words and pictures....
September 7, 2016
Sometimes we see things so clearly and other times they are obscured in the darkness. At work in our lives there are are always forces, seen and unseen, some are in the light and some are clouded by darkness. There are shadows at play. There is light dancing delicately upon our view asking us to join it at play. (more…)
September 6, 2016
Summer is winding down as the first week of September has brought a preview of the colors of fall to the banks of the Merrimack River and beyond. The other evening after attending the wake of an old friend from high school, I decided to drive down to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge as I had the camera in the car.
Before I even got to the Refuge, I was struck by the late day light on the west facing wall of the iconic Pink House on the Plum Island Turnpike. I quickly veered off the side of the road, parked my car and grabbed the camera. I took numerous shots with both a 70 – 300 mm zoom and a 10 – 24 mm wide angle (both Nikon).
The light was breathtaking. The wall was illuminated with a golden glow that mingled sweetly with the fall tones of the marsh grasses and brush around the house. As I walked back and forth along the roadside with the camera taking shots from different angles with my two lens I suddenly realized there was a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on the chimney of the house. My spirit bird had come to visit.
Always tuned to the energy of the wild creatures and other forces of nature, I was grateful for the visit of my messenger, the Red-tailed. (more…)
August 14, 2016
Nature is the most primal escape from technology that we can seek out to realign ourselves with our very humanity. ~ Pamela Leavey
August 12, 2016
In the past, my writing style typically leaves out the all important first stage of writing—pre-writing. When I write, I tend to write and then rewrite but rarely ever do I engage in pre-writing.
Needless to say, when I started taking creative writing classes at UMass Amherst UWW, I learned that I was cutting out an integral part of the writing process. Jumping right into the writing phase works if you know what you are going to write about, but when you’re stuck pre-writing frees up space and opens up the creative channels.
Reading Chapter 1 of Connie Griffin’s text, To Tell The Truth in my Magazine Writing class gave me a keener understanding of how to use pre-writing as a strategy to break free from writer’s block. The creative process needs the freedom to be expressive, and pre-writing can be seen as a fun exercise in letting go, while also trusting one’s subconscious in a “nonjudgmental and forgiving” way. (p. 5)
The Getting Started (p. 6 – 7) section in Chapter 1, helped me to understand that pre-writing is comparable to a dancer warming up with exercise and practice, or a painter sketching in a rough outline on his canvas in preparation for creating his painting using the tools of his craft. When seen in that light, I suddenly found how pre-writing should and could fit into my process. (more…)
August 11, 2016
No matter how difficult life gets, walk on…
We’re here to learn the many lessons of life and to do so we must follow our path no matter how much of an uphill battle it seems to be some times.
Birds tend to be very tenacious creatures. The spend a lot of busy time finding materials to build their nests, shaping and fashioning there nests, and foraging for food. Then when they have found their food they begin their journey back to the nest to feed their little ones.
We humans, do of course follow many of the same patterns in life, on a larger scale. But sometimes we human tend to get caught up in our woes and then self pity and we shut down rather than walking on despite the obstacles in our path.
In those times when we feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of troubles weighting us down, remember the little chickadee, forging ahead, seed in its beak, heading for its nest. It never stops and thinks I can not do this. It walks… or flies on. Be that tenacious bird on a branch.
Photo: Chickadee on a Branch: Walk On
August 10, 2016
Today as the rain falls outside my desk window, I think of the beautiful golden sunlight often seen shining through the trees when walking in the woods.
This is the light of redemption and renewal. This is the light that draws us into our center, our core, and reflects back through us when we are open to the beauty that surrounds us and is within us. This is the force that feeds us, body and soul. This is the forces that fills our psyche with unlimited love. (more…)
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