Today was one of our worst winter days for Northern Minnesota (My opinion). The weather turned warm (40 (f) and rained. Winters wet and gray day made snow melt and hardpack turned icy. The beauty of frosted leaves and white snow puddled everywhere.
Accepting the challenge of some adventure, I grabbed the camera, put it on a tripod and went for a walk. I pocketed a dry rag to keep the camera somewhat dry and began to see. Ironically, the fresh rain and melted snow gave me the best view as the puddles framed the pictures. You will have to click on the pictures to see the full shots. You might start by saying “what am I really looking at?”
In a couple hours the rain will turn to snow. Tomorrow morning it will be way below freezing and stay that way for quite a while. I had today. A day where I look down to see up, and then it’s upside down. A day that reminds me how much I don’t really see past what I want to see.
One more irony presented itself as I took a reflection picture of myself and the camera shooting itself (interesting selfie huh?). The reflection is off the dark screen of my laptop with the kitchen light in the background. The colors are not visible to the human eye, but the camera picked them up. I am reminded that if all the light rays, wave lengths and impulse scales were 100 feet long, what we actually see and acknowledge on a regular day is a thumb width wide.
Thought: Maybe I should just look up. Then everything would be right side up…
Frosted spider web in little ash tree
Gary
Question: How often does the camera get in the selfie?
Mesmerized, I watch the millions of snowflakes fall. I hurry as they will soon cover the frost covered, well everything outside. It’s impossible to protect the camera as the wind is swirling. It is barely above zero on the Fahrenheit scale. My numb fingers change out the batteries. The snow lets up as I get to the lake in an area protected by spruce and balsams. “Die down wind” I command. It didn’t. In fact, there seemed to be a fresh puff of wind instead. My breath froze in the cold air while wafting away in small clouds between the trees.
I think I take better pictures when I am in a state of wonder, it’s just a feeling, but sometimes I get used to the same color snow covering the trees the same way every winter. The frosty mornings come often. The frost, like the snow, is very white and always cold enough to freeze unattended fingers (that means wear gloves or mitts). I stand still in the little clearing by the lake. It’s so peaceful here. Mind if I share some of that peace with you? Click on any picture to enlarge and go on.
My last thought as I walk the trail home…”Wow, I know the awesome author of all this”.
I would invite you to take a peek at my other blog posted today as well on “Wintering the Soul”
He waited by the door. It was a habit developed over the years. Dad would go outside, start the car to warm up in the cold weather, then wait inside the door for mom on these special occasions. Several of the kids and their families left while he waited patiently. Caught up in the festivities for a while, it now hit him. Hard sobs came when he realized she had been gone half a year. No gray wool coat on the hangers, no voice, no presence. It was to be 4 years before dad heard “Come”.
Our middle daughter has very limited physical mobility. Sometimes her spirit gets claustrophobic living in a body that cannot move. She gets immobilized easily. She lives in constant pain. She panics easily if she cannot detect our presence or a voice on her intercom. She needs a presence. She also knows Gods presence, probably in ways none can understand.
I took a picture of our daughter with a face aglow this Christmas day. Bed ridden with pain much of the day. Her eyes closed she leaned back against her big pillow, transported physically nowhere, but her spirit dancing and dining with God’s presence. An “other world” movement. A sacred moment as we both listened to someone singing “Amazing Grace”. For a couple minutes she was somewhere I couldn’t be, and in a far better place by her disposition. If I had been an atheist, I would not be anymore. It was good but it wasn’t the song or the musician. I fall short of her experience. I understand being undone.
I now and then steal a look at that picture. No amount of fine talk can explain another’s presence away. No amount of money can buy what she experiences now and then between bouts of immense pain. If the whole world had what she does, there would be world peace.
You billionaires can’t buy it. You psychologists can’t box it up. You skeptics were not there to prop up your belief in your unbelief. She is still daddy’s princess after 42 years and mommies Joy (her middle name). But even we, as her caregivers and parents, cannot compete when she is called to sit on Jesus’ lap for a bit, knowing someday she’s just going to say yes when asked “would you like to stay here?”
And, No. That picture is not for sale or publication.
I was being watched. I knew it. I scanned the whole woods around me. Nothing. I looked deeper. Nothing. Much deeper an ear flickered and a black dot looked like an eye. I raised my camera with a long lens, focused, moved forward to see the deer’s head and clicked. The deer disappeared into the swamps tall grass away from me.
A ruffled grouse, frozen in place, hopes the camouflage is working.
We writers want to sit down and write something profound. We want to help others think deeper. We want to _________________________________???? Well, what do we want? How do we start? How deep will our content be, knowing our audience responds best to catchy sound bytes, but that is not the game we want to play. Or, is it?
I would encourage both of us to look deeper, see further than the news, see people beyond their actions and words, spot the deer and grouse hidden to most onlookers and get off the beaten trails where a real compass is needed.
You can see the world in a dewdrop…who notices??
Our thoughts and words will never go beyond who we are as people. Go deeper, look deeper, be deeper. Our conversations, scribblings, blogs, comments, personal relationships and nonverbal communications will reflect who we are.
Use pictures. Use verbal pictures, stories that create pictures, take pictures and use other’s pictures. We live in a visual world. Many of us use pictures as prompts. Some use drawings photos and as artistic expression. There are those who embellish what they are saying with photos. I will freely admit that I look carefully at the comments section of mine and other blogs to see if people are considering the words to be as strong as the pictures. Sometimes the pictures are the main attraction, other times just support for our message. I intentionally use pictures in all these ways.
I wanted to post some past pictures that I love for prompts in my own writing as well as support what I have wanted to say from a deeper perspective. 100 views of one picture may prompt 100 different discussions…or just one…what do you really see? (Click to enlarge). The last 3 pictures are of the same granddaughter…really.
Debs post prompted this post. I freely admit to “liking” her post as I related to what she was saying on many levels. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I contributed to being “support staff” as she used pictures I had posted for free download on “Unsplash“, a free download site with millions of pictures. I sent her link to all 6 of my siblings to show them how my pictures were being used. They responded by saying she used them well in a really good post and the pictures supported her post well. I agree. (check out Deb’s blog). I enjoy the Haiku’s from David (who uses a lot of my pictures with his allhaiku blog…Click here) and ocassionally Suzette uses my pictures as well (click here).
Lastly. Have a Merry Christmas. I shall not let the “trappings of the holidays” ruin the true meaning of Christmas. I am not just saying that frivolously. I have looked deeply into where Christmas fits into such a relationship with God, that makes one love God and love people. One should look deeply into the eyes of “Faith.” What an amazing concept.
Sorry, gotta go, fish are biting and the lake has at least 3 inches of clear ice.
Autumns Beauty in colored foliage is coming to an end where I live. I am the one gasping as a wind gust removes a hundred leaves to flutter. Up till now they have merrily waved at me all summer through life’s winds. Most of those children are gone, and I once again feel a little older as I shuffle through the fallen. Some of them look so young.
Next will be the golden aspens and then the tamarack needles once a soft green, now a glowing kind of marvelous gold. Suddenly they will be the only conifer naked in the bog and swamp while their cousins balsam and spruce greenly line the edges.
I don’t know why our apple tree is so optimistic. There are still green leaves and crisp apples. Fruit of a well lived season will be shared. I shall live out my season like the apple tree. I decided.
Click to enlarge and forward
That part of us touching eternity. Reaching for God. Knowing God. Choosing good and knowing hope as winter is coming and life goes on to the next season.
Hmm…yes. Of all the pictures of what life should be, I will look at the apple tree. May my fruit forever be, worth the grasp from my autumn’s tree.
I’m watching the geese and swans v-up for training the young ones for the long migration flight. The wasps are trying to eat our apples and fall raspberries. Various trees are showing their true colors as the green chlorophyll drains from the leaves. Seeds are falling onto the ground from trees and most plants as they dry up for winter. The cold will stratify the seeds so they germinate next spring.
To taste all the signs of fall in an exquisite gourmet stew one could come up with thousands upon thousands of ingredients. I suspect the best we can do is sample a few ingredients and be content. I personally like the 40-degree mornings when I can see my breath in thick vapor drift away with each exhale. The crisp air carries sound so well I can clearly hear a train rumble through the nearest town over 10 miles away. The nearby lake sounds of ducks, geese and swans contented with such a morning seem a stones throw away. Yes, it’s the foretaste of autumn.
This picture could symbolize so many aspects of life. I have two neighbors still flowering while their spouses are gone.
I have been collecting a few visual ingredients of fall. Consider it a visual foretaste of the beloved fall season attempting to hold back the winter for hopefully more than a few weeks this year. Click to enlarge any picture
These and so much more are the Hors d’oeuvres before winter. Enjoy, endure and get ready for winter… for a season.
“Oh what a foretaste of Glory Devine” The words to an old gospel hymn. It seems all of nature is getting ready for winter. It’s a dying time of giving fruit, dropping leaves and leaving seeds. I know where I’m going when I die. Yep “Blessed Assurance”. The old hymn is pertinent. That season is coming, but until then I still need to sweep all the falling acorns off the deck.
I have two bins full for the deer in winter.
I’m in that season now. It’s a harvest season. Gardens, orchards and in my case harvesting some wildlife and wild rice. May God bless your season.
I thought I would share an original. It’s a song I wrote a long time ago and recorded with a friend in his studio. Thanks Lindz from Big Bison Studios.
I sit down to the piano and sing it when I need some encouragement. I hope it connects with you as well.
I think my song would be way different if I did not know God on a personal level. It’s been a relationship that works in real life. That’s my story.
Share with someone who needs encouragement.
Gary
ps. lease let me know if this music format does not work, I’m on a learning curve on posting music.
I have been outside this summer except when in caregiver mode. I believe I’m hundreds of emails behind and wish to at least touch base with all you great bloggers and readers. I get to read a few blogs about every other day and sacrifice the interaction which is the best part of being a reader and blogger.
I thought I would at least put up a small gallery of pictures. small because I have not taken many pictures either. I have built a cabin in the woods. A few people have stayed there with rave reviews. Some have raved about the amount of mosquitoes outside the cabin but inside is great in those evening insect feeding hours. I have been busy taking grandkids fishing, wood cutting and gardening a few hours a day around a 24/7 caregiving (our daughter) schedule for my wife and I.
Click to enlarge any picture and then there are arrows for the next slide.
I realize some of these need explanation, especially taking down a tree threatening the house. I have been dehydrating things like rhubarb and making jerky. It’s all good. It’s late and I have another outside day tomorrow…I’ll stop by now and then for the next couple months…hope your summer is going well.
Our little wilderness group found something rare on a huge lake. Calm. Perfectly still water. I have never seen this lake calm. This lake always wants to eat canoes. Usually when navigating these waters we are focused on the next wave, one wave at a time and no time to look around and actually see. A lot like life I’m thinking as I had never taken the time to really see what that big lake looked like. My brother commented that he may have normally seen two bald eagles while fighting the waves, instead he saw 8 bald eagles. Sorry, my camera was out of batteries. Sigh. It’s a good thing my memory still has battery life.
We moved our paddles as silently as we could, enjoying the reflections, commenting in low voices. Bald eagles soared and some watched from high perch. Ducks, geese and swans paddled silently as others flew by. Fish chased in the shallows of islands and narrows as we paddled by. We were leaving this pristine wilderness through some sort of vortex for the cacophony we call reality.
I wondered how many have a place of calm in their lives. To be at peace deep within is worth seeking. To have a place of calm in life’s space, a must. To have relationships calm from the surface to the deep, a wonderful-intentionally-cultivated gift coming from the calm within. The calm within must have a source bigger than anything life can throw at us.
My prayer when I experienced this calm in the wilderness on one of the wildest lakes I have navigated many times: “Thank you Jesus for this inner peace you have given to the wild wilderness within me…amen”
Here are some other peaceful pictures for the soul. Click to enlarge and forward.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jesus to his disciples…and us John 14:27)
Nature gives so much to reflect on about life in so many ways. I’m always amazed.
My juggling act came to an end this May. Probably for awhile. I’m 300 blog notifications behind and I am spending most of my time outdoors. I will be somewhere between mowing the lawn, planting garden, finishing up our little cabin in the woods and being in a canoe in the wilderness. I have intentionally dropped many of the internet connection juggling pins. One can only juggle so many fishing rods and fillet knives which still remain in the air.
I’ll be in and out here and there. Have a great summer (or whatever season you are in around the world). I do appreciate all my word Press friends. Enjoy a couple of this springs shots. The header picture color was caused by the Canadian wildfires
A time to renew with friends and family in nature, reflect with natures insights, re-evaluate life relationships and my walk with God and rest around a camp fire and in a canoe.
garyfultz 