Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

A Good Day For Some Sweetness

 

 

How do you sweeten your life?

Chocolate?

Long walks on the beach?

Time spent with friends?

Fragrant flowers?

 

It's a good day for some sweetness!

 

 

(You can almost smell the plumeria!)

A Little Time Apart

 

 

Sometimes a little time apart is all that is needed.

Not too far apart, and not for too long,

just for a little while,

in the shade, out of the sweltering heat.

Just for a little while,

and all will be well.

 

 

 

 

Once You Get Used To It...

 

 

Little feet in the ocean for the first time.

"It's cold, mommy, what are you trying to do to me?"

 

Spoken, of course, with a cry for mercy, the language of the tiny ones.

 

But the water is delightful,

once you get used to it!

 

Like life -

once you get used to it.

 

 

 

And Then This...

 

 

The sun was setting and shining shyly on the waves after hiding all day,

and then this!

 

 

 

Rainbow after Isaac, Ormond Beach, Forida.

Isaac's Path

 

 

Rain showers over the ocean.

 

The outer edges of a tropical storm are headed our way.

Some people break out the champagne when a hurracane is imminent,

(after all faithful and diligent preparations have been completed, of course).

Others worry for days and nights in advance.

 

When I was a kid I thought that a hurricane was a horrible monster

that was coming down the street. We were on the floor hiding behind the furniture

and were told not to look out the window.

 

It was mythical in a way, picturing a real giant, twice a big as our two story house

swinging his huge arms and destroying everything in his path.

If we didn't look, then he couldn't see us and wouldn't hurt us.

 

It would be nice if hurricanes behaved that way...hide your eyes and no harm will come.

 

Keep all safe in Isaac's path, whatever their method of coping.

 

 

 

The Writer Spider

 

 

Sometimes numbers are difficult to wrap your mind around.

The banana spider, or golden orb spider, or writer spider,

is the oldest surviving spider on earth.

To the tune of 165 million years!

That's a really really long time.

 

Compare that to humans and our nearest ancestors, the chimpanzee,

and we clock in at 5 million years.

That's really a long time too!

 

Humans reached anatomical modernity 200,000 years ago,

and behavioral modernity 50,000 years ago.

 

Ok, 50,000 years to get behavior right...

 

Are we still babes in the woods?

(Compared to the banana spider, yes!)

Not that everyone I know isn't kind and gentle, they are.

 

It's the way our governments behave that is worrisome.

 

Maybe soon, say in another 50,000 years, they will follow the lead of the people instead of the other way around.

 

Or am I dreaming?

 

 

 

 

 

This writer spider was found at Guana River State Park, Florida.

Ten Foot Pole

 

 

Pelicans not only pose wonderfully for photo ops,

they groom themselves with those ten foot beaks,

and even though you can observe this with your very own eyes,

it is still a mystery how they manage to do it!

 

 

 

 

Sandpipers

 

 

I walk the line...

 

 

 

 

 

Sandpipers, St Augustine Beach.

Too Many Questions...

 

 

What does it take to open a gate?

The right key, or a secret code, or maybe a special knock?

 

How about a heart?

How to open a heart?

 

What's the special knock?

The secret code?

 

And once it's opened, how to keep it that way?

And what does it mean to be open-hearted, anyway?

 

Too many questions.

 

 

Photo of "Red Gate" taken in old St. Augustine, Florida.

When We Were Aliens

 

Eduardo and Alexis were relieved

after a safe and soft landing on the alien planet, Mars.

 

There were plenty more challenges ahead of them,

but for now a cessation of apprehension,

and a nano-second taken to congratulate the entire team on a job well done.

 

 

 

Where The Cape Ends...

 

 

Where the Cape ends in a fantastic spiral,

there is Provincetown,

surrounded by water on three sides and shimmering with a luminosity

that bounces off the sky and the land and the water.

 

This unique juxtaposition of ocean, sand, bay, and light

is one of the reasons that Cape Cod is so beloved.

 

Some say there is no other place like it on the planet.

 

 

 

New Sunset, shot from the East end of town, looking toward Pilgrim Monument.

Big Old Barn

 

 

There is something romantic about old barns.

They are so often featured in works of art,

that we might forget what they are really about -

days that begin before dawn and much hard work.

 

You like to imagine the days are satisfying,

but like any type of work, or anyone's life for that matter,

some days are better than others.

 

Maybe Thursday will be better than Wednesday, maybe not!

 

 

Red Barn, shot in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Reflection

 

 

After a long day,

a soft reflection.

 

Too tired to make any sense of it!

 

 

A Very Good Year

 

 

The year that this photo was shot was a very good year for whale watching.

"Very good," being defined as lots and lots of whales.

 

What's a very good year for you?

Lots and lots of...?

 

Fill in the blank.

 

Sometimes our most difficult years turn out to be our best.

 

It's nice when it works out that way.

 

 

 

Photograph entitled "Just a Fluke" was shot off Provincetown in a very good year.

 

55% Chance of Rain

 

 

Every afternoon between 4 and 5 o'clock, it rains.

Like a tropical paradise, it lasts 40 minutes or an hour and it's over.

 

Everything is so green and happy,

especially the mosquitos!

@#%$&^*

 

Even so, it is beautiful and so lovely to have the rain.

 

 

St. Augustine Beach, between the storms.

Water And Sand And Light

 

 

This was my favorite beach to walk on Cape Cod.

If the weather was warm and the tide was out and I had a buddy with me,

I might swim there too.

 

When you follow the sandbars at Head of the Meadow Beach as far as they will take you,

it feels like you are going deep into the ocean,

and there is a primal excitement about it,

as though with one wrong turn, you could be lost at sea forever.

 

The clouds along the beach often mirror the shape of the Cape,

adding to the painterly beauty of light reflected on sand and water and water and sand and light.

 

 

 

 

It Would Be Fun

 

 

So alert and ready for life,

hanging around marinas and boats.

 

Were we ever birds or dolphins or whales?

 

It seems like it would be so much fun.

 

 

Being Green

 

 

In Florida, it's easy being green!

 

 

 

Another Moon

 

 

Another full moon come and gone.

Slipping to half, quarter, a sliver and gone.

 

Juliet tells Romeo,

"Swear not by the inconstant moon."

 

But the lunar phases have a predictable inconstancy.

 

If you had phases like the moon,

what would be your full moon phase?

 

Half moon?

 

New moon?

 

A monthly or moonthly renewal!

 

Just a thought...

 

 

 

From "Romeo and Juliet", by William Shakespeare, as remembered from the Franco Zeffirelli film.

Full moon over the Matanzas River in St. Augustine, Florida.

Burden of Joy

 

 

Is the oak tree burdened by the spanish moss that adorns it?

 

My dad used to say to us, "You are the joy of my declining years."

(He was in his 40's when he said this!)

 

Twenty odd years earlier, he was a young father of 4 children under 4 years of age,

and without a job.

 

Burdens to be sure.

 

If you really pay attention to your life and your love,

then you recognize that your burdens are somehow connected to your source for joy.

 

Tipping the balance toward joy is strongly encouraged,

and can soften the edges of difficulties,

like the spanish moss in the trees.

 

 

 

Blue Spring State Park, Florida

 

 

The Dance of Life

 

 

The dance of life.

The rhythm of the seasons.

Summer winding down.

 

 

 

A Feast For The Soul

 

 

Every relationship that we begin will one day end.

 

Pelicans high in the sky, only a moment shared and gone.

Without a photograph, I might forget, until I see others like them on another day.

 

Fading light, moon rising,

everything constantly changing.

 

This world is a feast for the eyes and the soul.

 

The one constant relationship?

With your own dear self.

Be gentle!