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? “ And

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.

Time swept you away, and I am left with beauty. Somewhere near South Park, Southern Colorado

Time swept you away, and I am left with beauty. Somewhere near South Park, Southern Colorado

The midnight sky is stuffed with moonlight, but you wouldn’t know it from the afternoon, filled with grey rain along the edges. Two figures walk along the empty road, foreground vivid with the here and now, while the vanishing point draws relentless close. What destinies wait behind that grey horizon, waiting for the early sun to polish up those dreams we left for dead the night before. .

Would a Rose of Sharon smell as sweet  If it were named a hollyhock? From the new Garden at Cooper Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Design Museum

What will happen to my soul when you are gone? Will I tack it to a wall in a makeshift frame? Reservoir, late evening in July

Ounce has developed a Characteristic that is not altogether happy.  Ounce does not like to share. We know already how much Ounce Loves water.  But look how the entire bathbowl is, in the opinion of Ounce, reserved for sole occupancy.  Of course Ounce finaly gives up and flees! Our amazing photo-journalist has captured this revealing video.  Click the play arrow, and then click the squarish thing on the bottom right of the video for Full Screen!  Don't forget to come back.... \ If all else fails, click on the link below https://youtu.be/Oe6jyvQ_Dlc

The Pidgeon Chronicles, Missive IV Perhaps you missed missives I-III, I know I did [See Footnote]. Nevertheless, I am here to report I have suffered enough! As an Urban Volunteer, I embarked on my annual Tree Bed planting obligation, and I completed my task 11 days ago: Plant shade-adoring impatiens: Done! Plant with a growing moon: Done! Plant in loose soil: Done! Water and fertilize well: Done! Plant 6 inches apart: Done! By now there should be happy buds and a few new blooms. But No! I have simply watched the existing blossoms wane away with the waxing moon. Well!Later that same afternoon I discovered  Pigeon sitting on one impatiens and nibbling on another . Stricken, I yelled and shooed. Pigeon moved a few inches. I flapped and waved, and that Very Pigeon hopped to my next tree bed over! I ran indoors to notify the Pigeon Police, but by the time they arrived with the net, that Very Pigeon was gone. Well, this happened three times in a row, and now the

Time shattered that day, when I saw through a crack, another teaming, seething, crystal world, (I was stuck on my usual side) It was a   bubblegum world, with grassy places, trees awake with new leaves, old limbs fading with the death of winter, Look, There’s a beauty!   Boughs swinging in the windy sun, searching for a new spring nest.   

I was skidding through another concrete day Shoes hitting hard against the sidewalk grey Sharp shards snapping at the stopped up drain White sun spitting at a window pane Background rattle of a subway train. Then I turned the corner and astonishingly I see the floating remnants of a cherry tree.

The day before rain

TWEET!!  Is that the same dull winter sparrow bursting with life like a happy bud? Is that me, with clumps of spirit blossoms resting in my hand? Me, with a new leaf painted in my soul? Reservoir April 2016

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!