Sometimes it works to simply let the photos speak for themselves. Good night.
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Clouds
Today’s Picture to Ponder Photos
Sunset in Sedona, Arizona
As I observed the setting sun in scene shown in the top photo, I felt like I could be observing one of our Florida sunsets. The mountains in the distance became indistinguishable as such, especially since the distant trees here in Florida, at sunset, often look like mountains.
The full experience of Sedona’s sunset can be felt in the lower photo, where we experience the awe of the setting sun reflecting on the rocks. The majesty of the Sedona Red Rocks is accentuated by the bright end-of-the-day light, reflecting on the rocks, as contrasted with the pink reflections of clouds in the water here in Florida that I’ve shared with you in the past.
You can see more Sedona sunset photographs on my FlickR pages.
Today’s Self-Reflecting Queries
I’m observing, as I write the photo descriptions above, how much of what I’m sharing is about making comparisons.
For some time, I’ve heard countless people exuberantly talking about Sedona and thanks to an invitation from my good friend Shellie, Zumba Gold Queen (among other roles), I got to experience the Scottsdale/Sedona area of Arizona for almost the first time. When I was 15 years old, I did take the mule train ride down Grand Canyon (more than 50 years – a half a century – ago!)
It was the first time taking a major tourist-type vacation without my beloved Sam, whom most of you know passed away in November. On some level, throughout the journey, I kept silently comparing what I was seeing with what we both had shared in our East Coast travels over the years. I’m continuing to process the trip on many levels.
In the meantime, I have over 1,000 photos to sort through and a Picture to Ponder to deliver. So, taking one step at a time, I’m starting with mid-week and a sunset.
Today, I invite you to look into your life to see:
1. Are there areas in your life where you find yourself endlessly comparing one thing to another, one person to another or to your own expectations?
2. If “yes,” to any of the above, can you see where this might be holding you back from possibly fully experiencing the joy and presence of what is?
3. Are there places where, once you become aware of the “chatter”, you can shift to being present for yourself?
4. Lastly, once again “reflections” were part of the featured photos; albeit the reflections on rocks being a variation on those we’ve shown in the past.
Are there places in your life where you are casting reflections of yourself? If so, are they ones of bright light, perhaps even in a smile that lights up another, or are they more passive, such as the ones in the mirror?
Given, I’ve chosen to be more proactive this week, I think I’ll pick up on the former, looking for ways I can cast a bright light. How about you?
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***Special Event***
Grow a Million Dollar Business Summit
13+ teleconference sessions, plus 85 page workbook and much more. See WHERE WOMEN PROSPER I’ve been to all of Heidi Richard’s WECAI events, content rich and fun. Kick off tonight – 9/16 – then 9/18 -20 and 9/23.
Today’s Picture to Ponder Photos
The upper photo is a very bright Full Moon, early in the evening, adorned with clouds and framed by trees in Green Cay Wetlands.
The lower is a cut Saturn, also known as Donut, Peach in a Ceramic Dish
These two may likely seem to be a strange combination of photographs. “What might be the theme?” you could be asking. The lower peach photo is part of a series I describe on the Photography and Transformation blog, per my intention to post fruit photos daily for a week.
My attraction to the peach photo here has nothing to do with the peach itself. When I view the image, I’m caught up in the almost abstract quality of it, when I don’t think about what the main object is. For me then, it’s simply the play and repetition of lines and textures, as well as, very subtly, colors.
The moon photo also has an abstract quality and feeling and given the colors and shapes are somewhat similar to those in the lower photo, I thought it would be interesting to put them together on one “wall”, our Picture to Ponder page.
Today’s Self-Reflecting Queries
Today, I invite you to look into your life to see:
1. where there may be situations, projects, people that you keep totally separate and distinct – compartmentalized.
2. Is anything, or anyone, standing out, as you look at this here?
3. What elements are there that brings this/these to mind now?
4. Is there any commonality with/among what you are noticing? If so, do you see a way in which putting them together might empower you, them or the situation?
5. If “yes”, I invite you to have fun creating something new.
My Story of the Day leading to these queries:
There is really not much of a story today beyond the photos that caught my attention. As usual, the queries evolve as I wrote.
Actually the full moon photo was an unexpected one in that it was very late and almost dark when I started my Green Cay Wetlands walk. I almost left my camera in the car thinking it would be too dark to photograph. Then that voice in me that reminds me to ALWAYS take make camera, “You never know what will show up,” had me bring it along.
I was so glad I paid attention, for shortly after I started walking, I had one of the “on-rare-occasions” magical sighting, at least for me!
Have you ever experienced glancing up at the moon and seeing it as a HUGE globular, ball of light, which doesn’t last for very long? Although not huge this time, I did, as I was walking, see an extra large and very orange light beyond the trees.
I scurried to catch it, with my thankful-I-had-it camera, and “grabbed” what I could in photographs, mildly chastising myself for not having started walking from the opposite direction, where I would have seen more of the moon show earlier than I did.
Once again, I could dwell on possible missed opportunities or, more powerfully, be with those that did develop.
I’m sure additional queries could come from this for you. If that happens, certainly, be with and expand on whatever it is that comes up.
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Fireflag Leaves Silhouetted against Eastern Clouds Reflecting Sunset
I love the grace of the fireflag plant, both the flowers and leaves. In this photo I love the russet colors and the contrasts. To a peaceful weekend, all storms aside.
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Today’s Picture to Ponder Photos
Red Hibiscus flowers on bush in my back yard. The upper photo is of the underside of the flower, backed by my privacy fence.
Today’s Self-Reflecting Queries
Today I invite you to look into your life:
1. Are there people or situations in your life looming large, right in front of you, whom you are walking around or ignoring? These might not even be intentional actions.
If so, I invite you to stop, look at and spend some time with what you are now seeing. Is any thing new opening up for you?
2. Are there beautiful objects, people and/or situations in your life that you look at all the time from only one perspective? If so, I invite you to take some time and examine it/them from several directions and then to, again, pay attention to what might be opening up for you.
My “story” of the day, leading to these questions -The red hibiscus bush, the source of these flowers, is quite large, almost five feet in height and probably, at least, four feet across. Right now a couple of the branches are crawling across the ground. The bush sits outside my patio window and, when I open my eyes to it, it is the first thing I see every morning as I walk out onto my patio to sit and write my “morning pages.”
The point to today’s story is that the hibiscus bush is also right in front of the maranta – prayer plant – I’ve been photographing daily. See Unconditional Love – The Maranta Story on my blog. At times, I’ve even stepped over the branches to get closer to the prayer plant. And the hibiscus is only a foot or two away from the passionflower vine that I’ve also been photographing daily.
In the case of both the maranta and passionflower, I have taken on the theme of observing daily the opening up, growth and expansion of these two plants. I’ve moved from “peeling away the layers of an onion, analogous to peeling away the layers of ourselves” (note the several blog posts) to observing “adding on,” so-to-speak.
In my mind, the hibiscus bush had no relevance to what I had honed in on for daily picture-taking focus, so I simply ignored it. Then one recent day, the camera and I did stop and pay attention to the delicacy of the front view of one of the flowers in the late afternoon light and to the beauty, grace and stateliness of the underside of another.
We, thus come back to today’s queries. Where in your life may you be ignoring beauty that is right in front of you? And, where are you only paying attention to one view or perspective?
As always, have fun and play with these questions.
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Reflected Sunset in Green Cay
After the experience of a “missing” sunset, as described below, in Radiating Possibilities in Picture to Ponder, I decided to commit to sunset walking at Green Cay every night this week, other than the one night when I had a business meeting. It was more a matter of acting out of setting an intention and following through than it was about the sunsets. And, of course, I got some interesting sunsets.
The added outcome of this was that I also started playing more with the video feature on my camera, recording birds at sunset and posting them on You Tube. When you visit there, you’ll see a Limpkin at sunset, moorhens – both young and adult, and a white egret and his reflection in moving water. Do check out this very short video clips at Inspirational Sheila’s videos on You Tube.
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Last of the Sunset in my Boynton Beach, FL Neighborhood – 8/24/08
Photo today for you to simply enjoy, or query, until tomorrow’s issue of Picture to Ponder when I’ll feature more, plus the story and queries.
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Driving to Wakodahatchee Wetlands (Delray Beach, FL) early evening I was enthralled with the beauty of the puffy clouds. They looked like huge cotton balls that I wanted be be able to pluck from the sky. That being an impossibility, all I could think of was, “Where could I get a full, unblocked view to photograph the wide expanse?”
The first stop in the parking lot at Wakodahatchee provided a somewhat “uncluttered” view, giving off the feeling of the clouds that I hoped to capture and I did not like the idea of the fence. Once I downloaded the photograph onto my computer, I liked the composition and decided that, in fact, the fence could be somewhat of a metaphor for the inability to actually be able to touch the clouds.
The middle photo of the three is to simply share the beauty of the expanse of the boardwalk and the clouds. And the bottom photo, provided the culmination of my experience of my walk the the clouds. A Rainbow, or at least the colors thereof, !! in the clouds themselves. (top of the lower left quadrant just left of center, for those who might not see it right away)
Observations/Queries:
1. My usual inclination after seeing the rainbow would be to Google, “what is a rainbow? How could it be in a cloud?” Then I realized that I could simply appreciate and be happy with what is, what’s giving me pleasure, rather than attempting to “find answers.
Is there something in your life, where you’re caught up in finding answers that you are missing the beauty of present moments?
2 . Why is it that generally-speaking, we think of clouds as a negative, a “cloudy day” connoting “dingy,” “grey” – “trouble coming,” among any of the other phrases we hear when we get into a “bloom and doom” mode?
What is your experience of clouds? Of reacting to a situation, with the meanings you attach to thme?
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