What’s there to do on a sunny 70-degree day in November, besides grab a camera and go to the park?
While a hard freeze wilted all the flowers about a week ago, the leaves have only gotten more vibrant and colorful. The prairie grasses and hydrangea blossoms remain pretty, even as they look more like the dried flowers one would put in a centerpiece. Here in central Illinois, many of the ducks and geese stick around for the winter.
In my last post, I wrote that I’ve come to consider photography as a form of prayer, because of the way it encourages appreciation for God’s creation. This idea was first suggested to me by Howard Zehr, author of The Little Book of Contemplative Photography.
Zehr offers several exercises in which he encourages us to put aside any specific goals we might have for a photo session and simply pay attention to what presents itself. I really like that approach. One thing my own photo sessions have taught me is to pay attention. To notice.
Most of my best photos over the years have not been the carefully choreographed panoramic views of tourist attractions taken on vacations or the posed “grip-and-grin” shots taken at family gatherings. Instead, unexpected photo opportunities presented themselves and beckoned me to pay attention or miss out. I like to think of them as “God’s photo opportunities.”
Below are a dozen of my favorite examples.
While on vacation in Ireland, Pete and I trained our cameras on stunning emerald-green scenery, entire fields of furze, notable landmarks and castles galore. I almost failed to notice the pigeons populating the sidewalks of Dublin. This one seemed to say, “Hey, look at me!”
Likewise, Jerusalem offered a gazillion holy sites for everyone to dutifully photograph for the folks back home. But how could one possibly ignore His Majesty, the Cat? People in that part of the world seemed to like their cats, by the way. As we toured the Holy Land, we spotted several cat colonies among the tourist attractions, and the feral kitties always appeared healthy and well-fed.
Of course, some of God’s best photo opportunities have landed right in our own backyard. Small mammals may not be so glad to see this guy, but Pete and I think our resident hawk is magnificent! Pete likes to joke that we’ve provided a nice backyard deli for him by attracting all the other critters. I don’t like to think about that part. I just notice – and admire – the hawk.
In a project I like to think of as “God’s work, our hands,” Pete and I have been growing milkweed in our backyard for several years in an effort to protect the dwindling monarch butterfly population. It took nearly two years for the monarchs to find our plants, and we were beginning to wonder if they would ever show up. Then finally one day, I was SO excited to notice this little guy.
This busy little bee was so absorbed sipping nectar from one of my milkweed plants, he didn’t even notice me – which gave my camera ample opportunity to notice him and zoom in before he flitted to the next flower. He looked so cute and fuzzy that part of me wanted to reach out and pet him gently with my finger like one would do with a furry caterpillar, but the much-wiser part of me was content to admire him from a distance with my camera lens while he did God’s work of feeding the world by keeping everything pollinated.
Is this dragonfly magnificent or not?? I spotted him while walking through an outdoor labyrinth at Jubilee Farm – a little piece of Eden established by our community’s Dominican Sisters as a center for ecology and spirituality. Fortunately the labyrinth’s design invited me to spend as much time looking down as looking around, and I had my camera with me to capture this little beauty.
I used to get so frustrated with the squirrels in our backyard because they wouldn’t stay out of the bird feeders, and I tried everything I could think of to thwart the furry little trespassers. Finally I decided to enjoy the squirrels instead of fighting them. After all, I’m pretty sure our bushy-tailed buddies never got the memo that all the enticing delicacies were for birds and not for them. So these days I entertain myself by taking full advantage whenever God presents them to me for a photo opportunity.
We’ve traded in our neatly manicured lawn for a wildflower meadow since we stopped using chemicals of any kind in our yard. (Don’t worry, we do mow the lawn. But we don’t try to keep out the “weeds.”) Now the grass is interspersed with violets, white clover, dandelions and assorted small wildflowers that provide both nectar and pollen for our pollinators. This cute chipmunk inserted himself into the middle of things while I was photographing the wildflowers, and seemed to like our new lawn as much as the bees and butterflies do.
We all know how dark and depressing things can seem in the middle of winter. But one morning, in the midst of a bleak midwinter backyard scene, I spotted this brilliant flash of red.
I just love snowdrops! As soon as I notice these popping up out of the ground, I know that a long hard winter is coming to an end and spring is on its way.
For years, a gorgeous Rose of Sharon bush sat on the front corner of our house. From midsummer until the first frost, this lovely little show-off greeted me with hundreds of blossoms each time I pulled into the driveway. Its abundant profusion of blooms seemed to shout, “Glory to God!” The bees and the hummingbirds loved it. Then, a couple of years ago, an unusually harsh winter killed it. I’m so glad I was inspired the previous fall to pause my busy schedule long enough to take these photos of the bush and of a single perfect Rose of Sharon blossom.
When it comes to paying attention, my little Champie Cat reminds me to do this constantly. His whole personality seems to call out, “Notice me! Notice me!” And my camera loves him almost as much as I do. But he doesn’t stay in one place for long, so I need to be quick. He loves to turn pillows into cat beds and this is one of my all-time favorite photos – I like to call it “the Prince and the Pea.”
One thing I’ve learned about God’s photo opportunities is that – unlike tourist attractions or neatly lined-up groups of people – none of them are “posed.” They just appear, often when least expected – photobombing a scenic view of Jerusalem or swooping into my backyard or howling at me from the bedroom to get my attention. To capture them, I must pull myself away from my screens and my busy schedule long enough to notice. Or risk missing out.
Note: I’m taking a short break from writing in July to focus on some pressing personal priorities, so for this month, I’m reposting some of my favorite blog pieces from earlier days when I only had a few people following my blog. This was first posted in September 2020.
Can photography be a form of prayer? Howard Zehr, author of The Little Book of Contemplative Photography, thinks so.
Photography can serve as a medium for reflection and meditation, and encourages mindfulness, he says. “By slowing down to reflect and meditate, by heightening our visual awareness and our imaginations, by cultivating receptivity and a more holistic way of knowing, we can renew ourselves while gaining new insights into ourselves, the creation, and the Creator.”
Some photographic subjects present themselves in an obvious way. An amazing sunrise practically screams, “Quick! Grab your camera.”
As do the brilliant fall colors in this park scene.
However, mindfulness is also about “being aware of and appreciating the ordinary, of being open to beauty and insights in the commonplace,” Zehr says.
For example, who knew that chives going to seed could be so pretty?
“We often overlook things that we experience as ordinary or everyday,” Zehr says. “We tend to make preconceived judgments about what is worth looking at or photographing, valuing the ‘picturesque’ or ‘spectacular’ and failing to recognize many of the visual possibilities around us.”
How about a coneflower blossom?
Throughout his little book, Zehr gives us exercises designed to increase our awareness of the visual richness of ordinary objects and scenes. One exercise: Set out to photograph without a specific subject in mind, remaining open to whatever seems to present itself.
Like a leaf that has floated to the ground.
A pair of acorns.
Or a single perfect rose.
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place,” Zehr says. “I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Like bright red berries against a deep blue sky.
Or a starkly bare tree with a cloudy sky shortly before sunset serving as a backdrop.
“Ordinary things, when really seen, make extraordinary photos,” Zehr says. “Such photos seem to make themselves. They seem like presents that were given.”
I snapped this photo of icicles dripping from a twig on a bush next to my porch.
These fall leaves still flashed their brilliant colors as they peeked out from under a very early snowfall.
“One must always take photographs with the greatest respect for the subject and for oneself,” Zehr says.
Of course, one can’t help but respect this goose walking straight toward me in the park, who just begged to be noticed … and photographed.
“A contemplative approach to photography is an expression of wonder grounded in respect and humility,” he says. “As such, it calls us to live in right relationship with our Creator, the creation, and our fellow human beings.”
An attitude of wonder “requires that we look anew at the familiar, that we stop taking the world around us for granted,” he adds. “An attitude of wonder is essential if we are truly to experience the creation and the Creator.”
How sweet! This week, when I brought my husband home from a grueling 9-day hospital stay, God greeted us with flowers. In fact, God seemed to have turned our entire yard into one giant bouquet.
As Pete begins a lengthy recovery process, we’ve been able to feast our eyes on (from top to bottom) crabapple blossoms, irises, golden stars, redbud blossoms, lungwort, pink and white dogwood blossoms, mystery flowers (LOL!), tulips, violets, azaleas and … the ever-present dandelions.
What’s even more lovely: The flowers are all perennials, so I didn’t have to do a bit of work to enjoy this lavish display of eye candy.
Easter Sunday is coming up, and with it, some lovely spring weather after a long hard winter.
Flowers are popping up in my yard. Lots of them! I just love my crocuses, pear and black cherry blossoms, rhododendrons, creeping phlox, jonquils, periwinkles, bluebells, pinks … and, of course, dandelions.
For several summer seasons, one of my favorite meditation activities has been walking through my backyard and gazing upon God’s handiwork.
This year we had extensive landscaping work done in the spring. I planted lots of native perennials, as well as an abundance of annuals. I’ve found gardening to be therapeutic, and the yard is looking beautiful!
So, as the summer draws to a close, I thought I’d share some photos.
What I love about astilbe is its outrageous showiness. Those plumes! I like to think of them as God showing off…
I’ve been slowly but surely adding native plants to my beds. Not only do they attract pollinators, but once they get established, they require next to no watering or other care, since they’re suited to our local climate. Among my favorites are purple coneflowers and black-eyed susans.
Besides being wonderfully showy, the bee balm that grows along the south side of our house attracts hummingbirds. I just love those tiny creatures! I still haven’t gotten my camera to focus fast enough to catch one flitting from blossom to blossom, but I’m working on it.
Our resident rabbits love the white clover that covers our lawn. And they don’t have to worry about ingesting chemicals along with the yummy clover flowers. Our lawn has been chemical-free for as long as we’ve lived here.
Some welcome visitors have been gorging on our milkweed. I planted lots of it this year, so there’s enough to feed some very hungry caterpillars, along with the bees and butterflies. Since both the monarch and bee populations are dwindling, I’ve encouraged everyone I know to let this “weed” grow in their yards.
While not considered native flowers, my day lilies are so easy to grow and come in so many pretty colors that I now have lots and LOTS of them scattered around both my back and front yards. The good news is, they aren’t invasive, so it’s safe for me to plant them anywhere.
I like to scatter a few annuals throughout my flower beds, so that something is always blooming from mid-spring until frost. Petunias, begonias and lantana are among my favorites.
I have always gotten a kick out of the way I can make my hydrangeas change color just by pouring some leftover coffee around the base of the bush. These blooms started out blue, but some have turned pink after I started the coffee treatment.
What is even prettier (and tastier!) than these blossoms? The vine-ripened tomatoes I’ve just now begun to harvest! And the cayenne pepper will be yummy cooked with a pot of greens.
We also planted a Rose of Sharon tree in memory of our beautiful Olaf da Vinci.
We wanted something with blossoms as flamboyant as our sweet kitty’s personality, and I think we found the perfect little tree to honor him. From mid-summer until frost the Rose of Sharon puts forth an abundance of showy white blossoms with red centers.
This year I celebrated my birthday with a three-day weekend dedicated to prayer, meditation and reflection. Only instead of sequestering myself indoors, I tried to stay outside as much as possible.
A highlight of the weekend was a trip to Jubilee Farm, where my husband Pete and I walked their labyrinth for the first time.
Jubilee Farm was established in 1999 by the Dominican Sisters as a center for ecology and spirituality, according to their web site (link HERE).
The labyrinth – one of the farm’s more amazing and popular features – allows us to follow a defined pathway to the center of the circle and back out again, praying and meditating as we go.
Many labyrinths are located in churches or other buildings, but the one at Jubilee Farm is outside.
For more than three millennia, millions of people have used labyrinths as an aid for prayer, according to the Jublilee Farm web site (link HERE for an article about the labyrinth itself).
One of the most famous labyrinths – and the one replicated at Jubilee Farm – is embedded in the stone floor of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France.
At the entrance to (or exit from) the Jubilee Farm labyrinth is a bench where we can sit for a moment to gather our thoughts.
The labyrinth is a single circular path which takes us to a center place and back out again,
At Jubilee Farm, the labyrinth path is mowed right into the pasture grass, as pictured above and below.
There are no wrong turns or dead ends in a labyrinth, the Dominican Sisters assure us. There is one way in and one way out.
There is also no right or wrong way to pray while walking the labyrinth, a Sister who lives at the farm assured us the first time we visited Jubilee Farm in the spring.
We can pray for people or situations that are on our mind. We can ask a question and leave space for the Holy Spirit to respond. We can give thanks for the blessings in our lives.
Or we can walk in silence, observing the scenery around us and drinking in God’s presence.
All along the path at Jubilee Farm’s labyrinth, Pete and I encountered an abundance of milkweed, red clover and wildflowers.
We also encountered this little guy, who reminds us God wants us to pay attention! Is he magnificent or what?!
Finally we came to the center of the labyrinth, which had a couple of stumps where we could once again sit for rest or contemplation if we wished.
Walking to and from the labyrinth was an experience in itself. On the way back to our car, we walked past this pretty little pond.
Below is a close-up of the water lilies and lily pads in the middle of the pond.
Millions of people around the world use labyrinths as a spiritual practice.
At Jubilee Farm, walking their labyrinth turned out to be nature prayer at its finest! And a great way to start my personal new year.
My inner Nerd Girl got to experience some real excitement this week!
The James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest images of the distant universe to date, according to a special web site created by NASA, who released the first of the images to the public earlier this week (link HERE).
These images of our amazing universe serve to remind me that religion and science need not be seen as opposed to each other. Who can look at these astonishing images and not see evidence of a Creator?
At any rate, I couldn’t resist sharing some of them in a blog post.
First, here is an artist’s rendition of the telescope. Launched in December 2021, the telescope is about the size of a tennis court, according to NASA, and will operate nearly a million miles beyond Earth’s orbit around the sun. (And I thought my little camera with the 40X zoom lens was fabulous.)
Webb will spend the next 20 years or so collecting data to help scientists study the farthest reaches of the known universe.
The image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, gives us a sense of the sheer vastness of the universe. Just think: Each speck of light in the image below is an entire galaxy, except for the brighter specks with spikes, which are stars in our own galaxy.
Each galaxy, in turn, may contain billions of stars, moons and planets. Compared to the universe as a whole, the slice of universe shown in this image is equivalent to the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground, according to NASA.
Sort of boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
When I look at this photo, I’m immediately reminded of Genesis 1:3: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”
The next image is the Carina Nebula, the largest nebula in our own Milky Way galaxy. The nebula is the part of the image which resembles a mountaintop.
It looks solid, but is actually a giant cloud of gas and dust where stars are born, according to NASA. The stars are formed from the dust in the nebula.
Read Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Then look at this image. Wow. God certainly is an artist!
What looks like a cosmic fireworks display in the image below is Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. Some of the galaxies are so close they bump into each other, forming new stars, according to NASA.
If we think our Fourth of July fireworks are spectacular, just look at God’s fireworks …
The galaxy group is visible from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Stephan’s Quintet is perhaps best known for being prominently featured in the classic Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The next image, of the Southern Ring Nebula, shows how a star similar to our sun looks as it is dying. The star has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years, according to NASA.
Does this image look like a giant cosmic eye, or what? It brings to mind Job 28:24: “For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens.”
NASA has made its entire collection of images, sounds and video available and publicly searchable online, including more than 140,000 photos and other resources we can download and use any way we like.
The images are available to everyone free of charge and free of copyright restrictions – NASA simply asks to be acknowledged as the source of the material. Their entire collection can be accessed via NASA’s Image and Video Library (link HERE).
And I’m not the only one who thinks our amazing universe points to the existence of a Creator. Turns out many of the the astronauts and other scientists who work at NASA share a strong faith as well.
According to an article in the Houston Chronicle (link HERE), Webster Presbyterian, just down the road from NASA’s mission control center in Houston. is spiritual home to dozens of NASA scientists, engineers, astronauts, lunar mission contractors and their families.
The church, now known as the Church of the Astronauts, has stained glass windows featuring images of the moon, the stars and distant nebulae. How cool is that?
I recently wrote a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing of having my beautiful Olaf DaVinci in my life for 15 years (link HERE). Today, I’d like to offer another prayer of thanksgiving.
My little Champaign Le Chat has been such a source of comfort to me while I grieve the loss of his brother. And he’s definitely been a blessing to me in his own right.
Oley and Champaign were adopted together from an Animal Protective League shelter 15 years ago, and they were inseparable right up until Oley’s passing. So I’ve had I to remind myself that he is grieving as much as we are.
Champaign has his own story, which is pretty remarkable, actually. We have reason to believe he was abused in a previous home and it took time and lots of love to heal his fear of people.
But, as we would discover, love wins. Every time.
When we first encountered him at the shelter, the poor little guy was hiding under a chair. He trembled as I reached under the chair to pet him, but when I stroked his fur, he leaned into my hand, as if drinking in the affection. There was no way, however, that he planned to come out from his hiding place.
Once we got Champie home from the shelter, he took a long time to warm up to us. For the first two weeks, he hid in the basement, only coming up to eat when Pete and I were gone.
Fortunately, Oley cheerfully served as his guardian angel. The two liked to hang out together, and they loved to chase each other around the house while yowling loudly – especially at 3 a.m.
Slowly but surely, Champie finally came out of his shell. And when he did, he became quite the little character.
There’s nothing like being ignored by a cat, but he lets me know I’d better not ignore him! This little guy will actually hiss at me to let me know I need to pet him.
Sometimes in the morning when I’m getting dressed, he walks up to me, hisses at me, and then immediately hops up on the bed and rubs up against me, clamoring for attention. Too funny!
Here he sits, on his throne, the king of all he surveys.
He has a talent for finding the sunniest spots in the house. Here he is, rolling over and playing cute, as he basks in a shaft of light in the sunroom.
The Champ has made it known that a cat bed is whatever he decides it should be. (Cat beds purchased specifically for that purpose from Chewy? Boring!)
He loves to turn pillows into cat beds. This is one of my favorite photos – I like to call it “the Prince and the Pea.”
Speaking of cat beds, people clothes are the absolute best. He may have the whole bed to snooze on here, but Pete’s clothes prove too irresistible.
He often likes to station himself in my office as well, and does a superb job of monitoring me while I’m at my computer.
He can be such a sweet, silly boy! Sometimes he just sits in the litter box. Yep, just sits there, as if daring anyone to come into his territory.
Not to worry, the litter box was clean when this photo was taken. But still …
Champaign has never been a “lap cat,” even after deciding that Pete and I were safe. The few times I’ve tried putting him on my lap, he scrambles back off as quickly as he can.
But he does enjoy snuggling next to Pete and me in the evenings, and we get to take turns cuddling him. The former little scaredy-cat loves the attention. It’s like he’s making up for lost time.
One of his favorite snuggle-time activities is “helping” me read. He cuddles up next to me most nights while I’m reading myself to sleep, and sometimes in the afternoon during nap time.
To help our little Champie through the process of grieving for his brother, the vet has recommended we give him lots of hugs and snuggling, and we’ve been happily complying with doctor’s orders.
I think the love is helping both him and us. I know for sure it’s helping us, anyway!
Seriously Seeking Answers 