Tag Archives: Spring

We Are Not Alone In Our Transitions

Apr
03
2015
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2013

 

 

March 2015 was an unusually full month and the events that touched my life and others that I’m in relationship with, all had this in common: major transition. After the event comes the good-bye of one way of living or being – usually involving grief, disorientation, wilderness wandering, re-orientation and a re-definition process of who we are and how we respond in a new season in response to what is at hand.  Easily listed steps to major transition, however can’t begin to document the particular and unique effect that transitions impose on those experiencing them.

 

For my friends whose house exploded in the early morning hours and then burned to the ground in 16 minutes, the magnitude of their transition (thankfully all 5 members escaped without harm) began instantly to be followed by many months of heart wrenching re-orientation.  A church community says goodbye to it’s senior leader; an older friend dies and as an older one myself,  I realize the good-byes are more frequent and personal now.

 

All  transitions are of course not this heavy. More babies were born in my network ;  letters arrived from long time friends from diverse places; family milestones celebrated; several long phone calls (in a world increasingly communicating in short hand – oh wait … text messages); a friend’s new book written; resuming daily walking and … As our two friends in today’s image remind us, it’s better, together.

IBK

Posted in Courage, Waiting Also tagged , , |

Re-Entry

Jun
06
2014
by IBK | 1 Comment

©2014 IBKimage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello dear readers. It’s been a while but somehow today seems to be the end of something and a gradual re-entry into something else.  After weeks of pitching, condensing and packing to put our house on the market here in Denver, and partially moving into a rental apartment on the 9th floor overlooking the Denver Botanic Garden, I needed renewal.  My camera parts were still in the case and I was too fatigued to lug anything else around, so on a late afternoon visit the other day, I grabbed my cell-phone and took a quick walk to the garden before closing.

Surprise, surprise, the new Chihuly glass sculpture exhibit which opens on June 14 and continues into November, was starting to appear in the garden pools and paths. For the next hour I forgot all but the beauty in front of me .  I got out my cell-phone camera and took a few pictures to map  shots for a more detailed shoot at a later date.  It was at that moment that I realized that during one of the most stressful times and transitions in my adult life, I had forgotten to do what brings me great joy and peace as a counter- balance to all of the chaos. And so it goes.

Hoping that as you continue with transitions in your own life, that you remember to include what brings you joy and renewal on your list of many tasks.

I’d also like to encourage you to check out more about Dale Chihuly at www.chihuly.com

IBK

Posted in Seasons, Seeing In New Ways Also tagged , , |

Ah, Spring

Apr
11
2014
by IBK | 0 Comments

IBKimage ©2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, it seems to be spring more than just according to the calendar, and I hope that where you are , there are  surprises in your surroundings (or perhaps your hearts) that seemed so hidden during this especially long winter.  In my first spring here in Denver (2009) I was just learning how to use a digital  camera that I had purchased in 2008 when there were many transitions that were important to capture for later viewing: one son graduating from college, another getting married 2 weeks later, and a move to a new city after 40 years in another.

So, on a beautiful spring morning I walked down to Sloan’s Lake  about 15 minutes from my home and  began the 2 1/2 mile trail around the lake, camera in hand, looking for a picture “to take.”   Fortunately I didn’t find one, rather it found me.  Today’s image is one of five that someone carved on the trunks of large trees that had been cut down perhaps because of disease, but rather, I imagine, to make room for a new playground right next to it/them.

Wishing you delight and joy as you wander into a new season with it’s promises, perhaps also some pruning to make room for something yet to grow.

IBK

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in New Beginning, Pruning, Seasons Also tagged , , , |

Endings

Apr
26
2013
by IBK | 1 Comment

©2011MarkMatoon

 

With major transitions, come new challenges and responses.  This sound so obvious, but ask the survivors of a bombing in Boston if their lives will not be forever changed as they navigate their way through through emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges? How about our neighbors in Texas whose town blew up ?  What about the newly diagnosed cancer patient whose journey into the unknown is beginning?  And yet in all of these cases we’ve seen people step forward and surround those hurting, with “gifts of themselves” offered in love and compassion.

 

Most of our transitions are not this abrupt but the years spent in habit whether fruitful or barren, do seem to provide a well to draw on (or not) when our world and our relationships seem to be (or are) crumbling all around us.   Major transitions and pain also seem  to, after a time, help us see new ways that we might choose to adapt to our new “normals.”  Fire most certainly destroys, but it also refines and provides the fuel for our basic survival needs.

 

None of what I’m saying is new, but perhaps I’m reminded again that when our lives  change, whether in sickness or in health (or in death and destruction of recent days) we can boldly enter the wilderness of transition and perhaps marvel at how love finds us us when we are lost and broken. No matter what your transition, find a place of sabbath where you can “lay it all down” and slowly discover what your heart tells you to “pick up again” … leaving behind the demands and expectations of others; and the self created  burdens of perfection, “more” and “faster.”

Today’s image was taken by a photographer,  with whom I studied,on Nantucket Island in June of 2011, a few months after my mother died. The ocean always draws me to itself, and provides the water for my thirst.

IBK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Courage, Letting Go, New Beginning, Seasons, Seeing In New Ways Also tagged , , , , , |

An English Farm Garden

Jun
14
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As many of you know I recently took a trip to Northern England for the purpose of hiking the Hadrian’s Wall Path. (See two previous blogs)  One of the unexpected delights was the quality and variety of food we were served at our various overnights along the way.  During our 9 days on the trail we stayed in the city, in a pub, a refurbished blacksmith shop, as well as a farm and an old manor of sorts. The trail is only about 30 miles south  of Scotland, so being that far north, it was light until almost  10:00 p.m. and again at 4:30 a.m. with the birds as my alarm clock.  I struggle to describe the “sounds of silence” and the range of colors in an English countryside in the spring.  So I won’t.

I’ll let you enjoy this image taken at a farm house where we had a delicious Sunday evening meal. I desire to have a garden like this and all that it promises, and yet the rest of the story is that  I was the guest who was blessed by someone else’s work from dawn to late night providing lodging, food and beauty for sight, mind, body and soul.  How divine.  In our noisy, rat race world, you do the same when you open your house and invite someone to sit at your table.

IBK

 

 

Posted in Blessings, Hospitality Also tagged , , |

Everyday Delights

Jun
01
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Morning.  Yes I know it’s not Thursday evening nor have I made contact for three weeks.  I’ve been preparing for and have taken a two week hiking trip to Northern England, specifically an 84 mile hike along Hadrian’s Wall Path from east to west. My companions were 8 members of the Colorado Mountain Club .  With walks in London to lodging, train stations, tubes (subway) as well as our bed and breakfast lodging off trail, it was well over a hundred miles  in 10 days.  Even though I’ve completed the walk and the open blisters are healing and I’ve walked gently every day since coming home, I’m still astounded that I did “this”.

Time spent walking, away from the cacophony of modern noise and incessant marketing,allows one to reflect at many levels.  Walking through many pastures of  “moms” with spring lambs, seeing a brand new baby calf minutes after birth with the mother still laboring to deliver the afterbirth, listening to the sweet music of birds singing,  reawakens ones delight in the  beauty possible in every day.  The challenge is to remember to take intentional steps to experience that delight when we’re slogging through the ordinary.

Since coming home, I have become a morning person with the jet lag adjustment.  It’s been delightful but of course most of you reading this already know that.  My challenge to you is try the opposite of the familiar from time to time.

I’l have more to share in the coming weeks about “hiking the wall”.  Todays image is an example of  an everyday delight.  I took a few photos with my phone camera just to see how it worked and was delighted with the results.

IBK

Posted in Seasons Also tagged , , , , |

Plan B

May
04
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, I was in Washington, D.C. for a long weekend visit with my youngest son.  The trip had been planned to coincide with the peak season of the annual “Cherry Blossom Festival.”  It had been two years since I had experienced the delight of seeing the blossoms for the first time and at that time I was a relatively new photographer using a small Cannon “point and click” digital camera.  I couldn’t wait to use my now more sophisticated digital camera and to compare the presumably better pictures with the first attempt.

Well, nature intervened.  The blossoms were at peak season about 3 weeks before I arrived (peak season changes every year and I’d purchased my ticket) due to the very early spring in D.C.  I changed my focus and decided to only take my  I-Phone® and join the category of “iphoneographers” during my visit.  It takes a light touch and there were a a lot of new “how -to’s” , but what a delight to bring home about 75  images that were stored in a phone in a pocket of my jacket.  Amazing.

 

Today’s image comes from the front of an office building on “L” street in downtown Washington, D.C.  With the lens in the I -Phone®, a different angle, and the sunny morning light reflections, the  windows all look a bit different, and yet they were all identical.  The upper left window is the closest to what “the eye” saw.  Plan B (and C) often delight, if we can only move on from Plan A.

IBK

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Plan B Also tagged , , |

Change It UP

Apr
27
2012
by IBK | 4 Comments

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before moving to Denver , my hikes occurred on summer vacations. Yesterday  a friend and I went on a spring hike.  The trail started from a parking lot about 15 minutes from my house. Soon we were climbing higher and  proceeded up a series of switchbacks with a generally smooth path along with patches of rocky terrain. We hiked to the top, sat on rocks to eat our snack and then completed the loop of 4 miles back to the car.  I was home by lunch. OK, so what?

Well the rest of the story is that with minimal effort, I saw purple,teal,and fuchsia spring flowers that I had never seen before, hiked up the back of the well known Red Rocks Amphitheater, AND saw numerous nests of caterpillars in their silken  nursery tents  (see today’s image), resting  – perhaps after munching on their host plant’s leaves.  Take that you boring treadmill at the fitness center.

I had so much energy and a great attitude when I got home, that I planted most of my small backyard garden and added some new scented flowers by the front steps in anticipation of the rain which didn’t come until tonight.  Then I got to see the new plants dancing in the rain.  I would have missed this latest delight because I had planned to watch some T.V. after my big day … thankfully the cable was out and I had hours “to be”.

A personal note: Please pray for a young man name Ty who is in a major battle with his enemy, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.

IBK

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Seasons, Seeing In New Ways Also tagged , , , |

A Picture, Few Words

Apr
20
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring in Washington D.C. … Hours of walking, talking and the gift of time with my youngest son whom I visited last weekend … guests at my table … good conversation … meaningful work and interactions as a volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity Restore Home Improvement Outlet … news of a long awaited adoption occurring soon as a friends travel to China to bring a new daughter home … sharing nourishment for the mind and body with book club friends … discovering Brene’ Brown on “Ted Talks” online  (Google to find this) … preparing the garden soil for a new season … making  a first of season salad from tender leaves in my raised planter  … and so many other blessings  in one week …and now good night dear readers … or good morning as the case may be.

IBK

Posted in Seasons Also tagged , , |

“Shake off those guilty fears, arise …”

Mar
16
2012
by IBK | 2 Comments

© 2011 IBKimage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The words of today’s caption are from a song sung on Sunday mornings at my church.  Our single stock of wheat  in today’s image seems ready to shake off it’s snow covering  to arise to grow again  after a winter’s nap under a protective blanket of snow.  Wishing you joy as you await the gift of a new spring. Arise.

IBK

Posted in Letting Go, Seasons Also tagged |