Oh tree of winter beauty!

Sometimes when the weather and season is particularly wonderful,

I drive around the streets in my neighborhood to enjoy it.

A recent wet and heavy snow did amazing things to the trees.

I came across this gorgeous weeping tree and now I am sharing it with you!

Doesn't it look a bit like a stork? Or a crane?

Reflecting....

While reflections are quite wonderful and interesting in themselves,

what they do is expand that which they reflect, making even more of it.

In this Thanksgiving week, as we are among family and friends,

we will see reflections of each other.

It's not quite the same thing as a photographic reflection,

but if you look closely, I trust you will

see the best thing of all reflected in the faces that surround you:

LOVE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Necessity of Contemplation - a disappearing art

This is the view out my studio window on a late winter's afternoon.

I do my best to not let the demands of the life I have created eat up the moments when I can just look and take in something beautiful.

I had friends for dinner last night and we were talking about how the demands of life in these times has practically obliterated moments of quiet contemplation and reflection. While their young son had his cell phone with him, he didn't let it interrupt our being together as friends.

The dinner table was set with candles and flowers. I had chosen a CD of quiet piano music and after weeks of intense work around here, the evening seemed almost like stepping into a church sanctuary off a busy city street.

If we don't allow ourselves uninterrupted time for our thoughts and conversations to flow, I believe there is an unknown and sorry consequence to be had for us all.

So here is to contemplation and its gifts.