1284. tune in, turn on, drop out (timothy leary)

 

each walk is a trip
tuning in and turning on
dropping out of sight 🦊❤️

As usual, we are walking along and I’m  saying something to Yulan and she is not there. I look around and there she is just looking at something or photographing something. Here she is after spotting a patch of beautiful red fungi. Magic mushrooms?? Every walk is an exercise in looking, finding and photographing.  🦊❤️

1283. come sit a spell

 

please come sit awhile
it has been such a long time
since you’ve come around 🦊❤️

I could not help but feel a little sad today when I saw this old chair that had been dispatched to a solitary spot deep in someone’s back yard. I imagined that it had sat through many fun and sad family times and now was out in the cold.  🦊❤️

1282. timeout for tea

perfectly happy
sitting in a “timeout” chair
all by my lonesome 🦊❤️ 

There was a time when filling every day with this, that and everything possible was my cup of tea.  Now I want to learn to just fill my cup more often with nice warm tea and sip it slowly on the sidelines. 🦊❤️

1281. a soft gaze

 

if you look too hard
you’ll see beyond the beauty
a soft gaze is best 🦊❤️

As I looked down from the bridge to enjoy the beautiful morning reflection of a tree in the shallow creek, I had the following experience.  The more intensely and closer I looked at the reflection, the more vivid the bottom of the shallow creek became, which interfered with me experiencing the beautiful tree reflection. Later that day we went to see a documentary film on Gustav Klimt’s iconic image, “The Kiss” (One of my favorites).  Many of the art professionals in the film analyzed the painting not only in terms of how it was painted but also very heavily focused on Klimt’s personality, his preoccupations, his alleged “failings” as a man as revealed in the work. While it was all interesting (I guess), it was another example of looking into the shallow creek and staring past the beautiful reflection of the tree. My conclusion, a “soft gaze” is often the best way to experience beauty as well as to observe and experience that which is not “beautiful”. 🦊❤️

1280. perfection’s other meaning

 

what is more perfect
than perfectly imperfect?
it’s all as it is… 🦊❤️

No matter how old I get, it takes a lot of work for me to accept the reality that people, places, things, situations, outcomes, etc., etc. are what they currently are.  Perfect does not have to mean “peachy keen” or “awesome” or even “ho hum”.  It can mean that “what is” has arrived perfectly at where it is right now… even the “bad” stuff. 🦊❤️

1279. up close… and personal

 

right before my eyes
just a mere few feet away
cooper’s hawk eyes me 🦊❤️

As I walked along I looked up and there it was. A big and beautiful Cooper’s Hawk less than 20 feet away from me perching on a branch about 10 feet off the ground. It lingered for quite awhile and we made eye contact a few times for sure. Luckily I had my camera in hand and was able to snap a few shots before it took off. I imagined it swooping down and grabbing my phone and taking off with it!  What a shot that would have made! 🦊❤️

1278. first impressions

 

looking down on you
i see galaxies in space
random… yet perfect 🦊❤️

I find that the first impressions that are created when I see something that catches my attention are usually the most exciting and creative. It is what is registered in my mind before I spend too much time overthinking and analyzing it into something that is mundane and uninteresting. I guess it’s like taking an inkblot test all day long! 🦊❤️