Life Changes

Tidying up my hard disks and I find a photo of the peregrina.  It's a plant I have taken oany times before.  It's a flower I've featured many times before.

Except that these particular flowers have long since been gone.

This photo was taken in June 2006.

Each day of our lives, things change.  We are not the same person as we were two years ago, a year ago, yesterday.

Biologically, we are not the same.  Psychologically, we are not the same.  Emotionally, we are not the same.

Yet we expect everything to remain the same.

Life changes.  Move on.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

It's always summer in the tropics - sunshine, warm weather; and depending on where you end up - sea, surf and sand.

And so this winter, a certain young lady decides to spend some time at the beach; relaxing and reminiscing an afternoon spent with her sister watching Disney's Frozen.

And suddenly, she drew a picture in the sand and the two of them burst into song:

But sometimes I like to close my eyes and imagine what it’ll be like when summer does come.

Bees will buzz,

Kids will blow dandelion fuzz

And I’ll be doing whatever snow does in summer

A drink in my hand,

My snow up against the burning sand

Prob'ly getting gorgeously tanned in summer

I’ll finally see a summer breeze blow away a winter storm

And find out what happens to solid water when it gets warm

And I can’t wait to see

What my buddies all think of me

Just imagine how much cooler I’ll be in summer

Dah-dah, da-doo, a-bah-bah-bah bah-bah-boo

The hot and the cold are both so intense,

Put 'em together, it just makes sense!

Rrr-raht da-daht dah-dah-dah dah-dah-dah dah dah doo

Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle,

But put me in summer and I’ll be a...happy snowman!

When life gets rough, I like to hold on to my dream

Of relaxing in the summer sun, just lettin’ off steam

Oh, the sky will be blue,

And you guys will be there too

When I finally do what frozen things do in summer!

Such energy, such youth, such innocence!

End of Day

The end of day.  A time to let go the work, a time to focus on the family and the friends.

But we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life.

We don't take time to watch the sun slowly sinking below the horizon.

Always in a rush to get things done.  We forget what life is really about.

The destination is the same.

It's the journey that counts.

The Parched Earth

Deprived of the rains for over a month now, my periwinkles are dying.

We thought we controlled the earth.  Let this be a reminder that we are guests of Mother Earth, not her lord and master.

The Parched Earth

Leaves bursting with thirst

suicidal descents

into the sands of oblivion below

the final searching

so much brown

green - a lost

bewildered orphan

disappearing children

crucified limbs

flesh torn

slowly from hanging skeletons

we journey through the desert.

Ben Gieske

Life is Fragile

Life is more fragile than we think.  In our younger days, we believe ourselves to be immortal; we look to our grandparents as being in an ancient world, relics.  We even consider our parents to be over the hill.

In our teenage years, we could for the life of us, fathom why our parents were so stubborn or so stupid not to understands the things that we were going through.  We thought of them as old-fashioned.

Then came a time when we experienced the loss of a friend, a family member, cut down before he or she reached the age of antiquity.  Then we realize the life is fragile, life is temporary, life is not to be taken for granted.

These past couple of weeks, no matter how close or how far we are from the MH370 incident, we are once again reminded of the frailty of our lives.

Before you turn in tonight, say a prayer for someone dear.  Call them tomorrow.  Better still, visit them.

You Only Live Once - Live it Well

An old photo from a time when youth and exuberance and a sense of adventure.  I have lived a life that might have made Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer proud. But looking back,there were moments of folly and stupidity which aged wisdom would now know but youthful inexperience would have just count as YOLO! 

Spring Time

It's that time of the year again when new life springs forth the earth.

Dogwoods at their best as they prepare to explode into the beauty we love.

Peace within

One of my all-time favorite photos.  Winter stream at Yosemite National Park.  Shot at a time when digital cameras were non-existent.

At a time when the world is in an uncertain and turbulent state, we need to find some semblance of peace within.

Spider Lily

gentle, fragile,

reaching out to the sky

catching the dewdrops passing by

white and majestic the spider lily stands

until winds howl, they bend

heads bowed low

spirit broken

A friend's father-in-law passes.  We are all connected, you and I, in ways we do not know and in ways we do not understand.

In ways we NEED not know or understand.

Tinklebells

Little tinklebells.

Swinging quietly in the morning breeze.

Eventide

It is the evening of another passing day.  

It is supposed to be a season of colors 

as new life springs forth from the womb of Mother Earth.

Yet the trees are bear and the earth still scorched.

Climate change is Mother Nature's way of telling us

that she is not well.

Are we listening?  Are we acting on the urgent pleas?

Colors on the Ceiling

Colors

Dancing on the ceiling

turning a promise into a rainbow

Colors

Splashing all my feelings

in a colorful coat, I just feel like singing

Color me, with the light of Your love, Lord

Shine in me, like the sun up above

so others can see

the colors in me

Let me be the colors of Your love.

Cactus

It's been scorching hot lately, 

so hot and dry that the cacti thought it was their time to show their colours.

Nature's gone berserk 

with the snows that fall when they should not be falling

with rains pouring when none should be pouring

when lands burnt dried and cracked when they should be soft and squishy

It's time to rethink our purpose on this planet

Little Purple Flowers

"The earth laughs in flowers."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Purple

I walked out I the summer
To behold at our backyard a wonder
Nature's beauty epitomized by a farmer
- My dad's garden of farmer

Amidst the calmness and quietness
I heard of all sounds, the quietest
I strained my ears to hear the sound again as in a forest
But restored again was the tranquil calmness

Ola Joseph Kolawole