 Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth, nor blest abode
But the hope, the burning hope, and the road, the lonely road. Not for us are content, and quiet, and peace of mind, For we go seeking cities that we shall never find. ~ John Masefield, The Seekers
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 If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I? ~ Yip Harburg, Over the Rainbow  Scenario: I'm riding shotgun on a pizza run with a friend in a neighborhood we've dubbed "Little Mexico" (since he's Mexican I figure he gets the right, save your snarky commentary). It's Portland, so it's raining. We see an awesome street sign.
I apologize for the quality of the picture. To be fair, it required my friend parking the car in a right-turn lane, juggling a pizza, running across the street in the rain (in jeans that are almost a size too big), and trying to get my cell phone camera to snap any kind of decent shot. So much could have gone wrong, but I wasn't worried.  Joy comes and goes, hope ebbs and flows Like the wave; Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men. Love tends life a little grace, A few sad smiles; and then, Both are laid in one cold place, In the grave. ~ Matthew Arnold, A Question Every time I'm on this particular spot of beach, this creek is different. The tide comes in and absorbs the water, changes the lay of the land, and when the water leaves again, it leaves a new path. Change, by nature something new and variable, is as steady as the tides. Invariably, as soon as you think you know the lay of the land, the tide rolls back in and moves everything around again.
 I didn't forget yesterday. Rather, I didn't forget to take my picture yesterday. I did, however, forget to post my picture. Today's post is a 2-for-1 as a result. The best thing about having a backyard that belongs to someone else is not having to maintain it. I get to look at green space right here in suburbia, where homes look directly into homes and lawns might be wide enough for a sidewalk, if that. I'm thankful for it.  I was driving to work yesterday morning around 615AM and the streetlights and car lights made for a perfect picture. Unfortunately, at 60mph and with the flash off, the photo I got looked little like the photo I was trying to get. The real thing was simpler. I like the end result just as much.
 Better is the branch that bends, than the branch that breaks. ~ Proverbs (Danish) This is the view from my office window. You can't tell today, but on a clear day I can see Mount St. Helens from that window. Up close, it overlooks a park which is relatively pretty during the day (and will be more so over the next few weeks, as the leaves turn to golds and reds and browns), not so safe after dark. At any rate, right at my eye level is a tree that, for whatever reason, grew at a 90 degree angle at the top. I'm curious to know what conditions made that happen, why it survived that way while all of the other trees around it are upright as nature intended. Look straight up from my left shoe in the picture, if you didn't see it before, you should see it now. Or I can just zoom in for you here:   It is the divine attribute of the imagination, that it is irrepressible, unconfinable; that when the real world is shut out, it can create a world for itself, and with a necromantic power can conjure up glorious shapes and forms, and brilliant visions to make solitude populous, and irradiate the gloom of a dungeon.
~ Washington Irving  Solitude can be well applied and sit right upon but very few persons. They must have knowledge enough of the world to see the follies of it, and virtue enough to despise all vanity.
~ Abraham Cowley, "Of Solitude" from Essays  Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the byproduct of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.
~ Viktor Emil Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning |
The [Defunct] Challenge
The rules: The 100 Pictures, 100 Days challenge was a project between SomethingOrdinary.net and anitography.com. For 100 days, starting September 24, 2010, we had the goal of capturing beauty in ordinary things and sharing it through pictures. Archives
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