Category: Photographs

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Orange and Pink

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Cee’s Challenge topic this week is Orange and Pink

Orange and pink together?
Yes!
It was back in the 1960’s…amidst the blinding landscape often referred to as psychedelic. The term coined to describe what was visualized during an LSD “acid trip.”

No acid trips for me, but as a young teenager I was drawn to the colors shouting out from Teen magazine and the “mod” outfits popping up from television’s Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. Or album covers…The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, among others. Wild “peace and love” posters covered my bedroom walls. And the jewelry…

One artifact from that time period: a “Mod Watch” complete with 4 interchangeable bright colored wristbands. Made of authentic patent leather. A vintage set now over 50 years old. Well worn. Well loved.

It was one of my favorite “accessories”… being the practical person I have always been, it also served a very useful purpose. I always knew what time it was.

Practicality always topped fashion. But with this watch, I had both.

 

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Orange or Pink?

 

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The complete vintage set

 

Quote of the day…hope of the day

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light in forest

 

I have a certain way of being in the world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved from doing what I think is right by jealousy, ignorance, or hate.

Maya Angelou

 

When recently asked about “the haters” by an 8 year old boy, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady responded with a smile.

…the haters? We love ’em! We love ’em back!
Because we don’t hate back.

Just about knocked me off my feet getting dressed one morning last week. While watching Good Morning America’s “kid correspondent” interview football players at the pre-Super Bowl media events.

No matter what you think of TB12 or the Patriots or even football, that answer shines a bright light. What a concept: Love them back.

Perhaps easy for someone like Brady, who is privileged and insulated from those aforementioned haters. Who troll on his Instagram feed and who knows what else.

However…
What a concept for a child to hear from a public persona. A role model even.
And…dare I say…for adults to hear as well.
ADULTS.
Who, it seems, in the last couple of years have grouped themselves into political camps of haters…on one side or the other. Who is in charge in the USA. And who isn’t.

Notice I don’t say haters and non-haters. There is too little visible love on either side. There is just hate, distrust and fear for the “other.” Whether it be the other political party, the other politician, the Other who looks nothing like you or sounds nothing like you. Or doesn’t think like you.

In many cases, this fear slips out…crossing that invisible line…morphing into hurtful anger directed at those you profess to love. Your partner. Your parent. Your sister. Your brother. Your best friend. Your child. Because they disagree with what you hate. Or don’t hate.

How could he believe that?
How could she vote for him?
How could he vote for her?
I just can’t visit them anymore.

Is it fear…or ignorance…
Or perhaps inescapable helplessness.
Doors slamming
As reality tilts and shifts.

Right becoming righteous
When grounded in hate…
Blindly insisting on one way.
Shades of gray disappearing…
Crowding out space for understanding why…
And where do we go from here.

In the end
Reaching for what
is right…
begins with
tolerance
respect…
for our shared humanity.

With empathy…
somehow…
someday…
hopefully
we will
inch
closer
to
loving the haters.

At least it’s a start.

 

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This post inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #34: Reaching
and An Upside Down World

 

Photo a Week – Unexpected Windows

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Nancy Merrill is hosting a photo challenge. The theme this week: Unexpected Windows

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) USING AN UNUSUAL WINDOW.

~~~

An unexpected view.
Sitting on a sunny porch.
Relaxing on vacation.
One June day.

Glanced down
To see peaking at me
A hole in the wall
Surprise…

 

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Hello there Rose!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rose

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Here is my entry for this week’s challenge hosted by Frank at Dutch goes the Photo

The prompt this week is: Rose

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Mother’s Day Roses 2006

 

My sweet son has often made it a tradition to give me flowers for my birthday. Or for Mother’s Day. Or as a combo since there are years when they coincide.

When he was a senior in high school, he included a two page letter…describing what each of the 10 roses signified…looking back on how we navigated his childhood together. His love and gratitude expressed.

I’m not the only writer in the family.

He may not have realized it then, at only 18, how much his words touched my heart. I still have those two sheets of paper. Carefully printed words to mother from son. Although there hasn’t been another letter like that one, the roses have continued for many of the last 13 years.

Beautiful bouquets arrived on my doorstep in May.
A mix of favorite colors.
Always deserving of a photo or two…or three.

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Upside-Down

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This post inspired by V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #33: Upside-Down

 

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upside down: • in or into total
disorder or confusion

 

right side up…
everything
in its place.
comforting clarity…

safety wrapped around
believing.
blind trust.
knowing what’s to come

until sucker punched…
tilting.
lights dimming
without a map…

spinning…
belonging
nowhere.
losing balance…

tumbling alone.
crashing
into
a
blank slate…
the new reality.

upside-down
learning to focus
all over again.

footprints

 

Pass That Note

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This post inspired by Ragtag Daily Prompt: Note

 

…I saw a note that Gail wrote
& it says she hates me…
I don’t know if you’re mad at Gail but I am…

 

Notes.
When did I first run headlong into notes?
At that awkward will-I-fit-in-say-the-right-thing-avoid-exclusion-at-all-cost stage that characterized my middle school years in the 1960’s.

When successfully passing notes was a prized achievement. A right of passage. If you didn’t get caught.

Notes directed the intense undercurrent of a girl’s ever shifting social hierarchy. They could make or break your day at school.

Scrawled on lined notebook paper. Ripped out of 3-ring binders. Torn into halves. Or quarters. Hastily folded as small as possible. Then..slipped to a friend. Or potential friend. Or some kid sitting at a desk on the way to the note’s intended recipient.

With one eye on the teacher, who with chalk in hand might not turn towards the blackboard as quickly as you think. Who might snatch the wrinkled piece of paper. Which held the potential key to your social future. And then, horror of horrors, read it out loud. So everyone would hear…

Are you mad at me?
Write down yes or no.
Check next to these names…
Do you like them or not?

Or worse, if the note was for you…
From the girlfriends you just had a sleepover with…

We have decided that you are not our type.
Please don’t hang around with us that much. 
You can if you want….Every time
we look at you you are reading. I know you
like to but not every second. Don’t hang around
that much anymore.

 

 

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Elaborate codes were devised

I’ve always wondered…why? Why did girls jostle for position in such cut throat ways? Which is probably why I saved a few notes for 50 years. Thinking I’d figure it out. I have not. I still have no clue.

Except I am grateful there was no Facebook when I was struggling to fit in. No Instagram. No social media.
Notes would have followed me everywhere.
Day and night.
I can’t imagine.

Notes on wrinkled paper were thrown away. Or stuffed in a drawer.
Only public for an agonizing minute if the teacher recited them in front of snickering classmates.

Then the bell would ring.
And out the door I’d go.

swing