Bug's Eye View

Thanks for all the comments on those "thangs" I do. I am working to figure out what, if anything, I might want to do with them. I'll probably be a bit scarce in the next week or so. I don't like it when I get scarce. I am always afraid I will miss something! But I've got a few things that need tending to in my real world.

I was already sprawled out in the grass like a dog (resting after throwing softballs with my daughter!) so I figured I may as well go ahead and snap a few photos.

The changing of the seasons seems to energize me. That is a good thing, because softball season has started for my youngest so she has practice one night a week.

And I signed up for a photography class that begins Monday night and meets two nights a week. The class lasts six or eight weeks. I forget when it ends.

Patti's Student

I finished this thing a couple of days ago and was not ready to put it up, was not sure it would speak to anyone else, but then I read Patti's post about one of her students.

In writing the text for this picture, I'd been thinking about that legacy of abuse, whether it is physical or emotional, how it gets threaded into the fabric of a family and it is darn near impossible to overcome. Add poverty and lack of education to the mix and it really gets to looking totally hopeless.

I thought of that comforting old song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" and how some unfortunate people might actually desire that the circle be broken and then it just seemed right to ask "will the cycle e'er be broken?" and the answer, most of the time, is a resounding "no, it won't". It is a thread that just spirals down through the generations, wreaking havoc.

How do you end something like that? How do you bring healing to a child who has never known a healthy and loving family relationship? There are no easy answers.

Parable of the Heart

(I was trying to recreate the look of the "Simple Philosophy" piece and did not succeed so now I have three slightly different versions of the same thing!.)




Have you ever been hurt by someone and you close your heart tightly and vow never to allow yourself to be hurt again? Have you ever held too tightly to a friendship because you were afraid to let go, afraid you would lose the friend? Have you ever just settled for the way things are now because you were afraid that what you had was a good as you were going to get?

We cannot be free to give or receive if our hands are holding our heart, or a friendship, or the "status quo" in our lives too tightly and too protectively.

Simple Philosophy

I bought these six angel statuettes before Christmas, cheap little things that were so ugly they were cute, in my opinion. Anyway, I photographed them all and have been playing with the photos in Photoshop. I really like the way the background on this one turned out. Even my fifteen year old was impressed and Lord knows she is hard to impress!

I should have made notes on what I did though because I do not remember all the steps I took to get it to look this way. I know this because I tried to duplicate this look for another card and could not do it. But I had fun trying and enjoyed the results I got in my attempt (and of course, I will post it too sometime soon!).

Sight of the Day

Is this not the coolest wet spider web you have ever seen??
(Click to enlarge--and see all the detail.
It looks like pearls!
But I warn you, the file is huge.)

She Stays Busy

Mardi Gras Haiku

I drove down this street today. It was still early enough that I could do so. People are starting to gather, to stake out their places (it does no good, at the last minute, other people will come along and crowd your spot). I smelled barbecue and beer (at 10 in the morning?), saw a man in one of those heavy duty electric wheelchairs (with one kid hanging on the back and another in his lap on the front), saw women with babies in strollers. I stopped by my favorite smoothie place and wished them well today. They are located on the parade route. Today will be stressful for them I am sure. They have only been open about six months. This will be their first Mardi Gras parade.

The day is gloomy gray with the possibility of rain later. I don't think I am going to make it to the parade. My own mood is gray enough already and these kind of events tend to make me gloomier. My youngest is going with a friend and her older sister and fiance. To let her go is in itself an exercise in faith.


But the powers that be have done a lot to make the celebration safer and more family friendly. And it can be fun, walking down the main street of town and catching the sights. She and I keep joking that we are going to get bicycles and go out early one year with our cameras. But we have not done it, yet.

Only plastic beads
white ones not real pearls people
let your baubles go.

Well heck, here is how my mind works--I wandered away for about an hour and added filters and words to the photo....