Nature's Ballerinas

Softly, delicately, floating in the wind....

Tender Embrace

The Fortune of Presence

When I get up close and peer quietly into, what feels to me like, the heart and soul of the Dogwood tree, I truly have a hard time finding words to explain how special I find her tender and delicate beauty -- and also, I find it hard to explain how privileged I feel to be her witness.

The Wise World

Whenever I think there is "nothing to photograph" all I have to do is get down, close to the ground, and use macro. It's a whole new world -- and such a wise world too.

The details I see when in the "macro world" are, actually, awe-inspiring way far beyond the mundane limits of my life.

I can get wrapped up thinking the daily details of my life are important but then, when I look at all the gazillions and gazillions -- and even *more* gazillions -- of details in the macro world I am humbled and my chattering brain comes to a quick (and welcome, I must say) standstill.

I begin to grasp that the details of my world are as passing as the seeds of this dandelion. They come, they go, they serve a purpose, they are done.

Really, there is no need to get so wrapped up in each and every gazillion detail.

It's enough to trust that they all serve purpose and when the purpose is over the detail will move on...

Quiet Beauty

Winter has always been a time of hibernation for me. It's cold, mostly dark and it takes too long for me to bundle up properly in order to go outside (I end up losing interest by the time I arrive at tying my scarf!)

But lately I've been so amazed and grateful for the beauty that is around me during the winter months. The beauty isn't what I typically like -- which is found in the bright colors of flowers or the rich greens of mature trees -- but rather I'm starting to see the beauty of winter in that it is understated and confident.

The quiet beauty of winter is found in lines and shadows and brilliant reflections of light. It's not a loud, 'proactive' beauty that proclaims itself but instead it is more subdued and 'reactive' and, really, it has nothing to prove. The beauty of winter simply 'is'.

As grow into myself, I'm finding that the sun illuminating the quiet stillness of a subdued and confident winter is a form of beauty that makes sense to me. It is winter's acceptance of itself and what it 'is' that puts it in a position to be enhanced and made beautiful by the sun.