November in the midwest is a stark time. The foliage  and flowers and fruits are gone and the cold grey of winter casts a shadow over the land.Spring is emerald, summer a rainbow, autumn gold and crimson but toward the end of year things are more oft a study in greys and browns. Beauty is there but not as flamboyantly as it is in spring and summer. It is simpler, subtler.

 


I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful.  - John Constable

Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it. - Confucious

Beauty is eternity gazing itself in the mirror. - Khalil Gibran

Beauty in things exists in the mind that contemplates them. - David Hume

There is hope and a kind of beauty in there somewhere,  if you look for it. - H.R. Giger

I always find beauty in things that are odd or imperfect - they are much more interesting . - Marc Jacobs









To me photography is the art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an  ordinary place... I have found it has little to do with the things you see and everything with the way you see them. -  Elliot Erwitt

Genius is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.  - Ezra Pound

Every day I discover
more and more
beautiful things.
It’s enough to drive one mad.
I have such a desire
to do everything, - Claude Monet

― 

A few days ago the United States celebrated Veteran's Day. I consider myself a pacifist follower of Gandhi, that is not to be passive but to actively resist, protest and stand against  injustice and oppression . I do have great respect and honor those who have been called to serve in the military. Though I may not agree with the politics that are behind the happenings of military actions and war I can  and do support the humans who ''fight the good fight''  for freedom, for friend and family. I have little personal relation to war. My childhood was  full of evening news reporting on the death and destruction in Viet Nam, and the 1967 Israeli -Palestinian War terrified this child with fears of Armageddon . My best friend's father was drafted and went to Viet Nam but otherwise my family and experience has been rather untouched by war and had no soldiers. Now I am dealing with my first born having enlisted to serve. I am afraid. This past week two died at the military camp my child will be going to in the near future. It was not on foreign soil, not in war but at a terrible accident that took two lives. death can some whenever, unexpected. I do wish humans would find a way to cease making wars that only adds more forms of pain, suffering and death. Here, today some quotes and photos as I salute those who serve and continue to pray humankind can learn to fight for peace and justice.

“Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.” ~~Anne O’Hare McCormick, foreign news correspondent

 “War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.” ~~Colin Powell

“Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” ~~Ecclesiastes 9:18

 “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.” ~~Dwight D. Eisenhower

''Folkets Kjærlighed Min Belonning'' Karl Johan '' The love of the people my reward.''



inscription - Our Finest Tribute To Their Valor Will Be The Quality Of Our Own Lives

Magnificent Autumn! He comes not like a pilgrim, clad in russet weeds. He comes not like a hermit, clad in gray. But he comes like a warrior, with the stain of blood upon his brazen mail. His crimson scarf is rent.... The wind.... wafts to us the odor of forest leaves, that hang wilted on the dripping branches, or drop into the stream. Their gorgeous tints are gone, as if the autumnal rains had washed them out. Orange, yellow, and scarlet, all are changed to one melancholy russet hue.... There is a melancholy and continual roar in the tops of the tall pines.... It is the funeral anthem of the dying year. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In one week I have seen brilliant colored trees  become undressed and become skeletal wooden silhouettes upon the landscape,  As the scenes become studies in shades of browns and greys I would like to  savor the visions of gold and amber that were the glory of the autumn leaves...

 Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day!
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree...
~ Emily Brontë

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. ~Faith Baldwin

...I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

      The time of the falling leaves has come again. Once more in our morning walk we tread upon carpets of gold and crimson, of brown and bronze, woven by the winds or the rains out of these delicate textures while we slept.
      How beautifully the leaves grow old! How full of light and color are their last days! There are exceptions, of course. The leaves of most of the fruit-trees fade and wither and fall ingloriously. They bequeath their heritage of color to their fruit. Upon it they lavish the hues which other trees lavish upon their leaves....
      But in October what a feast to the eye our woods and groves present! The whole body of the air seems enriched by their calm, slow radiance. They are giving back the light they have been absorbing from the sun all summer.
      ~John Burroughs

  Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night; and thus he would never know the rhythms that are at the heart of life. ~Hal Borland

 

 The world is tired, the year is old,
The faded leaves are glad to die...
~Sara Teasdale

 Native Americans  called them ''standing people'', in myth, legend and literature trees  have watched over us.They have a mystical power and presence. They take in the carbon from the atmosphere and give us  oxygen. We cut down acre after acre, denuding our planet, destroying ecosystems to give us consumer products. They stand and watch. If you walk in the woods you can HEAR them. They do make sounds in various ways but one must be open to listening deeply for them.
I here am sharing  portraits of one of my favorite tree friends.She stands aside a water feature, engineered by humans from a river to create a fishing park. It is near the center of my city. i visit this place frequently. I have watched this tree weather 2 years if extreme weather, drought and flooding. It has been particularly harsh this past year and I fear for root damage. Trees go on looking alive for some time even while dying from such damage. She is beautiful,. I hope she is strong enough to tolerate what climate has been doing to her. I hope and pray for the trees and the humans as earth and climate go through extreme changes.

 December 2012

 

November 2013


In October 2013 I heard an interview with Mark Hirsch, photographer, author of ''That Tree''. He has an amazing life story. ''That Tree'' is his work involving ongoing portraiture of a particular tree and I suggest you seek and view his work and learn his story. I heard his interview and realized I had already been doing this, taking photos of  a particular tree ( I also repeatedly have taken photos of other places and things to mark the changes  occurring) This blog post is  just a single ''page'' of the sort of photographic diary/journal-ing of nature that I have 

                                                                          Fiat Lux
   

No matter how I try to be ''worldly'' and think globally I am shaped by my placement. I am in the northern hemisphere. The days grow shorter and colder now as we are in November. Daylight Savings Time has ended for this year ( a matter my 87 year old father will never quit grumbling about and insisting  it is ridiculous and should be ceased). The  mornings get light later and it is a slower, subtler way the day dawns. the  afternoon dims quickly and the night drops like a dark curtain upon the early evening.

 Of winter's lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart.
~Charles G. Stater

 Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
~Thomas Campion

 We huddle indoors to  seek the warmth of shelter and  man-made heat. I see fewer and fewer people out in the parks and trails and woodlands, few dressing in layers to breath the fresh air and be among the trees and at water's edge.

Humans have ALWAYS struggled with the cold dark seasons.

Hannukkah for Hebrews, Bodhi Day to the Buddhists, pagan Yule, Soyal for the Zuni and Hopi, Saxon Solstice saturnalia, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti from the late Roman Empire, Loy Krathong in Thailand, Diwali in India, Chinese Dongzhi Festival, Yalda to Persians, Pancha Ganapati for Hindu Lord Ganesha just names a few of the celebrations the human family gathers to celebrate and HOPE and light candles , lanterns and souls in the winter season, this same season Christians  have so many candles and lights to  faithfully tend and lift up with anticipation of the  rebirth to come. It is the deepest, darkest midwinter that calls the faithful to look for spring and light and resurrection to come. Faith is the tiny candle shining in the cold dark trusting , seeking hoping that the blazing warm sun will rise and return.

The journey through the seasons may seem long but the earth and sun have their set revolutions and rotations and spring will inevitably follow winter.

 The sun is always in it's heaven. We hold the light in our heart. Our human bodies are just shells illumined by the light of the universe.

Look to the heavens, look to future, hold tight to the belief the sun will continue to rise and yes, spring will return, be strong and faithful human as you view the seasons and cycles of the universe