The possibility of grace and freedom

Last week, before the thermometer dipped to 22 degrees (-5.6 C) and it began to snow…

Blessed warmth shines from blue sunny skies.  We’ve forgotten what sun looks like.  We’ve forgotten how cheery we feel when sun streams warmth across the backs of grazing deer in the yard.  We’ve forgotten how bright the woods look when illuminated.

In the drowsy warmth of afternoon I creak open the windows.  The screens are long put away, stored in absent Christopher’s basement bedroom.  On our last day of wood splitting last weekend bark separated from log to reveal an amazing inner pattern.  “The secret life of bark,” I think, and attempt to photograph the hieroglyphic lines, the hidden labyrinth in a busy world.

Inner world

Pause quietly on this blog and breathe deeply…

Reflections at the Eagle Pond

More pond & cloud reflections

A stump bigger than three medium-sized blog readers with teenage trees growing upward.

Simply reeds

Forest stream

Tree growing sideways over Lake Superior

Leaves and water in sepia

Bald eagle's white tail feather

Bald eagle missing one white tail feather (Don't quit breathing deeply--another one will grow back!)

Eagle in sepia. (Now don't quit breathing deeply...keep breathing...deep breathing...as you click your mouse into the next moment...)

“The eagle has landed”

The Anishinabe people call the eagle "Migesi"

Safe flights, dear Migesi

The eagle lands and rests on the top of the trees.  He’s ready to take off into the sky again soon.  He surveys the lake.  He watches the almost-invisible underwater fish.  He swivels his head to glance at the photographer.

The photographer is about to take off into the sky, too. 

We’ll both fly upward this afternoon, catching the drafts of the wind.  We’ll spread our wings wide.   

We’ll soar… Oh, how we’ll soar…

Sitting beneath the wrong end of a bald eagle and gratitude. (Not necessarily in that order!)

Skull with antlers on booth at Pow Wow

Here we are.

The last day of July.  The last day of a very active month. 

A quiet day.  A day filled with little activities like receiving phone calls (including one with a friend to whom I haven’t talked in a long time), walking along the road surrounded by Queen Anne’s Lace, boiling potatoes and eggs for Potato Salad for dinner, talking with Barry on the deck.

A happy day.

Deer antlers on our living room wall

Here are a random batch of photos taken during this fair month.  Photos not used in this blog for one reason or another.  Skulls and plants, puddles and trees. 

Indian pipe plant

And something almost invisible if you don’t look closely at the next photo.

OK, have you peered closely?  Know what it is?

Guess what's up high in this tree? Guess who might want to move?

Let me back up and set the scene.  I walked down to the lake one day.  Settled beneath a tall white pine to look over the Huron Bay and dream.  On a whim, after maybe five minutes, I looked up at the branches overhead.

And there–directly above my head–was the rear end of a bald eagle.  I was sitting beneath a bald eagle.  Any moment that eagle might decide to—-

Well, you get the drift.  I paused to snap a photo and got out of the way of the white tail feathers.  The eagle squawked up into the sky with righteous indignation.  I was happy to survive that little episode without a dumping.

Sunrise

I spent a half hour deleting and filing photos this afternoon.  You–go.  You–stay.  You are the blurriest thing in the world.  Hey, you’re not half bad lookin’. 

The above photo was taken the morning Christopher flew out toward Chicago and then San Diego on an airplane just past dawn.  The picture below was snapped–hastily, I might add–as Kiah and I ran through the woods to escape the killer flies on Point Abbaye a couple of days ago.

Footstep of a puddle

Interesting, isn’t it, the memories that photos evoke?  How they return you to a scene complete with memories and sounds and smells and thoughts and sights.

I hope you all have enjoyed your month.  Some of my favorite things during July:

1)  having the kids both visit for almost ten days each (one at the beginning of the month and one at the end of the month).

2)  A four day spiritual retreat in the middle of the month when Barry went fishing at Isle Royale.  Don’t know if I told you about that…but it was truly lovely.

3)  The warm sultry beautiful summer weather we’re experiencing this year.  I can remember years when it almost snowed in July.  It’s a good year.  Life is good.

What are you grateful for during the month of July?