In This Moment

A friend of mine who is Costa Rican has always used the phrase "in this moment" when referring to "right now" in conversation and I have always loved to hear her say it. Something about those words put together evoked a great feeling about the current event we were discussing. It's hard to describe but I think that "in this moment" made the present seem more precious and valuable. I don't know - maybe it's just me but that was the feeling I had with those words said as she did.




Today I thought about that and other word constructions that have touched me and generated emotion over the years and I thought I'd take some time and look some of them up and share. They may just be a few words strung together in a sentence but somehow I responded to them with my heart.  Enjoy!

"...And I have heard my grandmother speak of her first ball when she was seventeen. And they were all, when their souls grew warm, poets". Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

"Who knows how easily ambition disguises itself under the name of a calling, possibly in good faith and deceiving itself, in sanctimonious confusion".  Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

"...in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near..." ee. cummings, somewhere it have never traveled,gladly beyond

"... encouraged me in their writing, I wish to express particular gratitude". Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings

"All night, this soft rain from the distant past. No wonder I sometimes waken as a child". Ted Kooser, Delights & Shadows

"And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared". John Steinbeck, The Pearl

"And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage". David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Wish You Were Here

And my favorite phrase, all of it!  "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" - Habakkuk 2:14

Vanity Fair?

Miss Conflicted courtesy of Vogue

My trip to Barnes and Nobles after church was a pilgrimage of sorts, a quest for a Vanity Fair magazine. I settled for a Vogue.

For some days now I have had this mental cement mixer churning around and around regarding expectations and in particular expectations of and about women. How we think of ourselves, and why. How we act, and what thinking style predicates action. I know, I know - why think about this stuff at all? I don't know! Can't seem to help myself, then the thought gets stuck in my head. Seems that the only way to exercise myself of it is to go ahead and explore the subject, write it down, and then be somewhat done with it that way. Obviously I am interested in this subject personally at present, but maybe someone out there will get something out of this post too.

My little creation to the left is the result of my taking scissors to the Vogue and combining bits of women throughout the pages. Miss Conflicted (that's her name) - she doesn't know really how to look or who to be so she is a little bit of a lot of people. The final result though is somewhat odd, don't you think? I discovered while going through the Vogue magazine is that I did not see one photograph of the women I know and hang with. What's with that? I guess I hang with the wrong crowd...I think not.

I have six sisters and I love each of them and I did not see any of them in the pages of that magazine. My friends don't look like that. My Mom didn't. My sweet nieces are beautiful, but I did not see them in those pages either. That teacher at school that took some extra time with me wasn't there. Neither was the doctor I see in there. I did not see Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Sally Ride, Margaret Thatcher, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt or Condoleezza Rice.

And so that leaves me to wonder why these magazines and movie stars and such are so popular and if this culture we are living in is actively detrimental to the psyches of women. We look at places like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and point our finger at their mistreatment of women but I think that in our culture women mistreat themselves to give credit to this fantasy glamour splashed across pages, internet and printed page.

Ok ok - what's the solution? I don't really know except to live in the real world with real people, affirm each other daily and shun the type nonsense that makes money off portraying truly unattainable superficial goals of physical "perfection".

And so my soap box has shrunk in size now but I leave you with this thought -
Psalm 139:14
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well".

Natural Light

LIGHT                           Noun                         The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible

Friday afternoon. A long week. Relaxation music, some reading, a bit of writing, some musing and then seeing -  the late afternoon sunlight coming in the window and I think that it is beautiful on common objects.

This figurine had quite the tumble from Hurricane Ivan. It was once lost, but then was found!

Curtains

Water

Garden in the Rain

That title...I could almost use it as a metaphor...I have been told that I could get lost in my metaphors if I don't watch it. That was a thought provoking comment from a friend. Anyway, on a quiet Sunday afternoon I decided to shoot some garden photos and here they are. I hope you enjoy them.

Mean Mockingbirds...but nice ride!

Magnolia

Sunday morning bike ride with a newly repaired camera - I AM SO GLAD - and nice weather. This was the trial run to see if the camera was behaving, and it was. I enjoy just looking around for something to take a photo of. I enjoy the exercise and the music in my ears. I really enjoyed watching the mockingbird smack-down in the middle of the street and another one chasing a squirrel down a wire. Those are the meanest birds. Aretha Franklin sings if she doesn't get a mockingbird that sings as a gift then she will get a diamond ring - (link below). Go for the ring! Anyway, below are some of the photos I shot on this excursion.. I hope you enjoy them.

Cactus Flowers

Looks like the buds are wearing cowboy hats!

Aretha Franklin singing Mockingbrid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0URYw27qd0

Rock(s) of Gibraltar

It's not easy being a Mom. Perhaps that is the understatement of the year, you think ladies? I just returned home from the place where my own Mom is loaning her body to temporarily, Barrancas National Cemetery on NAS Pensacola, Florida. Of course a trip such as to the last place you left your Mother tends to promote reflection and so I find myself before my computer making this post.

The Rock of Gibraltar is a high cliff in southern Spain, at the south-western edge of the Mediterranean Sea near the town and port of Gibraltar. When people say solid as the Rock of Gibraltar they mean something safe and firm. That certainly was the situation with my Mom. Having run across something I wrote for her back in the 80's, I thought this might be a great time to bring it out of moth balls and send a solute to the Mother's of the world who daily continue on, even when they really don't feel much like it.

My mother...
As a child she was
helper, provider, security
Rock of Gilbraltar.
As a teenager she was
enemy, adversary, foe, spy
or so I thought. Young
cloudy eyes see
dimly, looking out
at a world
so confusing.
Days last forever, weeks turn
to eternity.
My relationship with
my mother all cracked
and frayed...
but maturity came to
me
or caught me after 
forever days and
eternal weeks.
Time heals and
I grew up even
I who ran 
from myself or 
possibly my mother.
Today my mother is
someone to me
who I need and who I
pray needs me.
Time healed and my mother
became my friend.
She is 
helper, provider, security,
Rock of Gibraltar.
She is my mother,
I love her.
She is my friend.

And here is a shout out to mother types around the world - Happy Mother's Day.

Better Than Integers

I am supposed to be studying for a placement test regarding math of which I have always been poor at and so therefore I distracted myself with my photos from some years ago and slung some Photoshop on them. Now back to work.

Low Tide Sunrise

Posting Seagulls

Mudfish

Sunrise

Stingray