Contrails
I love them. When I see them, something confusing happens in my cells…as if there is a part of me that remembers a time when a cloud was just a cloud. Yes, sometimes it could have resembled a buffalo or a face, but it was just a cloud, no geometry involved
There was no one up there drawing perfectly straight lines across the sky…..
Can you imagine being Native to our country and looking upward to Father Sky only to see views like these?
Lessons in Prejudice
This might be a stretch, but I have discovered a hidden prejudice.
I’m not being too hard on myself for it though. We have all been inundated with this bias for eons. Not that a history of being misinformed excuses racism or anything.
But this is a black vs. white thing.
I know the bad guy is usually on the black horse and the good guy on a bright white steed. I know black cats are supposedly scary and bad luck. I also know the black dogs in an animal shelter are the last to be adopted. Oh, and supposedly we all have this dark side and we need to be sharing more light in the world.
What the hell is all that anyway? Where did it come from?
I’m sure someone out there knows way more about all this than I and this is not really a post about the archetypes in history anyway.
It’s about Mushrooms.
I don’t really know anything about mushrooms…except that I will enjoy them in a salad or sometimes even sauté them in butter and they are yummy. But what isn’t yummy when sautéed in butter, right? But that is the extent of my knowledge. (I know, I know, I came of age in the 1960’s in California so I should at least know about “Shrooms”, right? I just never went there…)
But on my daily walks, I recently spotted some of these fungi growing and started photographing them. I found quite a variety, including some cute little patches that reminded me somehow of tiny fairy villages…or families.
There were a lot of different kinds, shapes, sizes and colors. I do live in the Pacific Northwest after all and it is seriously WET up here.
All of these were so interesting…their patterns of growth, their shape, size, and their similar but different hues. I’m probably passing up some fancy truffles or something, but I also know some mushrooms can be toxic. I have no idea how to identify those, so I just left them ALL alone for whatever creature eats them in the wild of my suburban neighborhood.
Then I spotted these, right in my own yard.
They literally popped up overnight and gave me the creeps when I bent down to snap a picture with my phone. They just LOOK evil…like they could reach up and grab me, or spit blinding venom in my eyes or something.
Even if someone told me these mushrooms were an extremely sought-after delicacy, I think I’d rather eat a snake than go near these things again. I’m afraid to even remove them. They might release deadly spores into the air.
They are scary looking…especially because they are black, not a clean white or a warm, enticing golden color…you know, how mushrooms are supposed to look.
I purposely did not Google (yes, it is now officially a VERB) mushrooms before I wrote this because I didn’t want to influence my initial reaction. I finally tried Wikipedia, Googles Reverse Image, etc., etc. But I never found my new arrivals. James says they look like they are from Mordor.
I did find this one interesting site.
http://mushroaming.com/Pacific_Northwest
I could not find this dark thing anywhere and it grows right in my front yard!
But again, this whole thing does NOT have me wondering about gourmet VS toxic food.
It has me thinking about Black VS White…..
My grandson was only 10 years old but I asked him if he knew a music video I could watch that he thought I would like.
This is what he picked for me.
I love it! Gets me every single time, for it’s message, and because my sweet Luca knows me that well.
The lyrics version below
Once again, I cheat…some of these are shadows, not silhouettes, and besides, I think I am supposed to be writing about the word, not showing photos.
Well, there are eleven pictures, so 11 X 1,000=11,000 words, so I figure I’m covered…
(Boy, the lengths I go to get COMMENTS!)
Here’s my 1,000 words…well, maybe 973 word, but I can’t write in words what this photo is worth.
This is not some kinky cat-sex photo.
This is Lucy, our Woodpile Kitten, at about 9 months old here getting ready for a nap on top of Zorro, the former Alpha Cat…
Zorro, who is a very old, very dominant warrior cat with a lot of nurturing and protective instincts, must seem to Lucy, born in the wild, like a safe pillow!
With my uncle and my cousin both gone now, it has become a lot more quiet in the garage.
The questions posed by Cee Neuner in this innovative challenge:
List 2 things you have to be happy about?
Have you ever owned a rock, pet rock, or gem that is not jewelry?
Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.
My Answers:
List 2 things you have to be happy about?
2. I am relieved and blissed out (oh, it is too a word!!) that my 17 year old “Heart-Cat” is still alive since I was told back in October he might only have days to live. He definitely has kidney disease and has lost a ton of weight, but he is still here and as ornery as ever.
Well, maybe not. This is a cat who, for 17 years, has let no one pet him but me. And even that never included him being on my lap…but these days, he accepts pets from everyone and will sit on my lap for a whole hour if I let him.
Have you ever owned a rock, pet rock, or gem that is not jewelry?
I have been a “rock hound” since I was a small child. My Dad, in his quiet genius, got us a rock polisher. We would find rocks on the beaches and from the mountains and everywhere in between. Then we would wait…literally for months. Opening that polisher was a miracle every time. I learned so much from that experience, especially about delayed gratification and memory and anchoring experiences. I could write a book about all the lessons from this amazing, covert teacher. (Oh wait, I AM writing that book. My Dad is who taught me about choosing perspectives.)
Early in my therapy practice, I learned that some clients really needed concrete reminders of the things they were leaning, so, being my father’s daughter, I gave them Quartz, Lapis, Hematite or Amethyst hearts….and over the years, hundreds of polished rocks.
And, I have a basket of what’s left of a really old collection of pieces of polished petrified wood, from long before it was illegal. Not exactly rocks, but in my mind they qualify as “gems”. (There is a great story there, too long for today’s post but this has reminded me to write about it.)
Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?
Oh I am definitely a hugger. You might even say I have hugged for a living for more than 40 years.
I’ll just let that sit there and see if you have any questions.
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week?
David Letterman’s new Netflix show, called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. His first interview was with President Barack Obama. I laughed and I cried, and I longed for more of the intelligence, humor, depth and light these two men bring.
What a waste……..
Cee challenges us to share our Oddball photos.
Her instructions are:
This challenge is for those photos you take that don’t really fit into any common category. There is never a theme to this challenge, so what is an odd ball is all up for you to discover and photograph.
My next entry:
https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/01/22/cob-cees-oddball-challenge/
