toad-eye entrancement needed memory-loss spell forgetting those woes
Forlorn I was, but Nature won’t have it for long, always intercepting, knowing the sure-fire ways to illicit my dimples; this time, in an unused planter, my own fairy garden to behold,
and if that wasn’t enough, the realization it was a family portraying love.
Funny how I always see the romance between two fungi touching
and how there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as a mushroom without the merry, underfoot fairy tales in toadstools, though they wouldn’t actually hold a toad unless they were magical, but then again, I am the biggest believer in that, after all…
unexpected growth merry mushroom family unplanted smile sprouts
Faithfully, my family out-of-doors takes care of me whenever I start to feel forlorn.
I don’t usually like to know the scientific facts about the subjects I find and photograph in nature, even basic identification. It spoils the wonder and mystery to me, the thrill of all my imagination hatches, the magic, the mysticism, the fantasy, the tales, the divine creation we think we know all about. These are my discoveries; I am the first explorer to ever lay eyes on the new species. Instead of sketching them in my diary, I photograph them; I am both from the future and the past.
I couldn’t resist though peeking into the portal of cyberspace regarding this spectacular mushroom variety I haven’t seen before (I don’t think…). “Puffballs” they are, supposedly common. And of course, as reading when you are a born lifelong reader tends to go, I read a bit more… They have a poisonous “Death Cap” doppelgänger, well imposter anyway, being the most interesting fact to me.
These I spotted underfoot between my car and classroom back door going into work the other day. To photograph them meant anyone could be watching and definitely would wonder even more about me. Of course, I risked it all and got down low and took the shot. It was too intriguing in and of itself but also because they were paired and the morning light and shadows were beautiful. I love couplets of anything in nature because I am a romantic. I also champion the overlooked or undervalued in nature, especially weeds and fungi.
Where to begin with what I could spin from this encounter and image souvenir?…
Two as one connected, shadows merging, agreed to be shared,
to increase the surface area so the darkness lightens in lichen-like dual-stabilization: paired.
One absorbs more sun than the other but feeds its partner the light not so directly;
at times they reverse roles when the other needs to shrink into safety awhile and be protected temporarily.
The world passes by, so many times before both cruelly and unknowingly treading upon them;
others of their kind turned poisonous, but these two remain true to themselves and their commitment,
not letting others’ judgement affect their joy or quality of life and above all love,
testament to there being someone for everyone and such a connection vital, to feel that touch, to trust…
or maybe I am seeing too much in these balls of mushroom puffs I stumbled upon on my way to work this morn.
I hear the sea calling to me to return, and your voice, love, imploring me to let my soul have what it yearns…
On the way to the bridge and on the way over it, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” came on the radio just as the sky was bursting with morning glory. Windows down, music up, singing along, I felt my soul begin again to mend itself. Sometimes, I need the most beautiful ballads, and other times, carrying the same “burdens,” I simply need to lift my voice in songs of praise to my higher power. When I witness the absolute miracles of nature, how can I not?
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Glory to the highest in God. Lord, I see and feel your presence, and my praise and thanks, I offer up…
Teaching in 2020 has challenged us as educators and stretched us all to our near-breaking points. But we are family at my school, so we gather (6 feet apart) at lunch each afternoon and do our best to laugh it all off. Laughter, I feel, is truly still the oldest and best medicine.
Thank you, Lord, for laughter; may that sound find its way to the ones in these times who most need it. Let it be channeled again through me to make someone’s day for mirth mask-muffled is still healing.
My other top natural remedies have always been faith and nature. All of these were present in me as I sat in the silky sand before the lively ocean, the 70 degrees and plenty of sea breeze also infiltrating my body, mind, and spirit.
It’s so easy to get pulled down, isn’t it? Down has always been seen as the negative direction. Higher powers in higher elevations, clouds and sky… The weight of perceived burdens and mental inflictions and the things we voluntarily shackle to our ankles is so heavy. The soul is weightless. The wings of humans, invisible. The altar barer than ever. If only we would lay more down. Offer more up. Let Him take more of it, all of it, from us. Why do we cling to it? Why is it so easy to forget that He is always beside us, always with open arms? Why is it so easy to forget how to swim, how to fly?… We simply need not sink or be prisoners of gravity. We can let it get washed away. We can uncage our souls. We can lean on others, even let them carry us for a while. We can open our hearts to love and to receive love. We are never alone. I think we simply choose it sometimes.
So much inside me rose up this week. To attempt to defeat me. From places of my past maybe. From my own former voice to myself maybe. It’s hard to repel that gray when the cloud rolls in to consume you. It’s trying to take us all though. So shouldn’t we now, more than ever, unmask our hearts and join in spirit to lift each other?
I plead for the sea breeze to vigorously whisk away my negativities. I allow the ocean waves to wash away all the rest that is heavy. I lift my voice in song and cheerfully praise His glory. I raise my hands and pray to be free
amidst the fallen sacrificial death of green a seedshell opens
Against a hurricane-weathered fence held up by a deeply-rooted meek tree, as the southern seasons strive to change, a branch extends a unique offering,
and in it, I naturally see…
the inspirational bravery of opening up so vulnerably, for beneath the protective shell lies for another’s winter the hope-story for spring.
Laura Denise 