Paths taken, thoughts given

Memorial Day parade, the little girl looking at the camera (held by my son?) is my granddaughter, with her mom (in red) waving also. I wasn't there for this, but really appreciate whenever they do get the camera out and send me pics. Keeping track of grandchildren growing from a distance is hard.

This is a path I walk many times a week, just to see changes, people, and of course geese and ducks. There have been wood duck babies this year (didn't see any last year) as well as Mallards. I haven't seen any Canada Geese babies, and don't know why there are fewer and fewer on the lake this year. Last year they stayed throughout the summer.

OK, I drive by here every.once.in.a.while.

This post was more for me to do some musings...after going to the Women of Black Mountain College's movies last night. MC Richards was the tops, though I'd already seen her movie, it again inspired me. What a woman! I also enjoyed Ruth Asawa's film, mainly because I had never seen her work besides as still pictures, and seeing them moving, especially the wire sculptures brought their dimensionality to life. I mean more than just being able to see around them. You see the interactions through the wire surfaces, which are semi-transparent. They are alive that way. The Albers film was interesting, but I've never "gotten" Alber's squares...though it showed how much work was in them. Guess I just can't have patience enough to look at minimal changes...when there are so many maximal ones going on all around me. Just look at the rest of my pictures...from around here.

The Springtime... I think this is pink dogwood, but it could be a fruit tree also. I love waving to the folks here who sit out in their yard on sunny afternoons, in the shade. I take this shortcut from the studio or the library over to the lake.

In Winter.... This was the first time I went out when we had a snow that actually stuck to roads...and gradually melted in that Feb. sunshine.

The other things in my emotional stock have to do with Dr. Tiller's murder recently in Witchita, and a couple of days ago, a murder in the Holocaust Memorial museum in DC.

UU activists in our Social Action committee are part of organizations like Western North Carolina Citizens for an end to Instutional Bigotry...and I'm forwarding information about people doing demonstrations, writing letters, and keeping the info out there. Contact Monroe Gilmour at mgilmour@main.nc.us

I really appreciated Starhawk's blog in "On Faith" at the Newsweek-Washington Post link about Dr. Tiller. (sorry, but I can't paste anything into this darn blog anymore, or I'd give you the link...but you can google it) It brought home the feelings not just of anger that this kind of thing is still happening, but that my own fears as a result of the murder were just what was intended by it. Each woman, whether she ever went to a women's clinic or not, for whatever reason...has become terrorized by the lack of safety that is evident by these crimes...a safety to health care of her choice that is ensured by law, and has been worked for by so many people for so long. And it is erroded by these events.

For a Jew, or any person of any minority, or just any other person going to the Holocaust Museum, there will now be second thoughts about safety issues.

We cannot let terrorism take over our lives. Our safety and well-being cannot be undermined by the extremists who become violent. Just as my granddaughter and daughter-in-law walked cheerfully down the middle of the street in a parade, we as Americans need to feel secure in our freedoms. Free to say what we feel when we disagree with other's opinions, respectfully if at all possible.

The anger I feel is there. I will not let fear become a force that freezes my life into inaction.

This roadside attraction is in the town square in Burnesville, for those who look off to the side, rather than whirling around as fast as they can. Traffic is not too friendly to tourists here.

The barn actually is more upright, and the road it banked on this curve in the road up to Penland...I love this barn.

Just looking at the texture of the rocks being worn down by the water is only part of this shot. Check out how man's effort at paving mountains is doing also.

I am addicted to vistas. I discovered I'm not as interested in hiking and being close to nature, being along streams, seeing all those wild flowers, and watching my step, and breathing hard, to finally get to a vista which makes it all worth while. So I'm going to be driving to look-outs and then stopping to see what the vista has to offer. Perhaps I'm far-sighted. But I've never liked just looking at green up close...I need the distance to be peaking on the other side of close foliage.

There are repairs happening on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Thanks.

I've a feeling I should be meditating more, and writing letters to important people more to get my opinion to the places it might matter. But for right now I'm going to take my breakfast out on the patio and enjoy that I'm alive, the sun is out (for a brief while anyway), and life still has wonder to me.