Mindful Day 14, Love in the Desert

I got out for a good long hike up on the trails in the mountains nearby, reversing the hike I took last week. When you reverse things look very different. Something I did not see going one direction jumped right out at me this time. Thirty or forty feet off the trail I got to see love in the desert. As ever, I can picture different scenarios for this photo. Was it done by a couple? Was it done in honor of someone, was it a way to leave a message for someone coming by later, was it to express happiness just about being out in the warm air and beautiful space? You could write a lot of stories!

Mindful Day 13 Rain, Rain, Rain

The sound of rain in the desert. More rain today then has fallen all year. Even though we come here for the warmth and sun, we are as grateful as residents to see and hear this rain as we can see how badly it is needed.

Mindful, Day 12 First Bloom

The first agave bloom that I have seen this year. Others are just getting ready to pop. They are so ungainly but the bloom is large and beautiful when it opens. There have been several days with small (really small) amounts of rain so lots of things are starting to bloom and getting green in a hurry.

Mindful, Day 11 Over the Rainbow

What a change one day can bring. This morning the sky is dark to the west over the mountains but there is the hint of a rainbow just barely there.  Yesterday the pink sky was intense, today's is dark and moody.  Beautiful in entirely different way.

Mindful, Day 10 - Hot Pink

Some morning dawns are so incredibly beautiful there is nothing to be said.

Mindful, Day 9 - The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Today's observation had me laughing for a long time. I am sitting in my car in a parking lot talking on the phone when a small red car pulls in facing me. The next time I look up there is a cat sitting quite proudly on top of  the car thoroughly enjoying himself, looking at the tree, the sky and what is going on around the lot.  Once in awhile he does a short stroll around the top of the car but does not leave. A lady coming through the lot attempts to get him to come down and he is having none of it.  Eventually the car owner returns to be harangued by the other lady while the cat continues to enjoy his time on the roof.  Apparently he slithered out of the car through about a 3 inch gap. The owner picks him up, tosses him back in the car where he now takes up residence as a neck warmer across the back of the drivers headrest.  His nonchalance was fun to watch and reminded me to also stop and take a look around!

Mindful - Day 8 Lobsters and Wallpaper

This is a repeat of the poem by Mary Oliver  that is inspiring me to be more observant everyday followed by the interesting sign I saw.

Mindful –

Every Day I see and hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It is what I was born for – to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant- but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh good scholar, I day to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these- the untrimmable light of the world, the oceans shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?

I see this sign along the street and any number of ideas pop into my head - are we talking about wallpaper with lobsters on it? do you get a live lobster when you buy wallpaper? is all the wallpaper about lobsters? are these 2 businesses sharing a space which seems really odd? or.... so on and so on. Sometimes you will never find out the answer, in this case, because the light changed, but it is good for the brain to have something different to think about.