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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Thoreau,Wendell Berry,Douglas McArthur and Me....

Cooper's Hawk in the yard.                                     
 
 
 
"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let these be your only diet-drink and botanical medicines.  Grow yellow and ripe with autumn.  Drink of each season's influence as a vial for your especial use."
Henry David Thoreau 
 
Pacific Tree Frog .  So cool.
 
 
 
P. walks in the forest. 
 
 
  "Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.  Want more of everything ready made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have window in your head.  Not even your future will be a mystery any more.  Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer."
Wendell Berry, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front 
 
 Best catch of the day.
 
 
If there is a trail, P. will find it.  She seems to say, "Let's go this way!"
 
 
 
And then we found this
Nature's dream catcher or Halloween remind?  There were many, many more like this in one area.



And they glistened with marine influence caught up in the webbing.  Interesting in a spooky way. 



Two pals share some late summer shade.
 
 
 
A Dreamer
 
and also
 
A Player
 
 
I came across this quotation I have kept in my drawer for a long time. It is by, of all people, Douglas McArthur.  No,  he is not my champion of great historical character.  I don't look for military heroes, and if I did, I'm quite sure it wouldn't be him.. I don't agree with or admire him, but somehow this piece of writing that he wrote resonates with me. 
 
"Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years, people grow old by deserting their ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
 
You are as young as your faith,
as old as your doubts
as young as your self confidence
as old as your fear
as young as your hope 
as old as your despair.
 
In the center place of your heart , there is a recording chamber.
So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young.
 
When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snow of pessimism."
and the ice of cynicism, then and then only are you grown old." 
By: Douglas McArthur
 
And just below it in a tattered old notebook, some of my own thoughts from a time previous.  Here is one for you called
 
"Floating Candles"
What if you never find your way?
Like flickering lights going out one by one.
Fire and water.
Reflections burning brightly in the dark water
reaching for the sky and everlasting life,
swaying against a dangerous breeze and
only to succumb into clear,cool, waxy liquid.
Then silent as though never existed
The memory of you will flicker until the next light boasts a brave new beauty bright with heat.
Harmonious and strong with opportunity; but no meaning,
to repeat the mystery without expectation.
 
The harvest moon in two days. Happy fall to all.

 

4 comments:

Carletta said...

Your photos are wonderful!
What a great catch of the hawk and those red berries and spiderwebs are lovely!
I see you have a frog too - I got close to mine but in truth they scare me. :)

Yada said...

Terrific! Any time I go out I'm at the mercy of the camera on my cell, so I never get anything half as beautiful.

Dexter said...

What a lovely poem and how true. I am saddened to see my father growing old in retirement while my mother, thought not young, is younger than she was 10 years ago. It's all about attitude.

And, yes, black dogs rock!

Mango Momma

The Black and Tans. said...

WE love all your photos. The spider's webs are fantastic.

Molly, Taffy, Monty and Winnie