Beauty in the world is experienced by the individual as feeling.
If we look more closely at beauty and try to describe more carefully the beauty of the world,
we do not arrive at aesthetics, but rather love.
Is not beauty the particular way in which the world expresses itself as love?
...love, the interior presence of beauty.
From the book by Robert Sardello, Love and the Soul, Creating a Future for Earth.
Even though our art show is closed,
the good news is that
I have been accepted into the Butterfield Garage Art Gallery!
So...
You can see a smaller selection of my photographs anytime!
Pat Arenas is already a member and her work is always on display.
That being said, here are the promised photos of the show.
Thanks to all for your love and support,
friends and family,
far and near.
We love you!
Love, and Joy!
Like flowers bring!
(People can bring that too!)
Cape Cod Hydrangeas!
To see such craft...
And the dish ran away with the spoon!
Which Provincetown Restaurant?
Childhood rhyme,
Hey Diddle Diddle.
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such craft,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
It was the blue that saved my soul
when I lived in this small seaside town.
Perhaps there is someone there now
soaking up the shimmering light and colors,
healing from a loneliness she doesn't even know is hers.
Provincetown Blues.
A good day indeed.
Finback Whale and Humpbacks off Cape Cod on the Dolphin Fleet out of Provincetown.
Thank You!
On our way back to the dock,
leaving the Humpback whales to their stomping grounds,
and the humans to forage on land.
Whale watching on Cape Cod with the Dolphin Fleet.
This I miss the most!
More photos tomorrow!
What is it about the moon that speaks to us?
Perhaps it is that our ancestors from long long ago admired and loved that rocky orb,
and it is deep in our cells to respond somehow to its beauty.
Last month's super moon,
the night before the eclipse.
The eclipse!
Earth's shadow moves across her moon.
Sun, Earth and Moon in perfect alignment.
On vacation and settled into a little cottage on a clear night, on Cape Cod, without my tripod!
(These shots are a testament to the genius of the engineers who developed digital cameras.
I was able to change the "ISO" (film speed) to a whopping 1600. The only wobbly shots are the ones in total shadow.)
© Laine Quinn
The clouds above us join and separate,
The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns.
Life is like that, so why not relax?
Who can stop us from celebrating?
The poet Lu Yu quoted in The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.
Photo of celebrating flowers taken in a small New England town while waiting for lunch!
You've heard of armchair gardeners?
I am an armchair winter person.
I love snow!
Photograph shot from the old Dusty Miller Inn, looking down Bradford Street, in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
What to do with the unlovable parts of ourselves?
Try as we might, we can't run away or separate ourselves from our shadows.
What happens if we sit and stay, like a good dog that wants to jumpandrunaround so badly,
but we sit and we stay, and we don't look away?
The poets say that's when the light gets in.
And it's true.
If we can love ourselves in our worst moments, then we are that much closer to just about everyone on the planet.
Our compassion shines through the dark.
We love more and judge less.
If you're having one of those days, (weeks, months),
try to sit and to stay long enough for the light to find you,
and believe that you are equal to the best of us.
And don't forget to ask for help from your favorite
"other"-
whether it's the angels,
your higher self,
or your God.
It can't hurt!
We need you back here.
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, February 2012. Top photo is the shadow of the passion vine. Lower shot is Herring Cove Beach, Dark Sky. All used with permission and tweaked a little.
In Spring and early Summer the Right whales feed just off the beaches in Provincetown.
You can spend an afternoon with them,
watching and listening to their unusual sounds,
receiving the blessings freely offered.
The ancient whales have observed human evolution for millenium,
and know things that we can only guess at.
Although we might be a bit of a dissapointment to them,
they seem always to bless us and raise our spirits,
teasing us to higher ground.
Photo of a Humpback Whale, out of Provincetown, doing what the humans call "tail slapping". The whales probably have another name for it!
Water is the architect of much of our world.
Beaches are rearranged daily by oceans and tides.
Snow is rained upon, melts, and refreezes in amazingly similar ways.
And this wonderful creature spends all of her time in water
and the lines along her body are
a lot like the sandy beach above.
1. St. Augustine Beach
2. Baltimore backyard, with snow.
3. Humpback Whale, rolling in the Atlantic Ocean.
The rain was falling so gently in drifts across the sky
the other day
that it looked like snow.
A blast of winter is coming through tonight,
and tomorrow,
but will be gone by Thursday.
In all of the places I have lived there's snow now.
Here in St. Augustine,
beautiful white sandy beaches will have to do!
(After a few choice expletives aimed at that "something" that keeps pulling me into a hole.)
I want to go to the root of my happiness & hang on to it -
Really I won't need to cling to it, will I?
Non attatchment - non judgement -
What is the root of my happiness?
Joy
The Joy of being on this beautiful planet & being human.
being alive in this miraculous body.
Being human. Not perfect or a god. but human.
No longer at war with myself or my humanness. accepting, tolerant celebrating.
I came here to make friends
with myself
and we're having a fight.
Not speaking really.
one of us wants to be happy
the other melancholy.
So I am beside myself.
...
I am trying to make light of it.
Go out & have a fist fight with the air...
growl and scowl but let it pass.
Something in the stars - the waning moon - the front coming through-
What?
(Later after a walk...)
I left here hungry
without breakfast or love
I walked by the water
on a blue sky day
and came home full of love
still no breakfast
no bath
no chores done
but myself has come home
again for - we don't know how long
& welcome back you lovely
beautiful soul
welcome back.
C-Scape dune shack and Pilgrim Monument in the distance. Provincetown, Massachesetts.
December 7 2001 Am
Shack
Last Day
A mouse goes to sleep
in the morning, would you say
good night (sleep tight) or g'day!?
The demons came, softly quietly as though they were so comfy & friendly with me and I had a sit down talk with myself like a loving partner might - everytime you get happy you get ahead you get to feeling really good - someone in here makes fun of you - belittles you diminishes your joy & even your pain - Why do you let that happen? Try to keep an eye on the BIG Picture. Leave yourself alone - Be silly Be joyful be a pain - don't apologize or compare - keep an eye on The BIG Picture - It's not just you here - there's lots to do & see - You have as much right as anyone to be here & and to be you here -
Something keeps pulling you down into the hole -
More tomorrow...
Photo: Winter Retreat, taken on a very cold day visiting the shack.
December 3, 2001
C-Scape Dune Shack, evening.
Walking back toward the shack today after hiking & scketching & napping - I was planning on some lunch -
However there was a group of clouds over the shack in an otherwise cloudless sky. These clouds looked like stylized - Beautifully stylized dolphins in the wild in and out of the water - Just Beautiful & the whole configuration was sort of in the shape of a diamond. So me thinks to meself - maybe there are dolphins in the ocean just over the dune here. So I go inside and put my things away & get my binoculars.
I go down to the beach & think - well the clouds are really over Race Pt and I'm not walking to race Pt.
So I'm watching the ducks and the Loons and Lo and behold I see splashing in the distance - lots of splashing then I see spouts & dorsal fins & then tails and a few breaches! perhaps some dolphins but most definitely whales!
How wonderful & so cosmic to have that cloud enlighten me to visitors in the neighborhood!
I looked over my shoulder to acknowledge the cloud & it had disappeared!
Disappeared!
Photo taken several years prior to the above entry from a whale watch boat.
Grammer and spelling are true to the original entry!
Twelve years ago I won a week's stay in a Dune Shack
in Provincetown on Cape Cod.
Already initiated in shack dwelling by a generous friend
who taught me about wood fires and well water and kerosene lamps,
there was no fear,
only anticipation.
Craving the isolation and solitude,
on my first day I bristled when I saw two women approach the shack.
They politely knocked on the door and apologized for the intrusion.
"...but would you mind terribly if I showed my friend the shack,
my stay here was so important to my life that I wanted to show her?
We won't be long I promise,
I understand your need for solitude."
They were so respectful of my time and space that when they departed
only minutes later, I almost wished that they would stay longer!
This week on LainesBlog,
I will revisit that week in December
with some excerpts from my journals
and a few photos as well!
I hope that you enjoy it!
The C-Scape Dune shack in Provincetown on Cape Cod.
The "intruder" was the writer, Joan Anderson whose book, A Year By The Sea, is an inspiring story about her late life changes in family and marriage and work.
Walking with my camera,
my first winter in Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod,
the day after a beautiful blizzard came to town,
capturing my new home all dressed up in snow white.
My New England winter dream come true!
Commercial Street, the Lobster Pot and the Old Colony Tap, Provincetown, 1996.
These two pelicans, flying and diving together in the shallow waters of Tampa Bay,
in time to their own music,
reminded me of the two humpback whales dining together off Cape Cod,
and the pilot whales, dancing in perfect harmony.
Occasionally humans can, without a word, step together harmoniously to shared music.
It's great fun when it happens,
and like the dance instructor said,
"Don't worry if you misstep, it's part of the fun and just like life.
Make it part of the dance until you can find the rhythm again!"
(Sorry, no photos of the humans dancing, as they are very difficult to photograph in the wild!)
It still snows up north,
even though it is 75 degrees here in St. Augustine.
It's less real than a dream,
and impossible to conjure up the actuality of snow!
In this photo it's snowing one of those magical snowfalls,
where the flakes quietly stick to the branches,
transforming the forest.
You might say that this shortcoming of ours, not being able to invoke snow,
is a plug for being in the moment,
because all that we are is here and now.
Gentle snowfall in Beech Forest, Cape Cod.
When we realize that we are the ones writing our own stories,
it comes with a certain acceptance that some of the "well intentioned" institutions
of our childhoods (church, school, family) might have led us astray -
for a decade or two or three,
like this runaway buoy that, were it still functioning and emitting a beacon,
might misguide an unwitting sailor on some foggy night and guide her straight into the shore.
We certainly do run aground more that a few times in the course of a lifetime.
If we can get over the anger and bitterness and all of the other uncomfortable feelings that arise,
at least it can serve to make the story more interesting
and we can really become the Captains of our souls.
(And we might finally learn the difference between functional and dysfunctional!)
Now, that's a healthy aid to navigation!
Buoy #7 lost on land on Anastasia Island. Buoy #3 floating soundly in Cape Cod Bay.
When the fish are running in seaside towns,
the word spreads quickly.
Some years ago, a close encounter with Hurricane Floyd,
stirred up the surf and the fish and our restless spirits on Cape Cod.
Here's hoping that all of our friends in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
are safe and warm after their collision with Hurricane Sandy.
Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Saturday evening as I was driving along US 1,
there was a beautiful sunset over the marsh, next to the railroad tracks.
A storm was moving away that created a low ceiling or shelf
that by and by was gray and then golden and then a wonderful sunset glow
of oranges and reds and pinks.
On my way someplace to go somewhere else,
I didn't stop to get the shot.
This happened another time, in Provincetown, my last week there,
on our way to dinner after a craft show,
the sky was putting on a magnificent show.
What I remember most is that it just got better and more brilliant,
as though it would go on all night long.
Standing on the hill that overlooked Provincetown harbor,
all I could do was soak it in.
It felt like a gift after an exhausting day,
and there I was without my camera!
Some people can paint beautiful pictures with words,
others can paint beautiful pictures.
Me, I need a camera.
As above,
so below.
or,
you could say...
Heaven on Earth!
Moors Reflection, west end of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
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.
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.
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.
Just a little something to cool you off on these hot summer days.
Happy Hot Summer!
Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Cape Cod, Winter!
Red sky at night,
sailor's delight...
and whale watch Captains too!
The tidal flats in Provincetown with the Pilgrim Monument and sunset!
Zora Neale Hurston: Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)