Calm mornings at the beach...
The sea oats are already turning from green to gold to brown,
about to drop their seeds for next spring.
A Poem
Walking down my stairs,
I see a lizard.
It turns and looks at me,
tilting her head!
I wonder,
WHAT does she see?
By Me
St. Augustine Beach, © Laine Quinn
Do you come here often?
Nice view, hey?
What's your sign?
Do I know you?
Pigeons on top of the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, St. Augustine, Florida.
©Laine Quinn 2018
An affair of the heart and soul...
Where waves crash
hearts are mended.
St. Augustine Beach, June 2018. © Laine Quinn 2018
Frog eggs!
Day 2, the little dots will soon be tiny tadpoles!
How life begins, began, begun! © Laine Quinn 2018
This little seedling rooted itself in the crack of my deck table.
That's how all of the forests began...
one seedling at a time.
"Life's longing for itself."
© Laine Quinn, 2018
...for a shrimp!
Great hours, 3-6, $9.79/hr, plus tips!
Schooners Restaurant, where everyone loves the shrimp!
© Laine Quinn, 2018
A trick of the eye...
how close are they to the crashing waves?
No photographic tricks,
just a matter of perspective.
St. Augustine Beach, © Laine Quinn, 2018
(Zooming in with the phone, poor quality.)
Whichever way the wind blows,
so blows the fog,
and clings
when the weather insists.
Top of Bald Mountain, the Appalachian trail on the right, and a well trod trail it is.
© Laine Quinn 2018
On top of the mountain
the frozen fog
persists!
Bald Mountain, at the Appalachian Trail, with a view of 5 different ranges and frozen fog clinging to the branches.
© Laine Quinn 2018.
I'd almost forgotten that daffodils were my Mom's favorite flower.
She'd be 100 this year,
if she had survived her difficult challenges -
impending divorce, depression, alcoholism.
Back in the 70's it was all behind closed doors.
I'll never know her as a wise old woman,
but as a woman,
who loved the ocean,
daffodils,
and her home.
I'd almost forgotten about the daffodils,
but then
I didn't
forget.
For my mom, Nancy T. Quinn, born April 12, 1918.
The daffodils are from my recent trip to the mountains in North Carolina, and yes, it snowed! And the daffodils bounced back by the afternoon! © Laine Quinn 2018.
March winds,
and look at the trees.
What are they whispering to each other
and now they are laughing!
How many years have they stood
side by side
chattering in the wind
and silent in the calm air?
How many years?
How many stories in all that time?
Old souls,
Good neighbors.
Spanish Moss dancing in the wind on Hontoon Island, ©2007.
Stop worrying,
be here now,
or the days will slip away
in the river of time,
and THIS is all we have,
This
NOW.
Just trying to take my own advice as I ponder the reflections at Moultrie Creek, 2.02.2018.
"Are they coming?"
"Yes, I see them now."
"You look good."
"You're a sight for sore eyes too!"
"It's funny, you and me. I never imagined that I'd fall in love with...well, you!"
"Yeah, it is funny. You're not changing your mind are you?"
"No, even if I could, I couldn't change my heart. I've never felt this good before,
and I wouldn't go back for anything, you know that."
"Me too. You are the bees knees and I just love being with you.
Look at this beautiful day!"
"Isn't it glorious?"
"Better than I ever imagined it would be."
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
A blast from the past! From 2/15/2012.
Well, the rest of the story from yesterday's post is this:
when I am reading a book and have to put it aside to do other things,
the characters stay with me,
sort of like parallel lives.
I am wondering how that date is going to go
with the hired assassin and the waitress from the diner who he is obviously falling in love with,
and I have to wait a long time to find out, because the story takes a lot of detours,
and so do I!
So they are here, next to me...
Parallel!
I have discovered a fascinating author,
who's books are complicated and intriguing, and seedy and uplifting!
The assassin and the waitress are from the novel,
Two Trains Running
not the easiest read, but well worth the trouble.
It's the fourth book of Vachss' that I've read and I want to read more and more. He is very prolific, so there are no worries there!
That's what a good story provides,
a Parallel universe.
Introducing characters and places
that you never imagined or would ever bump into in your everyday life.
Between books and some of the marvelous shows streaming on television,
you can be in outer space one minute, in Kabul the next,
or on the seedy streets of New York,
all of it giving you a window into the imagination of your fellow travelers
in your universe.
"Fiction as we currently think of it, the novel and short story...offers one the very best
means of understanding people different from oneself, short of experience.
Fiction is often really much more useful than lived experience;
it takes much less time, costs nothing (from the library), and comes in a manageable,
orderly form. You can understand it. Experience just steamrollers over you and you begin to see
what happened only years and years later, if ever. Fiction is much better than reality
at providing useful factual, psychological, and moral understanding."
That's a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin, who has recently departed this world,
but left us with a treasure trove of other wildly imaginative worlds.
Quote from the wave of the mind, by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Haiku
Coming towards the end
of my life flashbacks so clear
the star - not so cool
By Laine
When you get to the last chapters of your life, there are flashes from your past,
like movies,
and you are the star.
(A good chance for humility and forgiveness.)
Original Haiku by Laine and the painting, "Leftover Paint" by Laine too, ©Laine Quinn 2018.
Breathe
Walk
Smile
Thich Nhat Hanh
Back to basics,
one of my first teachers'
best advice.
Sunset, Moultrie Creek, from Vaill Point.
Happy New Year, and Welcome 2018!
(And so long 2017, and Good Bye!)
(Good Riddance!)
Leaving a difficult year and venturing into the unknown new one.
Learning to balance the bad news and sorrows with the joy and love that is all around.
Thanks to all for the Joy and Love that is all around!
Sunrise, Crescent Beach, December 26, 2017.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
Stay Safe and Strong!
Respect
That's the word that seems to be missing from the conversation
about harassment and abuse.
Respect.
That powerful men abuse their power is nothing new.
That we objectify beauty is as old as time
and isn't going away!
But throw in respect and that beauty is recognized as other,
as another person,
not mine.
It creates a healthy boundary, something that eluded my generation,
as we were taught to be nice to people
no matter how they treated us.
(Smile!)
Teach children to respect themselves and others,
and there will be a systemic change,
a change that has already begun.
It's all good.
Now that we are sticking together.
Cummer Gardens Statue, Jacksonville, Florida.
Every day the sun rises,
whether we see it or not,
the rotation of the earth allows for one sunrise and one sunset a day.
On the International Space Station the sun rises and sets about 15 times a day!
It's a shift in perspective,
a way different point of view!
St. Augustine Beach sunrise, last month, 2017.
...and then I came across this little gem and wanted to share it.
"...more peaceful than morning."
Unwrapping a delivery at the Gallery where I work, I spotted this. No photo required!
Let the beauty that you love
be what you do.
Rumi
This was spotted on my way home from the beach yesterday evening...
My life is better than your vacation.
So, assuming a lot, like if any of that is true,
would you be the "My" in that sentence, or the "Your"?
Maybe a little bit of both, I hope!
The thing about evacuating ahead of a powerful, deadly storm, that may or may not be a direct hit on your world, is that you say
"goodbye" to your life, your things and your home,
not knowing what you will find when you return.
Here in St. Augustine, most of us have been lucky -
loss of power means everything in the refrigerator and freezer must be thrown away.
Tons of debris from the trees and the mighty winds that must be cleaned up.
Days of work lost.
Lucky to be sure.
Some have lost all.
It puts things into perspective, though, saying goodbye to your physical world.
You know first hand what is really important in your world,
and it can be summed up in one word-
LOVE.
We are lucky, those of us who can feel the love,
lucky indeed.
Crescent Beach, not a Hurricane! July 11, 2017.
A Beautiful sunny holiday.
Lots of families out to enjoy the beach,
playing, fishing, reading in the sun.
An overheard conversation about Hurricane Harvey -
on people's minds -
and another Hurricane barrelling toward the islands.
But life must go on, if we are to make sense of any of it.
Compassion and worry are alive, but so are joy and happiness.
Enjoy the moments!
Labor Day, Porpoise Point, St. Augustine, Florida, 2017
Well, for at least two weeks, I can account for my whereabouts!
My first trip to Mexico!
San Miguel de Allende-
cobblestone streets,
colorful houses and shops,
lovely people,
and steep steep streets,
surrounded by mountains.
A great vacation!
Rain to the left of me,
Rain to the right,
here I am,
stuck in the middle
with a view!
More from the Crescent Beach storm, 7.10.2017. That's the shrimp boat on the horizon!
In between the sky and the sea.
Rain clouds closing in from the south and the north.
Whenever a boat takes to the water,
there is a story to tell.
Storms, sea creatures,
and the one that got away.
There is always a story!
Crescent Beach, storms brushing by and a shrimp boat minding it's own business. 7.10.2017.