©IBKimage2012
Sometimes when many words have been spoken, a time of silence is renewing. Being with and not doing for is a wonderful change of habit. After an intense period of time, a shift in focus brings new awareness. Sometimes a picture is enough with few words necessary.
Wishing all of you an intentional time of reflecting on the beautiful in your life and how you are blessed by it.
IBK
©IBKimage 2012
When my oldest son was little I gave him a book that was in my toy consultant sample packet. The title: “Little While Friends.” He received it just before we went on a family road trip one summer where we explored three towns named Keystone in three states … among other things. Stopping to climb rocks or while visiting a snake attraction, he would often find little while friends to interact with. They didn’t have the same stature as friends from home or the familiarity and commitment of family, but it taught him early on that there are interesting people and sights all around that satisfy. Perhaps, like a beautiful mixed bouquet of flowers in a vase from the floral shop; they are precious because they are a fragile, time-limited treasures.
Now these little while friends don’t always have to be people … the beauty of nature in it distinct seasons, the gift of artists helping us enter into a place we hadn’t considered before; musicians stirring our souls; delight with new learning and new technologies that improve our daily living and help to restore in some manner what has been lost … but generally, it’s people we continually seem to say goodbye to; at airports and graduations, weddings and job changes, first day of school and retirement, and then a final ending whose tension we all live with confronted with so many “little while” choices, actions and engagements.
Our layered wall hanging in today’s image, by a fiber artist in Omaha, NE provided a little while delight on a restaurant wall, as a long time friend and I cherished precious time together over a meal,but more importantly it also reminds me that no matter how dark it might be, the light is thankfully always present. The story of death and resurrection, mourned and celebrated is thankfully” little while” and eternal.
IBK
©IBKimage2012
Sometimes, but not often enough I “get over myself”and just relish the dance in the moment. Last week I joined a photography “Meetup” at the Denver Botanic Garden for a member’s only 7:00 a.m. entry before the general public admission at 9:00. How delightful to be able to “capture” morning’s soft light offering and it’s cool breeze. When I put the camera to my eye to frame a shot, all of the tensions of a hundred details attended to in the previous week, float away, and the music of intentional seeing starts its tune. Here a color, there a texture, water flowing, interesting patterns, butterflies landing,bees pollinating, reflections on the pond, water lilies opening on their own schedule …. and I’m released from mine.
Todays image could be cropped to capture only the most beautiful strong proud “pick of the litter” (I live in Denver where there are almost as many dogs as flowers … I digress) and that’s where the focus usually is, but if you saw the image in full size you’d see the most beautiful light illuminating the bent stems of the drooping flower. The flowers are still alive, but just not strong enough to stand upright. A reminder perhaps that sometimes we have to take a leave of absence from our, activities, challenges, schedules, burdens, losses, and incessant doings. A garden to dance in and to wait, watch and listen as one season follows another, one flower dies another shoots up new life. Meanwhile the light shines in the darkness and the early morning light. How divine.
IBK
©IBKimage2011
Today’s image is a flower box in front of a brightly painted window of a Victorian style storefront in Crested Butte, Colorado. The collection of vibrant colors delight residents and visitors alike as they enjoy the summer days in mountain towns. But wait … this picture was taken during the waning days of autumn’s leaf season when all the deciduous greens turn a golden yellow in our Colorado high country. So these beautiful flowers are artificial. Someone forgot to remove them when the summer tourists left.
It takes a lot of work to keep those beautiful baskets of flowers pruned and watered as they greet us at our vacation destinations . I’ve seen the landscape contractors out early in the morning with their long water wands attached to a tank on their pickup truck as they move from one hanging planter to the next. As beautiful as they are, flowers cannot survive hanging on a pole at high altitude or in city smog without managed care.
The artificial flowers last longer and require no water, but they have no power to draw us to the authentic show that nature provides in it changing seasons.
What is most authentic for you in this season of your life and what will you prune that’s artificial?
IBK
©2004 IBKimage
My mom died earlier this year and as we approach the first anniversary of her death I am reminded how much she loved flowers and instilled that love in me. Another memory is that she often lost things and then would search for days only to declare: “This time it’s gone forever …” until it wasn’t. I was often the person she called when this occurred and after suggesting she quietly think “backwards in her mind”, she would get annoyed and insist that I wasn’t helping .
The gift of this drama around losing things, was that it changed the way I responded when I lost my own things or when I couldn’t immediately find out the answer to something I was searching for. I decided to do an initial search and if I couldn’t find “it” I would wait for it to find me. I have saved many hours of frustration and drama and invariably just when I need something “it”does indeed find me .
I took this picture over 7 years ago when I was staying at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while taking a graduate class. As I walked back and forth to the hotel or on the grounds surrounding it a beautiful scent greeted my nostrils. After several days of “sniffing” hundreds of flowers to try to match the scent and the flower, “it” found me as I entered the front door of the hotel from a lower stairway.
I have searched but have not been able to identify “it”. So dear readers, with your help I hope the answer will “find me.”
Joy to you and yours in the days ahead.
IBK