Wandering

Today I found myself with a very rare Saturday where I did not have any particular chores or errands to run. I had a total unstructured day ahead of me. My plan was to have no plan. The only thing I decided was to go to a place, enjoy it, and then let that place or activity suggest where to go and what to do next. My plan was to be a wanderer today. I will not go into great detail, but I eventually ended up on a train headed towards downtown.  I ended up at the county’s natural  history museum.    It was weird to be out and about with other people. I felt like I was coming out of a hibernation and greeting a strange new world.

LJGloyd 2022

The Light of Santa Fe

San Francisco de Asis Church in nearby Taos, NM.

Decades ago I took a road trip across the Southwest and ended up in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I was only there a day, but I fell under the magic of the light and color, the history, the intermix of cultures, the landscape.

I was only there one day, but I want to return to it. I want to see again the purple of the wisteria against rose-colored adobe walls, white clouds against cerulean skies, red rock and green pines,  the sparkle of silver and turquoise on the vendors’ displays, red and green chiles.   I want to enter again the sacred spaces of its ancient churches.   It all has to do with the light, both physical and spiritual.

It has been said by many artists and photographers, writers and creatives alike,  that there is a light unique to New Mexico. Whether it is the altitude or the particulate matter in the air diffusing the sunlight that causes this specialness, or the fiery glow of angels and saints flitting through the skies from beyond the veil, I just can’t say.

My photos from this trip are put away and mostly unscanned, but I don’t need them.   The light and colors are seared into my soul.

A Saturday Morning Practice

Now that my area is almost back to normal, I decided that I had to get back out into nature. The places I used to visit for my fix of blue skies, greenery, and water are now too far away, requiring too much time out of my weekend to reach. I think the Universe felt sorry for me and showed me an urban nature center only 3 miles from my home with miles of hiking trails all around it. I had no idea this little gem was almost in my backyard.

This morning I visited: meditated under a sycamore tree, watched the monarch butterflies flit, the hummingbirds drone, and a pair of killdeer birds with three chicks peck through the meadow grass. I also pieced together this bit of video of the garden with its indigenous flora. I think I will make this a weekly practice.

Day 150: At the Beach

It is day 150 of my new normal. That is, it’s been 150 days since I was sent home to work. And I just found out that we will need to work from home for the rest of the year. It is all good: it’s designed to keep me safe and well. But I freaking need to get out of the house! So yesterday I went to the beach. I went just to walk the Strand because I need the exercise, not to splash around in the waves. It seems like everybody else had the same idea. A lot of people did have their masks on, as did I, but obviously there’s only so much mask wearing you can do when you’re trying to catch a wave.

ljgloyd 2020

 

RDP Sunday — BEACH

 

A Small Corner in My Realm

I sometimes feel overwhelmed at the enormity of what we must do to save this planet. As fires rage and oceans rise, as lands become barren and the path we walk along the edge of extinction crumbles away before us, I still feel hope. I am one simple woman. What can I do? I will take my one small corner of green that I am blessed to steward and plant flowers. Sounds silly and naive? Tell that to mourning doves who graze in my garden and the hummingbirds who hover about, and the bees who come looking for my lavender and rosemary. And when I plant milkweed and borage this spring, I hope the butterflies will come. That is what I am doing. Even if all I had was an apartment balcony, I would put out a pot of flowers to feed a passing pollinator. Before I start though, I need to show a little humility and perhaps, to use an old fashioned term, a little repentance for my part in damaging the planet.  Then I will put on my gardening gloves and get to work– sowing one tiny seed at a time. 

 

ljgloyd 2020

 

RDP Sunday — REALM

On Libraries

I have a love affair with libraries. When I was a child, my father used to take me to the library twice a week in the evenings and I would often walk there on Saturday mornings as well. The library was my refuge against the chaos that surrounded me.

It was the fount of all knowledge and creative inspiration for me before Google, Pinterest, and Instagram. But even in these days of the internet, the library still serves as access for many people to world wide web and the acquisition of knowledge.  This points to the fact that libraries are great equalizers in our society. Everyone, no matter their status in society, in theory, can have access to knowledge.

Libraries often provide free services to those who do not have the means to pay for them: after-school tutoring, literacy and language learning labs, and technology and job-training programs. There are adult book discussion groups. There are child and youth programs: story-telling hours and college prep courses.

Libraries are the holders and purveyors of our cultures and civilization. Thousands of years ago our ancestors sat around campfires and shared the collective knowledge of the tribe with the next generations. Libraries do the same today and we must improve them in areas where needed and preserve all of them at all costs.

Ljg 2019

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/09/18/rdp-wednesday-library/

See, There was This Rose Garden…..

The rose garden led to the dinosaurs, which led to the gem room, which led to the aquarium, and on and on….see what happens when you wander…

ljg 2019

 

RDP Friday: ROSE

A View Towards Avalon

 

Ljg 2014, 2019

 

 

RDP Saturday: VIEW

The Living Wall

The Living Wall at the South Coast Botanical Garden

In response to today’s prompt, “Patterns,”  from the Ragtag Daily Prompt site.

ljg c 2019

The Face of Confidence

On my morning exploratory walk, I came across this giant mural. Mural painters amaze me. To create such a huge, public display of art takes an immense amount of confidence on the part of the artist. There is no room for fear of mistakes. The entire neighborhood will see that mistake in the process of being made, not to mention the humiliation of correcting it in front of the world. And heaven forbid if the mistake is not corrected and it stays on view for decades until someone mercifully paints over it. Hats off to public artists.

Teddy Roosevelt said this: “Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.”

I dunno, Teddy, I dunno.

 

Ljg.

I don’t know who painted this; otherwise I would’ve given her/him credit.