Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

I remember a broken rabit-hut behind the Idle Hour.  This winter snapshot from a trailways bus just missed it; it's up the trail a ways past a frozen spring.   There it is after these many years, full of ghosts, abandoned, screen door leading to the empty porch.

THUNDERSNOW! EXTRA!  Our ever-inventive Weather Persons have discovered a new kind of sloppy.  It's  thundersnow!   It's thundering, It's slushy! It is drizzling, snowing, and sleeting!  The rain is freezing; the wind is pushing people around at 20 to 50 miles an hour! Yet nothing, no nothing, can keep our wet, windblown and frozen-fingered  New York  lovers from crossing the street,

I'm a happy bush, just look at me I'm up, I'm curled, I'm orderly. The blizzards came, the blizzards went And I'm still here, ubowed, unbent. So wherever you are and whatever may be When things get tricky just think of me! Conservancy Gardens in Winter, Central Park

Nose to tail, nose to tail, white elephants resting at the roadside edge, Wait! Is that what I think it is? That pinkish blurry image in the road? Yes! Definitely! It is a puddle! A wet wonderful icy puddle! How divinely winter.

The trail is quiet, not a bird breaks the silent, trackless, virgin Colorado Powder. Time itself rests from its relentless, steady, pushing and cracking through to an unmarked path. No spring on the wing, no thaw, no new growth needling its way into a new spring morning. No, not yet.

Our hardy photographer was again exploring the myths and sagas of the Ancient West, when he or she snapped this amazing shot of Green, the legendary protector of the Sinclair station in Southern Colorado.  The rumor is (probably) true!!   Every now and then, just once in a while, Green steps away from his daily vigil and his nightly nap to wander the midnight streets of Fairplay.  Notice the slight turn of the head, the tiny smile, the mischievous gleam of the eye.  To re-enjoy the origin legend of Green, see http://discoveringmeaninginlife.blogspot.com/search?q=green+egg

It's late afternoon in the Arkansas River Valley in Southern Colorado. Cattle graze on the yellow leftovers from the fall harvest, probably alfalfa.

Jiggity, Jaggity Jergety,  hoo! I’m bringing a pizza to you, to you. There’s ice, there’s snow No safe place to go I’m lost in the fog I’m stuck with this job I’m trapped out at night I’m getting frost-bite I’m ready to sob I’m too old for this job!! The pizza is cold. You’ll have to be told  You’ll have nothing to eat I can’t find your street! I just want to go back to Peru, Peru I want to go back to Peru!

This piece of Urban Flora is a prime example of a Time Warp Tree.  Notice how it is confused and out of focus!  This specimen is carrying a whole forest of wilted fall leaves, and uncountable leaves that simply refused to fall.  Even the winter snow cannot discourage these soggy hangers on (or, if you like, hanger ons).  Looking carefully, we see greenish leaves still clinging on from last summer.  Notice as well the half enclosed trunk.  What is that about? And to completely sadden one,  this Time Warp Tree is trying to shelter not tulips, not boxwood, but ice-encrusted garbage bags!  How thankless, yet noble. Time Warp Tree also appears to be wearing a tree-sized friendship bracelet.  Sigh. Time Warp Tree with Red Tree-Friendship Bracelet

A blank page has nothing, no nothing at all, but it makes itself over with letters and scrawl, nevertheless it remains quite pristine on the edges and margins and spaces between all those letters and such that don’t matter much so if I recall it at all then one word in twenty is plenty. Early (really early) Magnolia buds in Conservancy Garden I've sped read through more books than I can count, and I am really and truly great at it. I have become so proficient that I need only drive by a bookstore to read a book, much like ConEd reads meters. (You may not be aware of the special radio-frequency chips inserted in the spines of most best sellers.) So of course I think you should try it! Here's How: Open your eyes wide, and focus on your smart phone (how do you think that phone got so smart? Downloads!) Anyway, focus, focus. Concomitantly, Flick the pages past with a suitable finger; I prefer the two middle finger method. Now, work hard at remembering a few ...

I am hardened by the unrelenting cold Scorched by winter, moribund with icy calm Burrs scratch and itch, puncturing the edges Cold dirt. Talking drum calls out for me A drop, a flake, a pinch at a time By the tip of a root I become me again. Untermyer Fountain /Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott, French Conservancy Garden, Central Park.

Dry leaves rattle and bones click against the soft satin, shredded by time, A coffin day. I don’t know what to do when it comes down to it; Nothing seems to say itself, It just all seems out of proportion, There is no spring back in the touch, no sap of life, My fingers are aching with the sadness of it. And there’s the stupid sun, spreading itself over the morning. Look at that. A tree down for the winter, Gone, gone. Gone, gone, gone. They say the sap is just below the surface, Sticky with life, rich, and waiting. Colorado, Winter 2014

Stalking the waters of life, I tromped across the sea grass. Stickers everywhere! Foot by foot, squishing indentations into the wet sea-weeded sand. My soul is hurting for a kindred spirit, I am seeking for a shimmer through my heart, I am seeking an annuity of memories, I am catching at life with a pole and a lure. How do I trust these flutter things? this glimpse without a substance, these unborn wishes riding in, pulsing, panting, pulling at the reins. And there it is! The surf at last, pounding, pushing into the grass-riddled dunes. From the Southern Pump Station Block House, Central Park Reservoir ps: MISSION FOR THE DAY: SEARCH UP AND DOWN FOR AN ICE-FLOW (Iced over puddles count!) DISCOVER WHETHER OR NOT IT IS SUPPORTING ANY WILDLIFE (flora or fauna) IF SO, PONDER THE MATTER FOR AWHILE IF NOT, WELL, ADD SOMETHING! (a leaf, a stem, a pebble, a small pet). Finally, REPORT BACK TO HEADQUARTERS.

Tiptoeing through my fiberglass life, fearing a dent at every corner, training wheels wobbling, tattered and torn, the day wears on to a tricycle close. Well, I didn't change on purpose you know, I would happily have remained the same, hoping for a happy, homespun solution!

I find you in my mind again, not unexpectedly, but nonetheless I flee the shock of it. Ambivalent. We meet again In that very same synaptic gap And you are entirely different.

A traveling thought billowed into my mind (I had a sad little broken-bottle life, till then) Long beaches full of empty shells with six-foot rattlers, so I hear Water moccasins down there somewhere, too Spiders and roaches. Which is worse? Not a sidewalk at all in the county Photos stick together in the mildew sun Thirty-six story spacecraft under Climate Control. No looking further than the front way out No window washing, locking doors Bouncing about like a shot without a sling, My soul was on vacation, so maybe that was it. Something took a nip and a tuck out from my life So, I trimmed up for the season, and I sailed back home. I know I should have taken up a life of crime but, the threat seemed just too hollow. I see the animations on the edge of time The orbiters are swimming too close to the light. We are all of us moths, when the flight seems right.

Peaceful, snow-capped sentries watch over the entrance to Pace University Pace University Entrance, New York On the way to formerly idyllic Pace University the next day Lexington Avenue, the day after

This fascinating creature is a prime example of how anima arises spontaneously within matter that has been organized. Many of us (we scholars) talk of self-organizing systems, but such systems are not as easily arranged as they sound. However, the much more unusual phenomena is the purposely organized animated system . Indeed, our researchers-at-large, in a secret laboratory hidden in an abandoned coalmine in Northeastern Pennsylvania, have manged to infuse this snowy creature with animism. Sadly, the creature became so animated that he or she has fled the facility, and is exhibiting serious mental health issues! This cell phone photo was taken by an automobile driver cruising by. Should you catch sight of this animated being, contact us immediately.  We will send a refrigerated truck. Desperate Snowperson -- Pensylvania  (photo be brave person's relative  and donated by Christian) ** Similar words: arouse, awake, awaken, raise, rouse, stir, wake ...

Accidental Pedestrians discussing one thing and another Almost night

Lara C. and Bodie C. sustain one another on a treacherous and exhausting climb up Copper Gulch into the Sangre De Cristo mountains. Undaunted, our brave photographer stopped at nothing and recorded this event for all of us. Ponderosa Pine (?) a la Georgia O'Keeffe Lara, Bodie, and Ponderosa after treacherous hike