Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Passerby:  What is that tree? Me:  It's a Witch-hazel. Passerby:  It can't be a Witch-hazel, Witch-hazel's supposed to be yellow. Me: This one is orange. Passerby: Well... Witch-Hazel near the Metropolitan Museum of Art .

Ice-crusted wind whistling through the canyons snarling into corners, snuffling up to the window panes. Brown sugar frozen on the ginger bread houses daydreams cringing at the Grimm realities lost among the dead ends of the mind. Day cracks open, crunching, pounding, dressed in winter blue. Oh, what a Blue! Shall I take that crystal daylight bait? Why risk that wrenching heartache one more time? Why not harken back to childish satisfactions? I am a lake fish trapped and flapping under frozen water. Free me! I am in a small space too young to die. Or am I creeping paw by paw above the fragile ice that holds me up from freezing? Inside out and upside down I trace my way along the membranes of reality. Central Park, Post Nemo

Winter storm Nemo on East 94th:  1 AM in the middle of the street. Nemo at 1:30 AM in NYC

I was lying fallow as a field when the fey message came-- sneaking down into the chimney passing by the joints and pipes latching up with my being interlocking tongue and groove tossing life into the empty places. Is this the day I was looking for?  Route 285

While feeling off kilter today I decided to take a walk.  Well!  It was 20 degrees F. with 17 miles per hour wind!!  I sought shelter after a couple of very chilly blocks.  And look what's inside 135 East 96th Street! Saint Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church 135 East 96th Street New York, NY 10128

Traffic! Wind! Snow! Crosswalks!  Green light; Red light!  !!  "R"U"N"  !! Pedestrian escapes, barely!

It's time to seriously consider whether or not our newly created alarms, scanners, secret elevator cameras and iPhones are really ready to take on the job of comfort and protection provided by our more traditional sentries: ."Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds." {see note} Brave and Hardy Police and Fire Sentry at Park Avenue and 94th [Note] Similarly,  An inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City reads: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. [1] This phrase was a translation by Prof. George H. Palmer, Harvard University, from an ancient Greek work of Herodotus describing the Persian system of mounted postal carriers c. 500 B.C. The inscription was added to the building by William Mitchell Kendall of the architect