Adieu to 2011

Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, 12-17-2011.

On arrival, the sunlight was slanting in low through the clouds, turning everything to gold, highlighting some features, and casting into shadow others...

Low sun over the breakwater...

Golden light burnished the trees to a bright copper...

Grey on white, and black on blue...

Had Mom with me. She really enjoyed the ducks...

Ducks and more ducks...

The sun came out of the clouds and the trees blazed with light...

A lone duck on the pond. Beauty all around...

Wider angle of this beautiful scene. So peaceful...

I wandered onto the beach to watch the sunset. I like the way these old pilings point into the distance, into the future...

Glorious...

Sunset...

The sun is setting on 2011. May 2012 be a new dawning for all of us...

There is still magic after sunset, too. A time to dream, and to let dreams materialize in our actions.

Winter Day at Golden Gardens Park Beach

Monday afternoon I went to Golden Gardens Park and Beach and stayed for one of the most glorious sunsets I have had the pleasure to witness in a long time. It is so magical and moving to be near the water and feel the  power of the waves. Water is the elixir of Life. We have the essence of the sea in our own bodies, we are made of water. I hope these images give you pleasure and shine a light into your spirit.

Blessings,

Linda

Christmas Colors in the leaves...

Golden leaves and blue sky, such a beautiful combination...

The reflections of the leaves make this guy look surrounded by swirls of liquid gold...

Ducks always crack me up when they do this in tandem...

Deep dark and bright light, seems like Life itself sometimes...

The sun sitting low in the sky made the land look golden and the water deep blue...

Semicircles going this way and that way....

A line that separates land and sea and points to the trees  as well as far ahead...

This young girl was playing on the beach. So many people come here and yet it is Nature whose presence is most powerful here...

From this point on I stayed by the pilings and tracked the changes in the light, colors, and shapes in and of water, pilings and sky as the sun began to sink lower. It moved in and out of cloud banks, until its final blaze of glory before disappearing behind the distant mountains......

I love these old pilings and have photographed them many times....

I was delighted when the boat eventually moved into the perfect spot for this picture...

Sun sinking at last beneath the cloud bank, and across the water....

Sentinels and the setting sun...

The colors of sunset come shining forth. Breathe it in deep, this is the best of light and color therapy. God's own medicine...

A blaze of glorious light and color...

It is so important to pay attention to the journey, who knows what beauty you may experience along the way...

Glorious!

A Place of Reckoning

I think Hell is a place of accumulated
unprocessed
unrealized Pain.

It is where everything you have
avoided, buried deep, never let cry out
from your vulnerable heart
Lives, waiting to be
acknowledged, wept,
spoken, written,
recognized in all of its details
Named
so you can move on
Unencumbered.
Free.

In this way,
I think Hell is a place of reckoning
not a place of punishment.

UW Botany Greenhouse Photoshoot

Welcome!
I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a photographers' group photoshoot at the University of Washington's Botany Greenhouse earlier this season. What an amazing plethora of plant life there is to look at there! So much variety! Nature / Life is endlessly creative. This should give us hope. There is always some new pattern, new path, new branching, new intricate connectivity to find. Everything is possible.

I hope you have enjoyed this journey through the plant world!

Blessings,

Linda