Saturday, June 6, 2020

Posing for a photo

I've got lots of relatives (and friends) who've stopped for a moment to be captured in a photo.  So which one will I share this week with the Sepia Saturday folks?


My grandchildren...back in 2017. Yes, that's only 3 years ago, and yet so much has changed. Michael, Cayenne and William. They are my son, Marty's children, all grown up now.



And also in 2017, these bathing beauties are also my grandchildren (3 of them) and their cousin. From left, Audrey, their cousin Aby, Caroline and Kate, my son Russ' children and his wife's sister's daughter.

Summertime, posted by Clementine on Facebook!

Today's quote:

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass
by Mary Oliver

1.
Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say–behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.

2.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.
The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

4.
Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,
the dancer, the potter,
to make me a begging bowl
which I believe
my soul needs.

And if I come to you,
to the door of your comfortable house
with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
will you put something into it?

I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.

5.
We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change.
Congratulations if you have changed.

6.
Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—your life—
what would do for you?

7.
What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty

I mean the ones that are thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.


17 comments:

  1. ...let's hope that we all can jump for joy come November!

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  2. Those 3 in the first photo were certainly swimming in the same gene pool.

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    1. Yes, they do look like their father a bit, don't they?

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  3. Hello, wonderful photos of your family. Enjoy your day, happy weekend!

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    1. Thanks Eileen...I've enjoyed your critters post, but oh my, so many comments!

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  4. Wonderful pictures--wonderful poem.

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    1. Thanks, Vicki: I know I should have permission to post her poems, but sometimes I just have to put her words out there.

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  5. Nice photos and poem. I laughed when seeing the little dog jumping off the pier too, just another member of the crew. :)

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  6. Thank you for always leaving positive and uplifting comments on my blog. I am sorry that I have not been very good at leaving comments in return the last couple of months as I was completely overwhelmed with the homeschool learning with the kids. I pray to God they go back in the fall as I as never meant to be a teacher in the sense of being a school teacher and a teacher of so many grades at one time. Hope you are having a great weekend.

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  7. Thank you for introducing me to that poet. I have a poem on my blog post too but I like yours better.

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  8. What happy photos! Last 6 lines of the poem - yes!

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  9. Love the jumping photos..so much fun and exuberance.

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  10. Family resemblances abound in both photos of grandchildren. Lovely photos, lovely grandchildren! :)

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  11. Congratulations on taking an unusual approach to the prompt photograph, with lovely family photographs and a thought provoking poem. I do like your uplifting banner photograph as well

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  12. My favorite is the black and white dockside photo -- so exuberant and full of youthful energy. Thank you as well for the poem, which provided a brief respite to start my day.

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  13. Love the photos, especially the one where they are jumping in the water...even the dog! So summer-y and happy.

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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.