Tag: echinacea
The Worn One
Observing the lifecycle of flowers—from bloom to doom—sets the mind thinking to our own aging arc. At middle age the flower of my youth is long gone making all this time alone more intense and frightening.
Bloom Squad
I happened myself into an opportunity to shoot a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM Lens for the first time on Saturday. Ho boy is it something else. This beast is the size of a grapefruit and weighs in at a hefty 2.26 pounds. You feel this lens. It’s a fine piece of engineering, and…
Born of the Purple
Life is full of happy accidents. We must take them as they come, for they are cherished boons. The lesson—missing out on a thing does not mean we lose a thing. Instead it gifts opportunity to see a thing in a different, more diffuse and loving light. We work with what we’ve got, and that…
Working Class Hero
Dutiful honey bee plying her trade. Drinking her nectar and loading her pollen basket, she works with intent. With energy and purpose she minds her craft. Even alone the hive is on the mind. Her community needs her; needs her singular focus to feed and to provide. To sustain the group. Bounding atop pistils by…
The Technician
On the perils of labels. It is easy to apply limits in how we label ourselves. There is a push-pull tearing at the labels we self-apply measured against the labels others seek to apply. In this post I take a look back at how I’ve evolved my own self-limiting thinking. Analyzing how I worked to…
Courage to Grow
Hardship is inevitable. It comes sure as a summer storm. Negative energy builds, tensions rise only to bow to the pressure. The storm hits, emotions roil and churn, and then, at the nadir of the struggle, the onslaught slackens. The skies clear and we stand ready to learn, left only with the courage to grow.…
Upright
With COVID-19 again on the rampage, and society disrupting as we take a long hard look at our centuries old problem of racism, we stand assaulted by uncommon uncertainty. The friction is causing extreme heat and pressure looking to loose. Not since the Second World War has the United States faced such intense difficulty. Riven…
Flowered Sun
Looking close and slow upon a flower is a practice in patience with which all should partake. Particularly true to heal closed hearts and open stagnant minds. It is both window to the soul and outlet to the universe and it unveils the underpinnings of nature’s truth. Take this nascent echinacea blossom. Still early in…
Corona
There is regal majesty in the echinacea’s journey from bud to blossom. With the subtlety and finesse borne of fine stock she transforms with noble grace. Gentle petals work outward—a green coronet becoming the crown befitting her station. The purple coneflower corona hits its zenith only to unfurl to its full purple petal. Long and…
The Small Blue
Editor’s note: [July 29, 2017] This is not a small blue butterfly. It is an eastern tailed blue butterfly. It’s the small thin tail that earns this distinction. Shout-out to Dave Blinder who coincidentally posted a shot of an eastern tailed blue on his Instagram today thus unveiling my error. It’s always good to learn…