Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Our graceful Rainbow plays for a moment in the Italian Garden Fountain. As you can see, Rainbow is already vanishing back into its transparent spirit home. Fortunately, our brave photographer arrived just in time! A fall afternoon in the Italian Garden

That was the day I lost my glasses, A fall evening Sparrows everywhere heydaying away in the apple trees. I still wonder if they‘re stuck up there Hanging on a limb somewhere I never thought to look among the branches.   , I hated my glasses anyway with their scratchy earpieces and their flesh-colored frames. Yet mostly I remember sparrows Squabbling away with the interloping squirrels. Apple Trees Along the Jogging Path, Central Park <\br>

It may seem as though the secret garden is an idyllic spot for calm and serenity, but even in paradise there is strife. Our brave photographer was sitting quietly among the berries and the fall lilies, watching Ounce an lots of friends playing in the Sparrow Bowl, when all at once, Red Cardinal came swooping down, scattering sparrows right and left!   Perhaps this swooping was innocent enough, but our brave photographer was so stunned by the chaos that Ounce was entirely forgotten!  Ounce  was furious, and a furious, wet sparrow is a dangerous thing.  Ounce dive-bombed a couple of times and practically drown trying to save the sanctity of the sparrow bowl.  Amazingly, as stunned as our brave photographer was, the footage was still in the cloud! Conservancy Garden, October 2016, from daylight into evening Central Park

Catbird and Cardinal play in the red autumn water.  Ounce couldn't help joining in.   Hey! I know it's blurry, but it's a start!

We can all relax!  Hope is in charge! Hope, my Niece's guard dog

Once upon a time, back in the day, when the wild Green Dinosaurs roamed the West, a small green spotted egg accidentally rolled out of its nest. Down it tumbled into the deepest and darkest of the Western Canyons. There, as time would have it, Egg with Green Spots was covered with cold, moist silt. Eons past, and the moist earth rose and fell with the waves of time, tossing Egg about like a ball, and finally dropping Egg far away in the high, dry, Colorado Desert. And there Egg with Green Spots sat. Egg thought about hatching, but why? What good would it do to roam the empty Earth, without a family or a purpose? “Where is my Dharma now!” cried Egg. “It has come and gone with the desert tides, and I will stay here until I molder”. So Egg with Green Spots settled in, waiting for the dreary end of things. But one day, there came a sort of rattle!  “Oh Dear!” Egg uttered with a squeak. “Is this the dreaded Egg-with-Green-Spots-Eating snake I heard about in my nest? “ ...

Feel your toes grip the wet sand Inhale the Ocean listen! The gulls are playing. Mission for the Day 1. In today's travels, isolate a small silhouette .  (it should be a ways away, or we can be grabbed by the   nearest 'Q' . ) 2. Pause awhile, and let a blessed, unused memory flood your senses.   3. Breathe deeply. 4. Smile.