Celebrating the Mundane

We are staying at a friend's house in Angel Fire for the weekend. It is always beautiful up here in the mountains! The home we are staying at is beautiful too...I had to take these snaps; most are rather mundane things, but I still find beauty in it all. From a decorative plate, the side of a jar, the tile floor, my son's skateboard, a toy...it's all good!

Post Script: These are all about fleeting moments in time. That's what life is comprised of, these fleeting moments. Many things pass us by without our noticing them. But, when you do get into the habit of noticing more and more of these fleeting moments in time, you are more able to connect to that concept of 'living inthe moment'. We say the words so easily, but in practice, it is oh so illusive and difficult to practice!

Reflections

Last Saturday, I did a fairly spur of the moment thing and went on a nature walk with folks I didn't know who all signed up for the event at the Wild Bird Center Store in Corrales. We all met at the store at 7:30 in the morning and drove over to a nearby "lake' fishing pond that the birds like to hang out at. Since we are near to the Rio Grande River, we are on the migratory path for many birds. Everyone brought binoculars except me. I couldn't because I didn't know how I could lug a pair of binoculars and my camera gear at the same time. I went in hopes of mabye catpuring some images of some of the birds. Yeah, I know I'm not a wildlife photographer nor do I have the right gear for it, but it seemed like a good spot to get some really neat images.

I had no idea how true that ended up being! I was floored by the beauty of this shangrila not far from my home.

I also found out early on that trying to get a good shot of a bird (any bird) was nearly impossible. They are high up or far away in the canopy of the Cottonwood trees and are either perfectly still (no contrast from the foilage they are among) OR flitting about from one spot to the next. Can you say, "No way, Jose"?

However, the morning light was absolutely perfect; a bit of cloudiness and no wind. Which made for a mirror refelction of everything around the pond's perimeter. Yowsa! And the wild yellow irises were at their peak.

I've done a previous post a long time ago on a similar subject matter; reflections. I could continue to do future posts on reflections as I have a lot of images that have to do with this subject matter. But, I'll spare you and just limit it to these!

I thought the whole scene that I saw before was so captivating and beautiful. Know too, that no tweaking was done to any of these images! This is exactly how I shot them! When everything falls into the right place at the right time, it is CRAZY GOOD!

Kiss Me!

Finished this one last week along with another called "Homeward Bound" (both are mixed media). Now I need to stop doing stuff like this long enough to complete my pieces for the 8 x 8 show! Isn't it funny how when you're supposed to be doing one thing, you find yourself wanting to pursue other things? What do they call this in psychology? "Aproach-avoid" conflict? Something like that. I forget.

I ended up calling it "Kiss Me!" because my husband said that the found objects look like LIPS.

Searching for Angels...

I was going to wait until tomorrow night to post this, but the thoughts are too 'there' for me, so I think I'd best get them out. They don't want to wait!

One of the drawbacks of living here in New Mexico for me is that I cannot visit my mother's final resting place. She is in Punchbowl Cemetary on Oahu and that is sooo far away. I had created a substitute ritual where I go down to the Rio Grande River and slowly toss 2 dozen roses into the river, one by one. It's the best I could come up with, but it still doesn't cut it. And, it's not very private as runners, skaters and bicyclists go by.

Since I had to head out to Bernalillo this morning, I decided to go visit my favorite cemetary called "Our Lady of Sorrows". I brought my camera with me because I was in search of angels.

It was such a peaceful morning and I was the only one there the entire time. My visit there felt very luxirious as I took images to my heart's content and visited with the loved ones that are buried there. I love reading the captions on the headstones as they give me a sense of who that person was; a connection. Some of them take my breath away and it is hard not to succumb to total sorrow. Especially when I realized that the cherub and dove that is my favorite belongs to little Jessica who was a week shy of one month old when she passed on.

I am mindful of where I step as to not show disrespect to those who are there. Spending time there feels a bit like visiting my family members who have left this world. There is a sense of peace, happiness and sorrow all at the same time.

I am in awe at the amount of care that goes into maintaining this cemetary; it is not run down or neglected and it seems that family is there often to check up on things.

So, it's not quite like how my visit goes with mom at Punchbowl, but it at least gives me something to hang onto with Mother's Day coming up in less than 48 hours. I also think about all the peole in my life that I know that have lost their mothers. Some as recently as a month and a half ago. That first Mother's Day that comes around after your mom dies is a doozy and I wonder how THEY are faring. That sense of loss of someone you love seems like such a lonely place to be if you let it be the only place.

"You are not alone; the journey makes us one."

And that, my friends is my lifeline that continues to bring me back to center. Let it be yours too!

Blessings...

May ATCs

Sneak preview if anyone checks in before tomorrow's ATC swap at Rhonda's. This month's suggested theme is, "Hats". Anyone who is around me for any length of time knows that I wear hats and that I have MANY hats! I used to just buy them and not wear them. And then I realized that I liked wearing baseball caps because it kept the sun off of my face. After a while, though, it does get a bit boring to be wearing the same thing, so the light bulb went off and I decided to make use of what I already had.

Besides, it's the best anti-aging device you can get your hands on!

The frist image I posted previously for an Inspire Me Thursday challenge. It was a hat I put together for a charity tea event. I took a photo of it and then "ran it through some filters" in Photoshop. The second image is something I had painted (freehand) from an illustration in a children's book. My apologies for not knowing who the illustrator is; the art was done as a mini art lesson I was giving to an 8 year old friend of mine. The last image is a vintage photo from a women's magazine from the '60's maybe? I don't even know what magazine it's from. Probably Look magazine.

So, there you have it...hats.

Illustration Friday

This week's challenge for Illustration Friday is, "Seed". I haven't posted in months, so this is my submission after my hiatus.

Seeds evoke so many different thoughts and images. Seeds of change, seeds of thought, seeds of growth, bad seed, sowing seeds...usually there is at some level an association of hope, of growth and of possiblilites.

These are seeds (or seed pods; you can see some of the seeds that have spilled out of the pods) that I am fascinated with. The plant itself is lovely; it emerges quite humbly out of the earth and is fuzzy in its foilage. The flower is purple. And then, it transforms itself into this alien-like pod which starts off as green and fuzzy. As it ripens, it dries and begins to change color. It is in the drying porcess that the pod splits in half to relinquish the seeds only when they have reached maturity.

The name of the plant is called, "Devils Claw" (Proboscidea parviflora). It grows quite well here in the Southwest and is described as a sprawling annual domesticated by the Sonoran people.

If you think you must have this to grow, you can obtain seeds from: Plants of the Southwest 6680 4th St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87107

Tagged

I was tagged last week by Bridgette!

I need to list 7 random things about myself and this seems all very familiar (or was it a tag where I had to list 8 random things?? or, 8 thing s to do before I die?).

So, here goes:

1. I was a cheerleader for an all boys high school during my senior year. It's Barbara Wahinekapu's fault!

2. My prom date in my JUNIOR year of highg school was 26 years old. I was 16. No, he wasn't a perv! Neither was I!

3. As an adolescent, I loved watching the Frigate birds circling high in the sky. What a geek...I would do it today in a heartbeat. Still a geek.

4. I play the ukelele (not very well, but I can play it!).

5.The first time I ever ate a brownie, I thought it was magically made from DIRT. Too long a story to tell you why I thought that (no, it didn't taste like dirt; it was delicious).

6. I used to have my own horse; a mare and she was a quarterhorse that was 16 hands tall. I was 4'11" when I had her.

7. My FOUR brothers and I loved it when we lost power on a schoolnight as we then got to light the kerosene lamps and pretend that we were Abe Lincoln living in a log cabin. Yeah. On Molokai. What a bunch of geeks! That's when we thought it would be cool to do our homework; by the light of the kerosene lamps. I told you we were geeks!

OK, now I'm supposed to tag 7 other people (hope they don't hate me).

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.2. Post THE RULES on your blog. 3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog. 4. Tag 7 people and link to them.5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. Laurie G 2.Mien 3.&rew 4.Judith T. 5.Raesha D. 6.Max S. 7.Sue H.

I would've tagged Debi, but I see that Bridgette had tagged her the same time I was!