Sincere, unapologetic gratitude
goes a long way towards
opening our hearts.
And there is lots to be grateful for,
lots!
Maple tree in Baltimore.
©LaineQuinn2022
The beauty around us
No matter where you are
There is beauty around you!
The Inlet St. Augustine
©LaineQuinn 2022
Like snakes, lizards shed their skin.
This one is in the middle of that shedding,
frozen almost, not moving.
It must be a difficult process,
making them vulnerable,
like us when we go through changes -
shedding the layers of our defenses,
opening up to the world and love!
When I was much younger
I used to take vacation days from myself!
I would pretend to be the person that I really wanted to be!
It has taken most of my life
to shed the things that were in the way of my being that person.
But here I am, most days,
the person I always wanted to be!
(Too bad I couldn't get new skin too!)
©LaineQuinn 2022
Life longing for itself...
Quote from Sweet Honey on the Rocks quoting Kahlil Gibran.
Tadpoles, 2 generations, life goes on and on - no matter what the humans are doing!
Birds, bees, bugs, frogs,squirrells - all of it!
And Why not?
©LaineQuinn 2022
The way the light catches the sails
at a certain time of day...
it's irresistible,
delicious,
wonderful.
The Schooner Freedom returning to safe harbor.
©LaineQuinn 2022
I am a thing
among other things.
That line from the book The Alphabet of Grace,
seemed to me to equalize everything.
Me, the lizard, the leaf, you-
We are all just here,
doing what we do
with all of the rest of nature and things!
Why be so serious?
Relax.
Enjoy!
You are just a thing
among other things!
No better
and no worse either!
Book by Frederick Buechner.
Photo of lizard on a thing, at the edge of the garden, in St. Augustine Florida.
© 2021 Laine Quinn
Parts reprinted from Laine's Blog!
Sea oats in the breeze
Sun getting ready to set
One more wave - no two!
Vilano Beach, July 2022
©2022 LaineQuinn
What's up is down!
And what's down is up!
It stretches the mind...
Reflections
©LaineQuinn2022
Unfortunately, Monday, there was no photograph of the snails as I moved them into the grass and continued walking the dog.
So, to make up for it, here are another photo for you to enjoy!
A tiny frog, just graduated from the tadpole pond!
©LaineQuinn2022
"...flowering plants were revolutionary in their appearance on the earth
some two hundred million years ago,
are dominant on land from the arctic to the tropics,
and are crucial to our survival."
Since reading those lines in Rebecca Solnit's book, Orwell's Roses,
I haven't been able to look at a flower without a deep sense of wonder
and gratitude!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would not have evolved.
Period!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would disappear from the earth.
Amen!
Quote from Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit
Flowers from Baltimore and St. Augustine, Mums, Lilies, Hibiscus
©LaineQuinn 2022
What if you are here on this beautiful, physical, gravity based planet,
simply because you want to be here?
You like a challenge!
Reprinted from LainesBlog
©LaineQuinn 2022
Landing gear down...
Check.
Landing gear up...
Check.
These Brown Pelicans, up close enough to see the accordion wings against the sky,
are proof positive that we live in a very beautiful, complex,
and fascinating world.
You are clear for takeoff!
Saint Augustine Beach Pier, once again hosting the people who fish and the birds who love them.
Reprinted from LainesBlog, February 2015
©LaineQuinn 2022
Coming up for air.
Thanks to Jake for encouraging me to get my camera out, otherwise I would have missed this shot! Cape Charles, Virginia, August, 2010.
©Laine Quinn 2022, Reprinted fro LainesBlog, January 2012
My Christmas Tree this year is a Live Oak Tree!
The tinsel is silvery Spanish Moss.
The ornaments are Squirrels and Birds and Lizards!
The Star at the top is our very own Star, the Sun!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
And this is my Christmas Card to Everyone!
With Love,
Laine
Sign created by Aden with Lizard lazing on top!
Birds are, Black and White Warbler, Red Bellied Woodpecker and unknown maybe sparrow or warbler!
©Laine Quinn 2021
The sun sets on another day
another week
another year.
©2021 Laine Quinn
Inlet, Vilano Beach
What nourishes you
in the middle of a Pandemic?
What nourishes you
when political forces take a dark turn
and plunge us into a past that should be long forgotten?
For me it is Poetry -
Poetry and Music that soothe my soul
and the beauty all around me -
flowers still blooming in our Florida gardens and
the angle of the sun in the trees at a certain time of day,
and of course the beach!
And happy dogs and peaceful cats!
And friends, young and old!
Let the autumn light reach you.
©2021 Laine Quinn, photo of Spanish Moss in Live Oaks at Washington Oaks State Park.
Does the Egret apologize to the fish?
Is the fish feeling like a victim, getting angry and huffy?
These two marvelous creatures are
living and dying on the same page.
No apologies.
No blame.
When we seek honestly that which nourishes us,
we thrive.
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, October, 2011
©LaineQuinn 2011
What I know - what I know is -
Love will find a way.
Conflict in your life?
Say this -
Love will find a way.
Anxious?
Say this in your heart and mind -
Love will find a way.
It does.
It will.
Somehow it opens your heart and reminds you of the love there.
There is a song that goes like the first line of this post but I can't find it!
But there are 2 others with the title of "Love Will Find a Way" by Pablo Cruise and Lionel Ritchie.
In any event, Love will find a way!
©Laine Quinn 2021 Photo of sunrise with steady waves, one after the other, 09/08/2021
I wanted to write about the unsettling times we find ourselves in
and then there was that date,
September 11, 2021
staring me in the eye.
In 2001, almost a week after that horrible day,
I was on a sailboat in Provincetown Harbor
and witnessed the most magnificent sunset
caused by the dust in the air all the way from
New York City to Cape Cod,
from that terrible tragedy at the World Trade Center Towers.
I lived in Provincetown at the time and my friend invited me out on the water.
Planes were still grounded and it was eerily quiet and peaceful, calm and beautiful.
We talked about how the U.S. behaved in the world
and how that created more enemies than friends.
The Country stood still for a while -
collective grief - shock - compassion - empathy.
And you know the rest of the story.
They said,
"Get on with your lives." "Go shopping."
We'll start a war or two and make it right.
A primitive response lacking insight, intelligence, even compassion for the victims.
It's not what their families wanted.
It wasn't misguided -
it was exactly what some people wanted.
Will America ever be the Beacon of Democracy she promised to be?
Not like that.
Not like that.
©Laine Quinn 2021, photo September 17th, 2001.
Between cloudy nights
and thunderstorm days,
the moon only showed her face two times
for an entire month.
But the clouds - the clouds were wonderful!
building each day in the willing sky,
between sun and rain and rainbows!
©LaineQuinn 2021 Stormy July!
Can you be stressed and joyful at the same time?
Worried and happy at the same time?
Yes
and
Yes!
It takes some living and loving and forgiving
to arrive at a time in your life
when your emotions balance
without effort.
Joy and happiness can rise to the top like bubbles in water.
Stress is still stress and worry is still worried,
but they're paired with your innate joy
and they don't eat away your minutes and hours-
your days and nights.
The edges are smoothed and softened.
You can still find gladness in the little things
and laugh at your clumsy self.
©Laine Quinn 2021, Vilano Beach July 2021.
Hello, loyal followers!
Laine's blog is in its 10th year!
(I can't believe it!)
Thank you for being part of my dreams and meanderings!
The subscription service that I have been using, Feedburner
will no longer be available after June.
I have moved my list to Mail Chimp and hope that I did it correctly!
You might get two copies of this if it is working,
so please be patient with me while I iron out the wrinkles.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for Laine's Blog!
With love and best wishes for everyone!
Laine
Spotting a Baby bird outside my window, I watched to see if she was in distress...
And here comes her mom or dad!
A few seconds later, after mom left,
one of her siblings flew in and knocked her off the railing!
They tussled on the ground until the intruder took off and she flew back up to the rail
waiting for the next feeding!
So, she could fly!
And her parents were feeding more than one babe!
And all of this outside my window!
Lucky me!
©Laine Quinn 2021 Baby Tufted Tit Mouse and parent!
Sometimes when I am standing at the water's edge,
looking out over the waves,
I think that I should be having some profound thought
or insight into my life or life in general.
But, I never do.
Sometimes I am worried about something.
Sometimes I am not worried!
Standing there or walking,
loving the wind on my face and the waves bumping into each other
and the low ceiling of clouds moving overhead -
it is enough -
more than enough.
Just being there!
Yes,
it is plenty!
©LaineQuinn 2020
Waves at Vilano Beach, Egrets and Pelicans and Gulls in the distance and Dolphins and fish swimming below!
That we dedicate a day for the celebration of the Earth
is absurd and also necessary.
The, so called, "most intelligent" creatures that life has spawned
can't even protect that which sustains their very existence.
(It wasn't always this way.)
There are people involved in the destruction of our air, water and soil
who just don't care.
They don't see the earth as a living, breathing, life sustaining entity -
all they see is profit and power.
They continue to exploit the natural resources that belong to all of us
without consideration of the consequences,
much to our peril
and all in pursuit of profit and the power that comes with it.
Promises are made and broken.
They just don't care.
You and me - we can do our part and should continue to do our part -
but until corporations and governments stop tearing the fabric of life apart
we are doomed.
It is a few at the top,
the very top of the pyramid who allow the destruction to continue.
There are new promises in the works that will help to mitigate the destruction -
let's hope it is not too little too late
and that those promises are not broken.
It is time to hold their feet to the fire -
hold those in power accountable and don't let up.
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King Jr.
©LaineQuinn 2021
In an attempt to remain positive in my blog, I must say that I am positive that we are in a very precarious situation!
Every day brings us closer to moonlight
But
Where is she now?
(Crescent moon coming soon to your neighborhood sky!)
In Honor of National Poetry Month, an original!
©Laine Quinn
Photos taken in 2013, the moon and Venus just after sunset.
Grounded in springtime -
planting and potting and cleaning!
And the Cicadas are due any minute now!
We called them the 17 year Locusts.
Magicicada.
Living as nymphs, 8 feet below the surface,
feeding on tree root sap in underground bunkers,
(and I thought they were sleeping!),
17 years later,
they emerge through tunnels that they create,
to shed their skins
and reveal the insect that we are familiar with,
the Cicada.
The males sing their hearts out
waiting for a reply from a willing female.
5 weeks later they are gone - deceased- it's over -
except for the thousands of eggs left behind in the bark of their preferred trees.
These eggs become larvae that fall to the ground
and become the hardy nymphs that live quietly underground
for a very long time!
Yes, the "song" can be annoying, deafening even,
but it is truly fascinating to ponder such a life
and to witness its Grand Finale!
Grounded indeed!
©2021 Laine Quinn
Photo of a bog on a farm nearby!
I am a thing
among other things.
There was a little book
in the "Tiny Library"
next to the little playground
which is next to the community garden
in my neighborhood.
My young friend wanted to play on his own
for a little bit,
so I picked up the little book,
"The Alphabet of Grace"
to peruse
and sat on the bench
to read.
I forced myself to remember that line,
or close to it
because it seemed to equalize everything!
Me, the swing set, the sliding board,
the moon and the stars.
We are all just here,
doing what we do
with all of the rest of nature and things!
Why be so serious?
Relax.
Enjoy!
You are just a thing
among other things!
No better
and no worse either!
Make good trouble!
When I went back to borrow the book, it was gone!
But I found the author on line, Frederick Buechner.
Photo of lizard on a thing, at the edge of the garden,
© 2021 Laine Quinn
I can see you!
Puma in the ferns, and his gorgeous eyes looking back at me.
©2021 Laine Quinn