Early morning light creates a patch of paradise by the side of the road,
illuminating these blooming grasses to create a bit of magic
fit for a faery.
Everything looks better in this light!
-
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!)
-
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.
-
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.
-
The sun was setting and shining shyly on the waves after hiding all day,
and then this!
Rainbow after Isaac, Ormond Beach, Forida.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
I walk the line…
Sandpipers, St Augustine Beach.
-
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.
Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud
Gleanings From Living Long
Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud 