Sunday, July 11, 2010

GiST 251: Oak Mimosa Magnolia

Grace in Small Things 251




My Oak at the farm has fallen. It is and always has been my favorite because it is home to a Mimosa growing out of its trunk and a magnolia in the V of its top branches, I've watched that little magnolia reach up out of the bough of this pin oak for ten years. I know exactly the summer it was born. Exactly how long it's grappled with its decaying cradle. The oak has been there since my great Uncle Henry's time. Around 1900. That's the Mimosa towering over the top of the tree. That's the Magnolia peeping out of the V in the center of the photo.


1. Nothing stays the same

2. Everything lives on the back of everything else

3. This is me

4. This is you

5. We are the same.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

GiST 250: Barn Swallows


Now that Grandma's barn is abandoned, the swallows are building hundreds of intricate mud nests.

The barn on the left in the back is where I photographed the swallows.
There are also owls in the top of the silo. A bleached pile of mouse bones lay at the bottom of the ladder well.

The swallows are in these rafters





Funny how the barn falling apart is representative of how I feel about Grandma who is 99 next month and hanging in there, but the swallows remind me that life is built on impermanence and the resources left behind.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Fluent



Fluent
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.
~ John O'Donohue~