Watching a butterfly slake its thirst.
From a purple flower.
Probably a thistle, but I don’t know for sure.
Still the delicate beauty of the magnificent creature captivated me when I took the photo and it captivates me now.
Photo: 4 September 2021, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ross County, Ohio
Filed under Advent, National Park, Photo
Lucy has grasped the heart of everyone in her family as firmly as she has grasped my thumb.
She is beloved.
Photo: April 7, 2022; North East, Maryland
Another challenging word. I try to heed the words of Tommy Sands:
Let the circle be wide ’round the fireside
And we’ll soon make room for you
Let your heart have no fear, there are no strangers here,
Just friends that you never knew
But there are definitely people I have not met. There are people I don’t know. There are people I hesitate to meet. I confess that. I try to work at that.
Photo: May 17, 2014; Central Park, New York, New York
This was a challenge. I have not been to many places that are truly wilderness spaces or at least that fit my understanding of a wilderness.
Ghost Ranch, the setting for this photo, is beautiful and outdoors. But it is really well developed in terms of being a wilderness.
Still it remains a semi-wild place that feeds my soul and spirit.
Photo: Ghost Ranch, New Mexico; 30 August 2008
Filed under Advent, Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
I broke the rule today that says post one photo.
As I searched through photos, I found two that spoke to me.
I could not choose, so I add both,
I am grateful for messengers of:
hope
justice
freedom
equality
equity
Photos: Harriet Tubman in Harlem, New York; John Lewis film viewed in Morningside Gardens, New York
Filed under Advent, Antiracism, Human Rights, New York, Photo
It is Human Rights Day. The world would take steps toward the time when all people could flourish, if we all respected and protected each other’s human rights.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every[person seeks] equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958
Perhaps we can start, in those small places where we find ourselves, to honor the human rights of all we meet that we all might flourish,
Photo: 20 December 2018, New York, NY; display created by Tricia.
Filed under Advent, Antiracism, Family, Human Rights, New York, Photo, United Nations
Controlled.
Contained.
Reflected.
Fire.
Photo: c. 2015, New York, NY
I once believed that breathing was automatic. It is something we did without thinking about it.
Then came workouts with NK Bordy Philosophy. Nicole spent most of our time telling me to breathe, training me to breathe in ways that would effectively support the movements I was doing.
It seems unlikely that I was thinking about breathing in this childhood photo.
It also seems likely that some serious breathing was taking place to support this level of noise.
Photo: circa 1954/5, Grove City, PA
The dictionary says of “winnow” =
(of the wind) blow.
“the autumn wind winnowing its way through the grass”
It’s not grass. And I don’t know the season. But it seems to me the wind has winnowed this tree a lot over a lot of time.
Photo: 25 August 2012, Allenspark, CO
Filed under Advent, Photo, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
One of my first meetings with my first granddaughter.
She welcomes me to her world.
Photo: 1 January 2022, North East, MD
Along the Graybeard Trail 