Bellaloki

Bellaloki
Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

I was fortunate to be able to see my cat be born. She is now five months old, and has quite a personality,as does her sister, Suki. These cats bring such joy to my life. Even at 4:30 AM when they climb on top of me, trying to engage me in play, then finally falling asleep on top of me, I adore them. I was so wounded when I put my cat, Owen to sleep on Valentines Day. These creatures have enriched my life. I feel very deeply saddened by the losses of those in the wake of Katrina. No one really mentions all the pets lost, and how much devastation that brings to families. Hug your kitties and doggies and hamsters today. Turtles don't like it much, and fish will really get pissy, but send them your love anyway.

Reflection

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Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

I am not sure why I am so drawn to reflections. Perhaps it is the symmetry that speaks to me. I like the feeling of visual balance. I like Auditory balance, too, one of the reasons I enjoy classical music so much is the mathematical resolution involved. It calms my otherwise noisy mind. I am always taking pictures in my mind, or writing. It is a constant stream of Beingness for me. Somehow, when I see reflection, like this, it calms me deep inside my soul.

Stacking

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Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

Things...life stacks up with things to do, things to own, things to be. Like blocks one atop the other, balanced precariously, they create a jumbled tower of living-ness. These marble pedestals were stacked under a huge column holding up the front of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Portsmouth, NH. I captured this image with the idea of balance and strength in mind. How is your life stacking itself?

Solitude

This feather was floating on the water at sunrise yesterday. It reminded me of how we can be buoyantly healed in our solitude. My weekend has been frantic, with many appointments, shoots, dog walks, and responsibilities. I have been up at 4:30 and asleep by 11:00 or so. My Spirit craves the alone time, the quiet, the floating. This is as necessary to me as air and water. Perhaps tomorrow I shall grab a few minutes and recall this one feather, be it, and feel the healing begin.

Sunrise at Steven's Pond

Nothing makes me more aware of the impermanence of Life than photgraphing sunrise-time. With each passing second the light changes and I am so aware of the rotation of the Earth, and thusly, of myself, on this Swiftly Tilting Planet. Each moment takes change to record properly as the shutter and apertures change while the golden orb opens up to the sky. Life is constance in Change. Take a morning walk (bring an afore-mentioned apple) and get to really FEEL the movement of time. Get out early. Be astounded.

Link

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Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

Shake, Rattle and Roll...

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Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

I don't do this often...drink caffinated drinks. But, you can be sure that if I eat something salty while doing so I will be shaking like a hula-dancing bobble doll.

Yerba Mate ain't got nothin on this.

Beware of Pepsi and the like.

It. Not. So. Good.

Ugh.

Bite Me...

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Originally uploaded by Firespiral Arts.

Apple season is coming! Go out in the cool evening for a long walk and bring along a crisp apple to munch on. Watch the golden light of 6 pm wash over the trees and listen to the sounds of the hissing locusts. Remember the season of harvest is about more than what the fields yield. It is about gathering in and taking stock of your internal Being as well. Take a bite.

Unfold your tender colors... 

Rise to meet the sun... 

King of August...Feeling fall in earnest now, these giant and prickly stems and vines, becrowned with dish sized blooms. 

Something about marshes has always drawn me to them...the water, the wood, the reflections...the amazing colors in fall. I love watching the frogs jump in and out of the water, the turtles, the birds. Such amazing life going on in something that appears to be dead and dying. 

I long to feel as cool and blue as these glass bottles. I am tired of the summer, my least favorite of seasons. I long for orange and brown and gold and crisp air. Apples and gourds and fires in the fireplace...warm wooly socks and steaming cups of coffee clenched in cold hands.

Cocktail hour for the Spray Can families...We really like to be with "People Like Us". It makes us feel comfy and understood. I think you can learn a lot from a place of comfy and understood. But, I also know that when I am mis-understood lots of things become clear to me as I work on my defense. When I have to explaim myself in different ways, I learn more about Who I Am. Resistance is a place of Growth. 

Every minute has many layers of Happenings. In this picture, there are some street guys working on a broken bike. And a woman reflected looking at something interesting to her. What was it? And there are reflections of the street across, even, and a car, and you can see right through the glass to happenings on the other side...Life is this. Many happenings all rushing together, bumping gently or harshly against one another as we swim upstream in this current called Life.

Curvature...of a liquid, no less. It always amazes me that glass is really a very slow, dense liquid. It *seems* so solid. What do YOU seem like, that you are not? 

Love,like light, bounces off of polished surfaces, magnifing many times the prismatic colors of the soul. When it finds scratches and worn places, the light bends and reflections alter the original mask, making for interesting patterns of recognition. For all intents and purposes this escalator was to be telling me "No, do not go there...." But the light beckoned me in a totally different way, and I traveled with my lens to a very colorful place. 

The Devil Wears Prada...I find myself thinking today, that I am just as addicted to Us vs Them, that I am, in fact, prejudiced against some people, and I am trying to come to terms with what that means. I try, very hard, to be compassionate about all sorts of people and their lifestyles. Yet, here I was at tennis camp waiting for my daughters to be done, sitting in the lounge with Tennis Moms and their Prada Tennis bags, chatting merrily about caterers and pool parties and manicures. I was having an internal dialogue about this, and finding myself feeling pretty negative about it. Why? Just because I don't have the same sense of values, that love trumps money every time? That I shun materialism and do not true my path to the newest fad, style or "in" thing? So what. I am different. So are they. I think I should learn to be more expansive. They were not really hurting anyone else (though they did diss one of their tennis partners as soon as she left the room). I found my inner self playing Us and Them games. And I am ashamed of myself for doing so.