Jelisava

This praying mantis came across the parking lot, crawled across my shoe, up my leg, around the back of my leg and onto my bag / Sept. 2014

Perhaps this is exhibited nowhere more than in the class of insects called the "Praying Mantis"; this word mantis, you must know, comes to us from the Greek, and signifies "divine" or "diviner." In Central Africa it is an object of worship. Holding up its long front-legs as if in an attitutde of prayer, raised like arms to heaven, it appears the most saintly of insects; and among the superstitions of the poor Hottentos, if by any chance the praying mantis should happen to settle on his person it is considered a special divine favour, and the fortunate person so favoured immediately is looked upon as a saint.

~ from Solomon's Little People by James Crowther, 1882

"I could wile away the hours / Conferrin' with the flowers / Consultin' with the rain" / Scarecrow made from fresh corn husks / Jersey Sweet Corn Full Moon Creating

Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”

~ an excerpt from Daily Rituals: How Artists Work,  edited by Mason Currey

A tree is cut down letting the rays of sun bathe the bayberry which suddenly blossoms into fragrance / NJ, 2014

"The seasons do not cease a moment to revolve, and therefore Nature rests no longer at her culminating point than at any other. If you are not out at the right instant, the summer may go by and you not see it."

~ Henry David Thoreau (The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, ed. by Bradford Torrey, 1837)

Advertisement in the New York Times for bus service to Atlantic City; 10 trips daily and extra weekend service / July 15th 1952

"How many claims has Absecon Beach upon the inhabitants of the Middle States, and more especially upon the people of Philadelphia. There, beneath the exhilarating influence of the saline air and surging surf, we take our summer's salty solace, and shuffle off the accumulation of fatigue under which a winter's weary work has made us suffer. There, too, we meet our old accustomed friends, not to buy and sell—not to talk horse, grain, or iron with them—not to waste the day in wordy wrangle with them about stocks, bonds, and the fluctuations of the gold market—but we meet them to read, convulsed with laughs, the funny bill of fare of an enterprising hotel keeper, who loves to make amusement for his friends by providing them with food for their risible, as well as for their corporeal appetites, and also by providing them with the true pleasure ever experienced in the poetry of motion at the gigantic hops, where the dancing toe keeps step alike, to the music of the band and the eternal symphony of old Ocean."

~ an excerpt from "Atlantic City: Its Early and Modern History," 1868, by Carnesworthe

Man arrested for "violating the dictum of common sense" / NYTimes Sept. 7, 1926 /

We need only the dictum of common sense to decide that the things which soothe us entertain us satisfy our hearts, are helpful things. Have you not been in rooms where every individual piece of furniture was, in shape and shade, at war with every other piece, and gone away weary, disgusted, belligerent, without perhaps knowing what had caused your soul-ferment? Have you not entered, tired, heated, irritated, into an apartment where every article of furniture was in entire relation of form, and in perfect harmony of tint with every other article, and gone out calmed and refreshed and strengthened?

~ excerpt from "Occupations for women: a book of practical suggestions for the material advancement, the mental and physical development, and the moral and spiritual uplift of women" by Frances Elizabeth Willard (1897)

Cardinal flying in the wintry field / Jan 2014

"It is believed by the Delawares that every one has a guardian spirit which comes in the form of some bird, animal, or other thing, at times in dreams, and tells them what to do and what will happen. The guardian spirit is sent from the Great Spirit."

~ from Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape, 1921, p.80, by Mark R. Harrington

In the early morning light / Feb 2014

"The snow came last night...
Now, in the morning light,
she greets us gently,
a prayer shawl donned upon the land."

~ Ken Herburn (via Mitza)

Winter's early morning sun / New Jersey / Dec. 2013

It snowed and the flakes clung to everything they fell on. It turned suddenly cold. Brisk, but not biting. I pull on my leg warmers and Mitza laughs and says they would make GGMom (the Jelisava) happy. As an infant, when left to her care, she swaddled me in whatever she had around to keep me safe and warm. Like socks on my hands. Now I swaddle myself in colorful neckerchief bandannas knit with soft wool and silk, wrist warmers on the pulse points, and leg warmers around the ankles to keep out the cold and warm the feet. As Pappy would say, I get it honest.

"Forecasters say minor to moderate coastal flooding is possible from a slow-moving nor'easter that's bringing periods of wind-driven heavy rain to New Jersey" / that nor-easter brought wind-driven rain along with a flood of family, friends, lovely words, vows, stories, food, champagne, dancing, songs, smiles, tears, laughter, hugs, hope / New Jersey, October 2013

When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity -- in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.

Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits -- islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

~ an excerpt from Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh via Mitza

June's "Down The Shore Moon" rising over the ocean via J's camera / June 2013

i throw hail marys/
and prepare my hands to catch/
the falling blessings/

~ @kilowattpoet aka Mr. Enlightenment