Helpless

Rave On

                                                                                                              photo credit: ryn

"A Pretty Song"
Mary Oliver

From the complications of loving you
I think there is no end or return.
No answer, no coming out of it.

Which is the only way to love, isn't it?
This isn't a playground, this
earth, our heaven, for a while.

Therefore I have given precedence
to all my sudden, sullen, dark moods
that hold you in the center of my world.

And I say to my body: grow thinner still.
And I say to my fingers, type me a pretty song.
And I say to my heart: rave on.

3 Owls for Your Tuesday

This little video from Sesame Street makes me smile!  Happy Tuesday!
    .ryn
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." -Lou Holtz

Hey Love

Hey Love,
Let's go do our taxes. Get drunk. Smoke a big cigar. Drive Jack's big car. Clean up the attic. No, there's no money this month either to pay the bills, but who the fuck cares. Do you think I'd actually trade my life for the lives of most of those people out there who WILL pay all their bills on time this month, have plenty of extra money in the bank set aside for retirement, a three car garage? This old towering grey house we call home is drafty and leaning, but it's home and look at that old clawfoot bathtub full of steaming soapy magnolia water. Let's build something good that we can't see with our eyes, and be surprised when it's our turn to die, realizing that we actually did most of the stuff we truly care about. Gave ourselves permission to be curious. Actually became the people we were born to be. That we discovered our true place of birth and leaned into the harness of the dark and helped the sun come up a few times without having fallen asleep. Gave the sun no choice but to rise: even it had to find out what would happen next.
I'll be seeing you later,
Under Dog
. . .
copyright 2001, Linford Detweiler

                                                                             photo credit: ryn

Monday Video Inspiration: Lost in a Dream

I have always admired the mixed-media collage and photography of artist, Sabrina Ward Harrison.  Her colorful and vibrant style has brought so much inspiration to the video work that I do.  And her thoughts and words about life's joys and struggles have influenced the path that my life has taken.  I can relate to what I discover in her art and have grown more into myself since I first read her revealing and honest journal titled "Spilling Open." 

Owl Update

They're coming... Our first night doing Northern Saw-Whet Owl research was a success!  The migration from Canada to PA is under way and the numbers will keep increasing until end of November.  It was a thrill to hold one and look into it's eyes.  We did some measurements, feather charting, weighed it, made note of it's eye color and fat content.  Overall, a healthy bird and was so well-behaved!  It is a wonderful feeling to be in the dark woods late at night with the bright stars overhead... even more exciting to be able to meet the owls that are starting to inhabit these woods. The end of the night was a bit spooky when the echo of a pack of coyote calls cackled through the woods not far from where we were.  It sounded like kids laughing.  Very eerie.  Stay tuned for more owl updates coming soon...       .ryn      

 photo credit: ryn

First owl of the season.  What a beauty!

Outdoor Living Room

As the crisp fall air nudges out the late summer's heat, I am saying a bientot to our outdoor living room.  I have enjoyed starting and ending my days on the porch... watching neighbors stroll or roll by, eating meals, sleeping, watching the light change.  It's a place for quiet, a beer after work, lively conversation.  It has been a place of rest... a place to breathe and think and hear and do nothing.  What places give you peace?  

  .ryn 

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

~Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne 

                                                                                                                  photo credit: ryn

Doing absolutely NOTHING

Outdoor sleeping

Outdoor meals

Monday Video Inspiration: Mushrooms

I wish that I could be tiny for the day and hike around through all of these amazing fungi.  So beautiful and mysterious.  Go somewhere new today and be inspired!
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose."  -Dr. Seuss
    .ryn

Hoot!

“I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”

- Harry Emerson Fosdick

                                                              Northern Saw-Whet Owl

photo courtesy of Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory

I am a volunteer for the Northern Saw-Whet Owl project with the Ned Smith Center for Art & Nature.

Monday Video Inspiration: Rand

If this isn't inspiration, I don't know what is! This iconic designer reveals his secrets in this deliciously artsy little film. Enjoy and make your Monday an inspired one.
.ryn

Hallowed Ground

                                          photo credit: Ryn

10:00 a.m. 10.01.10
Gettysburg, PA

I was in Gettysburg this morning at the historic Majestic Theater to hear a live broadcast of WITF's "Smart Talk."  The topic today was about what we consider hallowed ground.  Very intriguing stuff.  The conversation covered the recent controversey surrounding the proposed casino to be built near battlefield sites in Gettysburg.  It also focused on Ground Zero and the Muslim community center to be built closeby.

"And so today, my world it smiles..."

                                          photo credit: Ryn

"Thank You"
Led Zeppelin

If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
If mountains crumble to the sea, there would still be you and me.

Kind woman, I give you my all, Kind woman, nothing more.

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain, tears of loves lost in the days gone by.
Our love is strong, with you there is no wrong,
together we shall go until we die. My, my, my.
Inspiration's what you are to me, inspiration, look... see.

And so today, my world it smiles, your hand in mine, we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done, for you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad, happiness....I'm glad.
If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
If the mountains should crumble to the sea, there would still be you and me.