Best of 2022

This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is “The Best of 2022.” I’m torn between having another existential crisis at the passage of this year and being at peace with it. In any case, I’ll celebrate the good times. 🙂 

I found this painted tree stump on a walk in March.

Would any post about 2022 be complete without including the kangaroo?

I got to go to this BEAUTIFUL abbey church in October.

I really like this photo of the Joy Advent Candle, taken last week, especially the symbolism behind it.

Peculiar

Hello, I am back from my weekend retreat and wanted to share a post today! However, it’s very peculiar because, although I wrote quite a bit over the weekend, it’s all very personal and / or really Jesus-y, and sometimes it’s just not a good poem, so I don’t necessarily want to put it on the blog. As for today, I am not feeling very inspired at all. Well,days of writing 8 poems and of writing 2 poems average out to 5 per day, so that’s not too bad. 🙂

The Cosmic Photo Challenge for this week was “lest we forget,” since this past weekend included Veterans’ Day. However, no disrespect to our veterans but I have other pictures because I went on retreat.

… lest we forget to stop and smell the roses

…lest we forget the lights in the darkness

… lest we forget that everything will eventually be okay

The Bible verse on the mint says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” Romans 8:28
I found that mint on my pillow the very first evening and was quite amused that even the mint was telling me to relax.

For Art’s Sake

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This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is themed “Art for Art’s Sake.” I think my coloring applies, especially since I generally don’t do anything with it, except maybe send a photo of it to a few friends. The picture above is the one I am currently working on. 

I’m not sure if coloring even counts as “art,” but when I sent a picture to my grandma-friend a while ago, she praised, “You are a master of this art form!” 

Thank you, grandma, for making me feel better about my life, LOL! 

Persisting

This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is “as summer fades.”

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You can’t see any rain in this picture, but this was taken a few days ago around sunset, while it was raining, which rarely happens.

This evening, I noticed this flower. I don’t think summer is going anywhere anytime soon, especially not in California.

I’ve got nothing for a poem this evening (even though this is usually the time of week when I share a Sijo), but I don’t want to force it. The theme for this week’s Sijo is persistence, though, so maybe….

Nothing coming, ideas stuck like a truck broken down,
Carrying precious cargo; fix the engine and let it go
Break through barriers, and with persistence reach the destination

Morning Light

A few of my brother’s cacti and plants. My favorite is the one in the little blue pot on the right.

This is my very late response to the Cosmic Photo Challenge, for which this week’s theme is In the Morning Light, so I took these photos in my back yard this morning at around 6:15.

Sometimes there are many clouds in the sky, but I only saw these little ones. Nevertheless, they were inspiring!

Psalm 103 inspired this cinquain:

Give thanks
For everything:
Morningtime is hopeful,
Looking up at sunrising sky
With clouds

Wanting to extend this theme, I wrote a Chaucerian stanza next:

The clouds of morning bring with them a hope:
A cotton-candy pink like sweetest blush
Colors their face, as languidly they lope
Across the sky, amidst the gentle hush
Of morning. Currently there is no rush.
I hear birds chirp and revel in the sound,
Hope beauty is unclouded, evening-gown’d.

Kindness

Kindness matters more than you think.

— me, yesterday

This post is brought to you by Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday, and I am douple-dipping with the Cosmic Photo Challenge, a few days late, because flowers matter, too. Flowers are like nature’s kindnesses! This week’s theme was From the Ground Up.

My brother put some white tuberoses from the garden in our kitchen.

More tuberoses in the garden, viewed “from the ground up.” I really like the clouds in this photo!

Bonus: leaves I saw in the garden
I think this is an herb because after I rubbed the leaf, my hand smelled really good!

P.S. This post made me happy to write. 🙂

Summer Sunshine

For this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, “A summer walk in the sunshine,” I took a couple of pictures in my backyard. I’ve shared the most interesting one. 🙂 There were also a lot of sunflowers still, so I’m including an older photo of our sunflowers. It wasn’t much of a walk, but I did explore my backyard. It some spots it is a little like a jungle.

Although this was not the case, it looked at first like the branches were coming out of the little clay guy’s head.

The photo above inspired a poem: 

Create:
Poetry trees,
Surfeit of ideas
Branching out and reaching others --
Brainstorm

Nature in Black and White

This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is “nature in black & white.” None of these was taken specifically for this challenge, which might be cheating, but I found recent photos of nature that I took and applied a black-and-white filter to them. I think B&W photos look pretty cool because the contrast(s) are heightened.

New flowers in the garden a few days ago

A cute little rabbit in my yard, seen through the front window.
I stared at it for a good 2 minutes because it was so cute!

From one of the recent times when I saw ducklings + Mama Duck, flowers in foreground

Despite my writing-obsessed, poetic disposition, I can’t think of any poems to write about these photos. Leave a comment if you have an idea! 😀 

Night and Day

For Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, “Night and Day,” here is my response. I am only one day late! 🙂

I looked through my photos from my first year of college, when I lived on campus and when I used to take photos of the flowers all the time, any time of the day. Looking back, I see that I had a lot of fun giving them creative titles, and also probably never deleted a single one!

I took this one around sunset.

I had titled this one, “Beauty in the Night.”

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble uploading any more photos. There were 2 more that I wanted to share. Here is a little poem I just wrote:

Keep?
Vanish
The petals,
The day and night,
Memory is left —
Looking at these,
We can be
Happy
Still.

Interesting Angles

For the Cosmic Photo Challenge, I have these photos, taken this morning. I sure had fun playing with the effects in the first one! The second one features my family’s pepper mill, haha.