By the time he returned home that night from his job at a healthcare company, he had resolved to flee Syria. He talked it over with his wife, informed his mother, and then reached out online to an underground group known for smuggling Syrians into Jordan. Again he was fortunate: the smugglers had space in […]
“This was not quickly snapping a photo of a stranger on the street; it was gaining access to people’s most intimate spaces.” At Leica Camera Blog, Andrew Reed Weller captures the homes and lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Are you talking too loudly to hear the voices of others?
Are you yelling so that others quit talking to you and around you?
Are your own opinions monopolizing your airwaves and brainwaves?
Be still. Be silent. Listen.
You will hear millions of voices.
Their words may be a different language , a different dialect or with a different accent.
Some are whispering, some are pleading and some are crying.
They may be different from yours. You may not understand them.
Still listen.
They are your brothers and sisters.
They matter, too.
It’s not all about you.
FLOWER
I love this woman for so many reasons.
She loved her pet rabbits, mice, lizards, dogs and hedgehog like they were her friends.
As a young woman, she became an ignored expert in mycology. Her mushroom drawings are still used today.
When no publisher would print her first little books, so she self-published them with her own money.
She stayed loyal to her dead fiance’s family publishing business (Warne) despite a scandal, out of her love for him, his sister and his mother.
She bought a farm (Hill Top) and worked it, despite her city upbringing.
She donated thousands of acres of land to a national land trust to preserve its beauty.
She raised prize-winning Herdwick sheep and became an expert on raising, breeding and showing them.
She loved nature with her whole heart. She shared this love and her land with Girl Guide groups in the summers.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. She also could write, draw and paint really well.
FLOWER is a Beatrix fan. (and a bunny fan)
Sunflowers follow the sun with their faces.
Keeping their flowers tilted up makes their faces brighter and warmer.
A bright, cozy flower attracts more bees and encourages them to stay longer.
More lingering means more pollination.
More pollen makes more seeds,
Which is the whole point of a flower.
The energy from the sun so far away,
in the form of light and heat,
helps both the bees and the flowers
in getting and giving pollen.
The sun gives life.
FLOWER
I have been looking at my life and goals differently lately.
Instead of seeing myself in a race with a my own personal finish-line,
I now consider myself part of a relay team…of women.
I have been reading history books, you see.
I wanted to know how women in the past have attained success while surrounded by sexism.
I have being traveling back a century or two.
This seems to be about where the political tide would like to take us.
So I am consulting with the likes of Beatrix Potter, Marie Curie, Clara Barton , Annie Oakley and Rosalind Franklin.
What have I learned from our fore-mothers?
They stayed their course. They kept on their special path. They went with their flow. They followed their dreams.
They kept at it. They kept learning and earning, reading and writing, sowing and growing, nursing and nourishing, hoping and helping, praying and praising, painting and sculpting, marching and singing, farming and planting.
They were not defined by nor confined by the men in their lives.
This political tide is nothing new young women.
Females have been knocked down and pushed back for centuries.
You must keep heading toward your chosen shore; despite the tide cycle, current or undertow.
Stay afloat and swim forward when you can. Don’t let this get you down or make you drown.
So ladies, don’t drop your causes. Cling to them with zeal.
Use your passion (not poison) to make this world a better (not bitter) place.
Grandmothers, mothers, aunts, queens, witches, neighbor-ladies, and girlfriends;
Stretch out your arm to pass that baton by encouraging, teaching, and supporting and sharing.
Just keep carrying and passing the baton.
Granddaughters, sisters, nieces, princesses, bitches and baby girls
reach out and grab the baton with courage, faith, strength and grit.
Carry it on and then pass it off to your female teammates.
Twirl it if you like. Paint it, radiate it, bandage it up, write on it, shoot it, x-ray it,
even burn in at both ends, if you must.
But keep on passing it.
You can’t each reach your full potential, unless we all get to reach for ours.
This is not a race against time, it is a relay through time.
There were many women before you, there will be many more that follow.
Pass the baton.
FLOW
My friend is a fairy, but she doesn’t know it.
She collects fairy dolls
and fairy statues
and fairy art.
She reads books about fairies.
She has a fairy garden in the woods beside her farm.
There are fairy houses,
fairy towns,
fairy tea sets,
and fairy shoes.
She points out where the fairies have been.
Under this fern, up this tree, upon this vine.
She says she believes in them, which I think was funny… coming from a fairy.
All her friends have an awareness of her fairiness.
Her cat knows purrfectly well that she’s a fairy.
Her dogs are charmed, I’m sure.
She raises chickens in a carousel castle.
I bet they lay golden eggs.
Her flowers and herbs grow like Madgic.
She is surrounded by magic everywhere, but doesn’t realize that it all comes from her.
How can she not know that she has wings?
FLOWER, friend of a fairy.
I spent a lovely afternoon with one of my favorite people on Earth today.
My next post will be about her. This one is about her fairies.
Although it is January, we spent much of our visit outside.
She has a fairy garden in her woods, you see.
It is both beautiful and magical.
My friend is like sunshine. Her fairies/faeries and garden are enchanting.
I hope you enjoy seeing her tiny friends.
This one is my favorite, due to the bunny.
FLOWER and Fairies.
floweralley 