Up close sometimes, I can’t see anything but Chaos
But given a little distance, I can see some order
And from the new perspective, even beauty…
This complicated magnificance was not visible when covered by Spring and Summer foliage.
I had to wait it out to see the full picture…
When Helen posted this theme I immediately thought of the same song Karuna chose. I LOVE that song. Sly And the Family Stone captured what a whole generation was pleading for the world to get through music!
But my very next choice came quickly to mind. I LOVE this song and it is an anthem in my life, and one I play for others often. Juliet has a lovely voice and this song addresses the theme this week perfectly!
Help Me Understand by Juliet Wyers. (Worth googling for more of her.)
(Lyrics unavailable but mostly understandable if you really listen)
PS We might really need this song after tomorrow….
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/20902465/posts/1213080484
Hard song for some to listen to and an even harder video to watch, but I am MOVED by this.
Think of it as a frenetic, chaotic demand to get out and VOTE!!
Pump up your volume, even if you hate metal!!
Open your Eyes-by Disturbed (Lyrics are in the video)
This is my second post for this challenge. Pauses and Clicks reminded me this morning of the whole challenge. Before I had focused mainly on the “strange and grotesque” part.
This series of photos I’ve been taking of Hydrangeas best captures the week’s theme for me but it wasn’t until reading the above post that I got how truly beautiful this amazing plant and it’s blossoms are….until their very end.
How in the world does THIS…
…Become THIS???
The “Transformation” is both invisibly slow, as well as lightning fast. I took these pictures from April to June!
Here is a Transformation slideshow.
But for me, the lesson didn’t stop there. I had planned on showing the photos of Hydrangeas at the end of their life to demonstrate how something so lovely can transform into “ugly”…but I read her post this morning and it completely changed my perspective.
NOW, I can see how the Hydrangea becomes MORE beautiful as it ages, stunning even…
And, since I’m always looking at life through the lens of Generations, look what else I found!
Multi-Generational Living at it’s finest!!!
Thanks Pauses and Clicks!
(Now if I can just apply this lesson the next time I look in a mirror!)
PS Today is November 4th, 2016 and when I walked outside, here’s what greeted me!
“Tell us about a piece of music that stayed with you.”
I love that Word Press gives us all these challenges! Not because I can’t think of anything to write about, but because it helps me narrow topics down!
The first time I heard the song A Life Uncommon by Jewel, I was moved to tears.
(small disclaimer…the last few seconds of wording on this particular youtube are about Christianity and though I consider myself part Christian, I am also part Hindu, part Buddhist, part Jewish, part Unitarian Universalist and part “still working it all out”.)
I loved the song and could not stop thinking about it!
Such inspirational lyrics!
Don’t worry mother, it’ll be alright
And don’t worry sister, say your prayers and sleep tight
It’ll be fine lover of mine
It’ll be just fine
Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And you shall lead a life uncommon
I’ve heard your anguish
I’ve heard your hearts cry out
We are tired, we are weary, but we aren’t worn out
Set down your chains, until only faith remains
Set down your chains
And lend your voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lent your strength to that
Which you wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead a life uncommon
There are plenty of people who pray for peace
But if praying were enough it would have come to be
Let your words enslave no one and the heavens will hush themselves
To hear our voices ring out clear
With sounds of freedom
Sounds of freedom
Come on you unbelievers, move out of the way
There is a new army coming and we are armed with faith
To live, we must give
To live
And lend our voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength to that which we wish to be free from
Fill your lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead…
Lend our voices only to sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength to that which we wish to be free from
Fill you lives with love and bravery
And we shall lead a life uncommon
Then I heard the song at the Unity church by this wonderful duo, Garnett and Beverly. Oh man, can these two SING!!! http://www.garnettandbeverly.com/
After hearing them sing it, I decided I wanted to EARN having this very song be performed at the party I want folks to have when I die!!
But there is another chapter.
Many years ago now, I had the miraculous experience of reuniting with my daughter, Pamela, having given her up to be raised by the most wonderful parents. As I was getting to know her, I did what many of us do when we first fall in love, and boy, did I ever fall. I made her a playlist of all my favorite songs…songs that I hoped would tell her about me. (Pam is truly amazing, and a talented singer herself, so I thought music would be a great connection!!)
The song, Life Uncommon, was the first and most important song on that playlist, with the disclaimer that I was still learning to live this way.
Three generations…my mother, my daughter, Pamela, and me, all around the same age. I couldn’t see any resemblance between my daughter and me but could see it between Pam and my mother.
![DSC03569[2]](https://i0.wp.com/chosenperspectives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/dsc035692.jpg?resize=475%2C356&ssl=1)
Me and my birth daughter!
![DSC03582[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chosenperspectives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/dsc035821.jpg?resize=479%2C639&ssl=1)
Cousins, their first visit…Pamela’s daughter and Michael’s son. How cute are they? watching something on TV that has Julius feeling protective…
![DSC03572[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chosenperspectives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/dsc035721.jpg?resize=479%2C360&ssl=1)
Me with my son and his sister together, a dream come true!
And giving me….a life uncommon….
…is “to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.”
And one of our instructions this week for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is to”create a gallery, with a series of photos showing a metamorphosis in progress.”
Well, I haven’t shared my beautiful (or maybe grotesque…eye of the beholder and all) BUGS for a while. You can read about them here:
https://chosenperspectives.com/2016/07/16/chosenperspectives-on-details-for-wpc/ and here
But for today’s topic, here is a slideshow showing their transformation. (By the way, the featured image at the top of the page is of a pile of eggs. They are not normally on my carpet but this photo is of the remains of the one and only unsupervised encounter between my bugs and my cats. Even though it is Halloween I won’t torture you with details of how those eggs got from the laden belly of the mature female bug onto the rug…oh wait, maybe I just did!)
Here’s another photo to show the range of growth I get to witness.
And here is a reaction of some family members to one of the less pleasant consequences of having Giant Spiny Australian Leaf Bugs around.
Tiny poops but they are very dry and have no smell…
These creatures MOLT three times during their lives. It took me many years to actually witness the process and it is amazing! What they leave behind after the second and third molting is the opposite of transmogrifying. (You don’t want to know about the first molting. Oh wait. I keep forgetting it’s Halloween! They EAT IT!!!)
The molted skins are PERFECT in every detail, right down to the tiny claws, spikes and antennae!
an empty skin
I guess you could say my experience of having these bugs as members of our pet family has Transmogrified ME! I have gone from that stereotypical image of squealing in terror while running for the nearest table to climb on over a tiny house spider or a beetle …to writing this post.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/20902465/posts/1197241712
This week’s challenge– our theme for Song Lyric Sunday is to post a song that helps pull you out of a dark place.
I too am completely affected by music. I believe in its power. I assign music to my clients all the time. I use it myself to calm down, to wake up, to get moving, to release, to exercise, to entertain myself, to love more deeply, to remember my own power, and on and on!
WAY too many songs came to mind when I read this week’s theme but the one that I woke up this morning is below. I had heard this song for a long time without listening to the lyrics and found it just so-so. Then a couple of years ago I had the privilege of attending an “adopted” nephew’s amazing graduation ceremony…and the whole class sang this song!! How perfect for their launch into adulthood.
I have since adopted it as my anthem, a reminder of the blank page of every single day of my life! (It helps me get unblocked when trying to WRITE also!!)
A great one to sing loudly, standing up while looking in a mirror! Hoaky I know, but try it!
It will be hard to remain in the dark if you do!
I am unwritten
Can’t read my mind
I’m undefined
I’m just beginning
The pen’s in my hand
Ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Oh, oh, oh
I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can’t live that way
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
Oh, yeah, yeah
I have been after a shot of this guy for it seems like years. He’s there, at the top of our power pole, most mornings, making that sound. Wakes me up. No idea what he could still be eating up there. You’d think the pole would be chewed down to nothing after all this time. If it’s carpenter ants he’s after, I’d happily wake up even earlier and invite him closer to feast on the swarm of those damn ants that are eating my house!
As much as I miss my flowering plum trees that hid part of the pole and where this beautiful guy used to hide between drummings, I am glad to be able to finally see him.
Ahh, for a better telephoto shot!
Check out the sounds at this link. My “Pileated alarm clock” is one of the very last sounds listed.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/sounds
Silence
via Daily Prompt: Silence
I am a new-ish blogger and Daily Prompt Virgin so be gentle with me…
I had an instant reaction to this word SILENCE but thought I should check out some of the other posts to see if my idea would fit. I scrolled through 50 or more, looking at their titles, picked one to view at random (well, maybe the words Cats, Dogs, Teeth and Claws grabbed my attention). They had written a great post and also had the same idea as me.
Now I want to count up how many other people posted the Disturbed version of
“Sounds of Silence”?
If you haven’t watched/heard it, crank up your volume, give yourself 5 minutes (or 10, because it is really better to listen the first time with eyes closed).
I’m 68. My son is 44 and he made me sit and listen to this song with him. I judged…harshly at first, but as I sat there, waiting it out, thinking to lecture about trashing one of the anthems of my generation, I got it. I was deeply moved. We both ended up in tears and holding hands!
Talk about a generation bridging song!
Silence, my ass!
Neighbor’s guest drove right off the EDGE of their driveway!!
Texting and driving is simply NEVER safe!!!
