Category Archives: My Life

So Beautiful

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So if you’re wondering why so many people in the US want to preserve our national heritage of beautiful open spaces and not have oil drilling or fracking allowed in these parks, take a look at some of the US Bureau of Land Managment photos. I plan to browse through their photo albums almost as a meditation. I am starting with these below from Bears Ears National Monument, Utah:

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“Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”— Rachel Carson

Sream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Images from US Dept of Interior, Bureau of Land Management “Your Public Lands.”

Pause

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I have been thinking about this for a while. I want to take a vacation from writing on my blog. Or at least a vacation from having to make a comittment to writing x times a week. I have been feeling something wanting me to look at my direction. Time to take a break.

Featured image ‘Yoga-give me a break!’ by Andy Morffew on Flickr.

My Kryptonite

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“Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe.”
― Susan Cain

I know which things are kryptonite to my HSP* Introvert temperament. I can list several:

  • Large social gatherings
  • Noisy, crowded places
  • Making a lot of small talk
  • Spending a large part of my day or evening socializing with not enough alone time
  • Engaging in a lot of new experiences/activities
  • Having a crowded schedule during the day with many demands on my time
  • Spending a lot of time on social media
  • Getting overstimulated by all of the above and becoming exhausted

So why do I forget all I know about what leads to a very unpleasant state of fatigue and feeling depressed, and engage in too much of the above list, then find myself suffering the previously mentioned consequences.

http://gph.is/XJkTR3

*Highly sensitive person

Featured comic strip image of Adventure Comics via Joel Kramer on Flickr. Exhaustion GIF via Giphy.

Leavings

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When you walk through a grove of trees, depending on the type of trees, you are walking over fallen leaves, twigs, small cones, pine needles,and dead foliage and such. The twigs,leaves, and cones crunch under your feet yet muffle the sound of your step and release a woodsy frangrance. Besides providing a fragrant carpet these leavings return nutrients to the earth. Let me leave something that contibutes to life.

Did you see the Google Doodle about Fred Korematsu?  January 30 is Fred Korematsu Day in California, and he would have been 98 years old. He died in 2005. He was a civil liberties activist who fought against the internment of the Japanese during WWII. I don’t know how he survived psychologically all the oppression he experienced, but he did. What an inspiration he is. If I could have a fraction of his courage. Click on the links and read about him, you won’t be disappointed.

This is the last entry for JustJotItJanuary hosted by Linda G Hill. The word prompt for today is ” detritus ” suggested by Lorraine of Lorraine’s Frilly Freudian Slip https://myfrillyfreudianslip.wordpress.com/

I have aimed to keep my posts positive lately in hopes of uplifting spirits. We are in an unsettling transition time that feels like the ground is moving under our feet. We must speak up if we think something is wrong. Featured image is of ‘Fallen Giant Sequoia cones and foliage; Sugar Pine and White Fir foliage; other woody debris’ by Walter Siegmund via wikimedia. Photo taken at Mariposa Grove, Yosemite, California.

'The Umbrellas' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Blue

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I am not blue about the winter weather in Southern California. I am liking it after 6 years of drought. It is nice to have colder temperatures and rain for a welcome change. I am working on keeping an even keel and not feeling anxiety about this transition period in my country’s leadership. There have been other times during my life that there has been tumultuous and anxious times in my country. The country and its people survived. The featured image at the top is ‘The Umbrellas’ by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1881-86). He used a lot of blue in this painting. The pigments used for the blues were cobalt blue and ultramarine. I am wondering why he chose to use to so much blue . It was a popular fashion color in France at the time. Many artists use color to express a feeling. Could it be that the rainy weather calls for a subdued color pallette. Subdued is a good feeling right now. I would like to maintain that feeling, calm and subdued but not blue.

A short video about the painting by The Frick Collection on You Tube:

JustJotItJanuary is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ” blue” suggested by John Holton at The Sound of One Hand Typing, https://thesoundofonehandtyping.wordpress.com/.

compromise

 

Redwood

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Sequoia sempervirens, Coastal Redwoods of California, can grow up to 367 ft (112m) tall, 22 ft wide ( 7m) at the base, the size of a 35 story building. Your kind has been on the earth for 22 million years, in the same location, from Big Sur to the Oregon Border. You receive moisture from the foggy ocean mists, you are resistant to insects and fire. You regularly live 600 years and can live up to 2000 years. You were around in the Jurassic Era, 160 million years ago. What did the dinosaurs call you?  You ranged across 2 million acres and now your protected forests are down to 4% of that due to the logging that has occurred. I have walked among your groves and felt very small, felt like I walked in a prehistoric landscape of giant trees. What wisdom would you have to share? I will keep your secrets.

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Beautiful photos  by National Park Service via Redwood National and State Parks, California, where you can find more great photos. Most of the Information for this post via the same website. I have visited these magnificent trees. 🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday and JusJotItJanuary hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt words for today “wood/would.”

jjj-2017

 

 

Complete

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We are often seeking something outside ourselves but we already are complete.

“To be beautiful means to be yourself.You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don’t try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

JustJotItJanuary is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt word is “incomplete” suggested by Cyn K of That Cynking Feeling, https://cynk.wordpress.com/.  I decided to write about the opposite. Featured image is of the beautiful Redwood National Park, California via Pixabay.com.

compromise