal state of mind

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Dark-eyed Junco. November 12, 2021

Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson