A time to ponder and assess As December 21st approaches, I reflect on the significance that the winter solstice held for indigenous people and mark it in my own life as a way to attune, as they did, to the order and rhythms of nature and the cosmos. Having studied Mesoamerican cultures, particularly the […]
The persistent seed It’s not unusual to see vegetation sprouting through cracks in the pavement, but this little plant was growing in mud alongside a railroad track that had been thoroughly covered with oil. That it’s growing at all speaks to me of the resilience and continuity of life. However the seed got there and […]
What would life be like without them? In the summer of ’76, the year Linda and I were married, we went to the Cayo district in Belize so I could better appreciate where and how she’d lived for a year, teaching English to high school students under the auspices of the Papal Volunteer’s—the Catholic church’s […]
Reflecting as a floating leaf One among many leaves that float on the surface of life, I ride the waves. The calm— meaningful conversations, helping where help is needed, Linda’s cooking; Graeter’s ice cream; Skyline chili, Scott Hamilton’s tenor saxophone; Chuck Mangione jazz; Andrea Bocelli; Beebe Adair piano backroads to photograph; photographing in the studio; […]
An antidote to polarization and violence A birthday celebration (Birthday girl not shown) I enjoyed Susan Vreeland’s novel Luncheon of the Boating Party so much I seriously considered a visit to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. to see Renoir’s painting by the same name. I didn’t go, but in visiting Vreeland’s website I found […]
The feeling we get when touched by something vast After watching the last episode in season three of Northern Exposure, I got up from my chair and for several minutes walked around exclaiming, “Awesome storytelling! Awesome writing! Awesome acting! Wonderful, awesome costuming! Fantastic location—how’d they do that? Atmospherics—awesome! Lighting—awesome!” Wearing out the word “awesome,” I […]
The art of making someone happy and celebrating the relationship This is our grandson, Ethan Miller. He was five-years-old. I choose this image because it represents the kind of joy we’d all like to see on someone’s face when they receive a gift from us. The subtitle indicates that there’s an art to gift-giving because […]
“The world reflects back to you what you deeply believe.” I wasn’t sure of the source of this quote, but it recently prompted me to wonder. Could the negative belief that my three novels of the ancient Maya are not being widely read is actually creating that reality? Some research explained that subconscious beliefs shape the […]
Water lilies are freshwater plants in the Nymphaeaceae family. The name derives from Greek legends where “nymphs” protected springs and streams. There are about 70 different species of water lilies, divided into eight different genre commonly found in garden ponds and landscape features. The roots dig deep into the ground underwater, while the leaves or […]
The Ceiba (“SAY-ba”) grows in the wet tropics of Mexico, Central and South America and West Africa, reaching heights of up to 230 ft. Growing thirteen feet a year, it’s the tallest tree in the Amazon rainforest. The buttresses that give it stability can be ten feet tall and extend ten feet from the trunk. […]
Contemplative Photography 