only sacredness.

Something opens our wings. Something

makes boredom and hurt disappear.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.

-Rumi

A letter from Joanna...

"...From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines...

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.

It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth..."

from Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman

Treasure

#59, Cold Mountain Poems

In the old days when I was so poor,

Night after night I counted other men's wealth.

Recently I thought it over

And decided to open a business of my own.

I dug a hole and found a hidden treasure-

A store of crystal jewels.

A blue-eyed foreigner came in secret

And wanted to buy them and take them away,

But I only answered him,

"These jewels are beyond price!"

-Han -shan

Living is a form of not being sure, not

knowing what next or how . . . We guess.

We may be wrong, but we take leap after

leap in the dark.

Agnes de Mille

The Four, no. 20

I found I could say things with color and shapes

that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.

-Georgia O'Keefe

challenge posted on The Four

Blushing with Gratitude

These days filled with treasure, nights folded cozy beneath a starry sky. Following the rays of my head lamp, we walk arm in arm, stacking the furnace with wood, tucking our cold frames goodnight, with every step dazzled with gratitude, our dreams breathing us...

Happy Macro Mosaic Monday!

I've fallen in love with the scent of a milkweed...

Luscious

I climbed through a fine patch of poison ivy for these luscious beauties (dressed in my long-sleeved, rugged finest of course; I'm not completely mad) and at the moment I'm thinking they were worth it... Let's hope I'm still thinking that a few days from now :)

*These photos were inspired by this lovely image...

hidden in secret places I find-

I will give you the

treasures of darkness

and riches hidden in secret places.
Book of Isaiah 45:3

Macro Monday

This one's for Macro Monday, a tradition I discovered through Char's most recent post:

(I'm looking for a title for this one - I'm pretty awful with titles. Any thoughts?)

The Four, no. 7: Kristen's challenge

(more photos from New Orleans: Bywater)

Challenge no. 7 from The Four:

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

William Shakespeare

#49 (the camera teaches awareness)

I love how my camera teaches me to look more closely, my eyes intent on the details of things, watchful and curious. I'm learning about things I didn't even realize I'd be interested in, and they're fascinating! In learning what they are and in naming them, I feel invested somehow, as though I have a personal stake in their well-being and a responsibility to care for them in any way that I can (be is taking water samples from rivers, recycling my bottles, composting my food).

For example, I never knew what praying Mantis egg cases looked like. For that matter, I doubt I've ever given it much thought . . . Until, one afternoon while I was out with Lily, I kept seeing these beautifully delicate nest-like things clinging onto brush edges and nestled between branches. I took lots of pictures and, through a Flickr contact, I discovered they were Praying Mantis cases:


Yesterday on my morning walk, Lily and I stopped by to see how they were doing. It was quite icy out but this one looks okay:

What has your camera shown you?

In patterns of four: a photo

I've been tagged by Karyn over at Mundane Details. The rules, in her words:
1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

So, this photo, delightfully uncovered by these patterns of four, is a photo of a family friend taken last summer. This is the corner store where she's been buying her potato salad and lunch meat for over 40 years. She's in her 90's now, and things I've come to value over the years, supporting local business, buying handmade and writing letters the 'old fashioned' way, for example, are simply how it's done in her world.

Now, I tag: Lucy, Char, Kelly, and Mary to spread the fun... My experience of this has been one of re-discovering, of finding forgotten treasure within the piles of folders and photos in my Picture file. So, if on first try, you run across a photo you've shared many times over, perhaps a little flexibility in the rules would be helpful in finding the dusty gems of your computer's memory... Enjoy!

#43

This week, the Four's bi-weekly challenge is to interpret

the following quotation:

Time stands still best in moments that look

suspiciously like ordinary life.

Brian Andreas

While visiting my family this past weekend, I filled my memory card

with images from childhood. These details that fill my parent's home

are etched beneath my eyelids, and into my heart:

#35

Treasure

I spotted a bird's nest in this tiny (wild Crab Apple?) tree yesterday filled with berries. I felt as though I'd stumbled upon treasure...