Summer Days

Ever since I joined Leah in the call to be Creative Every Day I have payed more attention to the infinite ways in which we express our creative selves aside from making art in the studio - viewing something as simple as a sign or the beauty of nature, how we arrange our surroundings (notice I didn't say 'organizing'),or finding new ways to meditate. Photography has always been my medium of choice for recording my daily walk and I'm always delighted to notice an odd detail in the otherwise ordinary. 

I picked my daughter up at camp the other day and dashed into the restroom before making the hour long drive home. Not sure why I felt compelled to take a photograph of this sign, it just kinda cracked me up that such a formal word was, well, a bit worn. If it hadn't been securely attached (and at a church camp:) I might have considered it a found object and brought it home for a bit more grunging. Oh, the other sign said 'Men,' were they trying to save on lettering? I also find that a bit curious...

The mimosa tree on the drive out of camp was so fragrant, the pink blossoms so different from any other flower I've seen. A mimosa tree formed an umbrella over the kitchen window of the house I rented in my mid-twenties... some interesting times, those years. Every time I see one of these trees I recall the vivid nature of my struggle to find my path, a path, any direction that would lead to a smoother journey. Ahhh, a whiff of the pink fluff, if only I'd known then... that I'd live five miles from that house and in an entirely different universe.

My daughter loves the camera almost as much as I do. Thank the heavens above for digital, because it allows her the freedom to 'see' at different angles. This is our neighborhood lost and found system - dangle it from a pole or tree and the owner usually returns. I'm not sure that's the case with this little fellow, though we found him rather cute.

More flowers... each blossom lovely, heavy with fragrant promise. I wonder, in a single day, how many photographs are taken of the myriad flora, from the common daisy and roadside Queen Ann's lace, to the exotic, rare orchids. I don't have a green thumb so I roam the streets of our quiet, historic neighborhood to enjoy the beauty of each season as Siddharta must have when he said, "If we could see the miracle of a single flower, our whole life would change."