the airshow was in town this weekend, so you can consider these images a collaboration between nature and myself to combine the essence of both fireworks and fighter jets into a single image.

i remember how when i saw the sun melting the sidewalk i stopped and blew dandelion kisses into the sticky summer air.

and the light was like a benediction, a blessing, a prayer – whispered all around me.

and what i mean by that is grace, offered freely and openly. i felt the magic and mystery in my heart and i opened myself to it.

{with thanks to the lovely sabrina ward harrison for the prompts.}

“I love all things, not only the grand but the infinitely small: thimble, spurs, plates, flower vases ..”

— Pablo Neruda

let me help you pause.

look at the grass, waving in the breeze.

soften your focus. widen your eyes.

breathe in.
pause.
breathe out.
pause.

repeat as needed.

there is magic all around you.

sometimes you just need to turn yourself upside down and sideways to see it.

and the world rejoiced, for spring had come.

tulips are definitely definitely definitely my favorite flower.

(can you see the tiny bug on the pink tulip in the last photo? i really wanted to brush it off to avoid a black speck in my photo but decided that would be rude.)

sometimes
there are no words
for what binds you,
for the cage
that keeps you
small and silent.

even i, with all the words at my disposal, have none.

the tiger sees the bars of his cage and paces,
knowing his own strength.

we pace,
not knowing our own,
wondering why we don’t feel free,
forgetting that
sometimes
invisible bars
are the strongest of all.

i apologize.
i do not mean to leave you in despair
when the truth –
your truth –
can slice through the darkness like a clap of thunder
and dissolve
the bars around you.

this is how it starts
after all,
a scream welling up in the silence.
soon enough,
you will learn your own strength.
you will learn that you are free.

i mentioned that i am currently in love with the tv show bones, right?

in case you aren’t familiar with the show, it’s about a forensic anthropologist and an fbi agent who solve crimes using the bones of the deceased.

brennan, the forensic anthropologist, is a genius who wound up in the foster care system after being abandoned by her parents & brother. she relies on reason & logic & facts and distrusts seemingly non-rational emotions like love. booth, the fbi agent, believes in love & fate and trusts his heart & gut. of course, they are slowly falling in love.

i love watching the relationships between the characters and the changes in each of them as they grow & transform & deepen through their interactions with each other.

that being said, the reason i bring this up is because there is a scene in one particular episode that i want to tell you about.

the case involves a psychic who tells them that they’ll find bodies buried below a fountain. they do.

in the course of their investigation, brennan finds herself in a room with the psychic.

the psychic pulls a tarot card and tells brennan that she was abandoned when she was a child. she pulls another card and tells brennan that she is afraid of the world and that she hides her fear behind reason & logic – but that there is one question she (brennan) can’t answer.

brennan tells the psychic that the question she can’t answer is how the psychic knew the bodies were under the fountain.

the psychic tells brennan that the question she can’t answer is how anyone can love her. she then pulls another card and says, “the answer to the question you are afraid to say out loud is yes. he knows the truth of you and he is dazzled by it.”

today, i wish that for you.

may you know the truth of you and may you be dazzled by it.

i must say, you really can find insight and inspiration everywhere you look.

p.s. completely off-topic, but i just have to share my latest thing with you – it’s a personalized children’s story!

i know dandelions are considered weeds, but i love them. they are so bright and cheerful. i think of them as tiny cousins of the sun, peeking out between grass blades, turning their cheerful faces toward me. as far as i am concerned, they are here to make our days even brighter.

May the earth hold you.
May the birds sing to you.
May the wind wrap its arms around you.

May your day be blessed.