Words With (or from) Friends

My friend Lisa is rather remarkable…

Somatic Memory and Deathiversaries

#GivingTuesday…a simple Ask:

It’s #GivingTuesday and although you will be inundated with deals and pleas today, I’m adding to the pile.
Normally, I’d ask you to give generously to the NW Parkinson’s Foundation or The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research…and I still want you to, if you are able. But there’s more, and it’s not about money.
Here’s my simple “ask”:
GIVE.
Give to charities, yes, if you can. But more importantly, give of your SELF. Many of us —especially right now — feel ‘donor fatigue’ or just don’t have extra money to donate to charitable causes.
Give your TIME: volunteer for a cause that stirs you. Work with passion and purpose.
Give your TALENT: causes, charities and others need your skills (life and professional) as much as they need your cash. What are you good at?…Someone needs it.
Give your BUSINESS: If you own or operate a business, look at ways to leverage your business to help a local non-profit or charity. Not sure how to do that? Ask them!
Give your STUFF: I bet there’s some cool stuff you’re not using that a local non-profit would love to be able to use.
My point is this: Giving is not just about cash. It’s about You.
“To give genuinely is to give generously…”

So, please:

Give.

Worlds I Create

Pix to Words

I create these worlds
Of personal sanctuary
A beauty and calm
Cloaking distress and fear
Palaces of chilling warmth
An argument with reality
Which cannot be won

I remind myself
The world of distress and fear
Is also a creation of mine
The cloak only gives it power
The palace of true warmth
Is the light of my own heart
Which cannot be sundered

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Bookends. Leave Only Footprints

•Bookends

•Dawning and Dimming of the day.

•Leave only footprints, take only pictures.

•Chasing light, crunching snow and logging CharityMiles.

•Miles to go…

Giving Tuesday: My Ask

It’s #GivingTuesday and although you will be inundated with deals and pleas today, I’m adding to the pile.
Normally, I’d ask you to give generously to the NW Parkinson’s Foundation or The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research…and I still want you to, if you are able. But there’s more, and it’s not about money.
Here’s my simple “ask”:
GIVE.
Give to charities, yes, if you can. But more importantly, give of your SELF. Many of us feel ‘donor fatigue’ or just don’t have extra money to donate to charitable causes.
Give your TIME: volunteer for a cause that stirs you. Work with passion and purpose.
Give your TALENT: causes, charities and others need your skills (life and professional) as much as they need your cash. What are you good at?…Someone needs it.
Give your BUSINESS: If you own or operate a business, look at ways to leverage your business to help a local non-profit or charity. Not sure how to do that? Ask them!
Give your STUFF: I bet there’s some cool stuff you’re not using that a local non-profit would love to be able to use.
My point is this: Giving is not just about cash. It’s about You.

“To give genuinely is to give generously…”

Remembering The Best Part of Ourselves

A Soft Voice In A Noisy World

Photo by Karl Robb

Today, 9-11, marks an historic and tragic event that not only shook America but the entire World. The attacks of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA impacted the World, changing everyone’s lives. This day will forever commemorate the lives lost that tragic day and the heroism of the men and women who met the challenge of saving lives while risking their own. For a very brief period, I saw something that I had never truly witnessed, experienced, and appreciated.

On the frenzied morning of the fall of the Twin Towers, my wife and I were stranded in Atlanta where rental cars were nearly unattainable. Planes were grounded and we needed to get back to the DC area. The country seemed under attack and we were acutely alert, vigilant, and nearly paranoid–but, something beautiful rose out of the fear and chaos.

For about three…

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Timing

*

“So much of life is in the timing.

We sit and wait for the light to grow and warm our mornings.

We stand and wait to watch the light drain from our evening sky.

And in between these magic hours, we move through our day and hope to find a moment of meaning, of wonder, of grace, of substance. 

We wait and we wait and we wait.

Timing is everything.”

-G-

No grace, #JustIdaho.

Bookends

The bookends of my North Idaho Sunday.

Sunrise over Lake Pend Oreille, sunset over Lake Coeur d’ Alene.

A bit of good timing, some persistence and good lighting– but mostly…#JustIdaho.

 

Expression Choices

A Soft Voice In A Noisy World

Expression and making our voice heard is hard enough but if you throw in a neurological wrench like Parkinson’s disease, a whole host of challenges can arise. Some of us speak softly while others may find it difficult to form words or sentences. Our words are often judged be it vocabulary or elocution. But, real expression goes beyond the boundary of words as the transcendence of understanding relates to us through the mediums of photography, oils, pencil, music, film, video, and a host of other outlets.

How we interact with the world is only limited by our imagination. Through the medium of painting, viewers and appreciators experience the work at a gallery or museum, but this is limited access. Paintings gather deep and powerful feelings and yet limit a very particular sector of the overall population. Whether you are a viewer or creator of art, our understanding of the medium…

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Fences

Living on the edge of a changing prairie, I connect to this piece.
I curse the pace of this seemingly unneeded expansion. So I tend to photograph them before they are gone…

Dancing Echoes

Bleak
Erosion fences
Replace beautiful trees
In the name of
Progress

In response to Patrick Jennings Pic and a Word Challenge #173: Fences

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