Thorns in Rows

Today is Five Fact Friday over at the Reflections of You blog. I thought I'd participate - please go on over and check out this lovely blog (and add your Five Facts)! I've been feeling very introspective these last couple of weeks - there is lots going on in my life and I tend to go further inward during these times. My brain is mush and focusing has been a struggle. I know I'll snap out of it - it's just one of those things I must sit with till it passes. All is well, by the way - just real life unfolding and the constant reality of dealing with change that we all go through.

1. The older I get, the more I understand that we have no control over life. This is a hard lesson...the only thing we can control is how we react. As someone who wants to be in control, accepting this is one of my biggest challenges!

2. I am the poster child for introversion...I have a rich, inner world and I spend a lot of time in there...lol.

3. I must write poetry. I've tried to stop but the words keep coming, usually at the worst possible time. The more stressed I am, the more poetry I write. The poem below is one I wrote about our life's journey and trying to understand it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

4. I find taking self-portraits very difficult. I'm trying to get more comfortable with it, which is why I'm posting this Instagram photo. I find I can post a photo of myself if it's artistically distorted enough that you can barely recognize me...lol. I'm working on it!

5. I love my friends and family so much. Life deals us all some hard blows, and there's no escaping that. I wish I could protect everyone from these blows, but it's impossible. I feel grateful for each day I get to spend with the beautiful people in my life. Can you tell I'm in a very contemplative mood this week? :)

THORNS IN ROWS

A rippled seam of birds
Skims silently across the sky
Fleecy clouds are tinted rose
And the sun begins its slide
Into the horizon
My thoughts, like the birds,
Turn silk-winged with
Instinct and flutter

Oh, the fickleness of ego
The disguising of self
To avoid exposure
The constancy of my soul
The pure intentions waiting there
The dread of a coffin lid
The eagerness of my spirit
The empathy in my heart, its
Thorns stacked neatly in rows

Tears stain my learning face
And the words begin to leap
Free falling off my tongue
Let down the nets into the water
Before they drown, unknown
Rescue my truths expelled
While my body quietly quakes
With a spiritual vertigo
While the mile off moon
Smiles knowingly, and glows

And the moths seek
Like gypsies, as dusk
Gilds the twilight, exhaling
With a soft and holy calm
Its breaths of revelation
Unguessed by my eyes, my
Ears worn and dulled to its
Softer and purer tones.

©Sherri Brannon

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Circles

Draw a circle, not a heart, around the one you love because a heart can break but a circle goes on forever. ~Danny Kaye

I'm taking Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class this year, and our exercise for this week was to take our camera and go in search of a specific shape (circle, square, triangle, etc.). I chose "circle", and went for a walk yesterday in my neighborhood...here are a few of my favorites. I love doing these shape treasure hunts, because they force you to slow down and really look. You must focus your attention, which helps you to notice things you might not otherwise, especially in nature. I zoomed in close to capture all these circular things, and love how organic everything looks. I love circles - they are fluid, pleasing to my eye, and there are no hard edges!

CIRCLES

We are soft circles
Eternal like the sun
With no sharp points
Or endings

Our souls are round
Inside linear bodies
That march forward
On straight roads
Liked pointed arrows

Enduring spirit circles
Spinning with grace
Trapped inside keen
And jagged minds.

©Sherri Brannon

August Sky

Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life. ~Marcel Proust, "Swann’s Way"

Fleeting, beautiful, bittersweet, fading...these are the words I think of when looking at this photo I took on Sunday. My daughter has moved back to campus after being home for the summer - seeing her happiness at being back with her besties is wonderful. Dealing with my own feelings of missing her are always tough for the first couple weeks, and I feel a bit melancholy. The dreamy clouds and last flowers of August are bittersweet...summer is almost over. Acorns are suddenly everywhere on the ground, and random leaves of brilliant yellow and red are laying, fallen, in the grass...a hint of things to come. Both life and nature move forward, evolving...ever changing.

This is the best photo I could come up for Texture Tuesday - I haven't picked up a camera much these last couple of weeks. I hope to get back on track during September - the fall colors will start soon and I really look forward to it. Thank you for stopping by!

P.S. Oh wow, right after I posted this, I realized that I misinterpreted this week's Texture Tuesday...I was thinking "free and easy" was the week for posting anything, even a photo without texture. So that's what I did...now I see that next week's "anything goes" is the no texture option. My apologies - I have nothing else to replace it right now so I hope this is OK. As you can see, I'm too distracted and preoccupied this week! Gah.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I managed to capture all the prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday with my iphone, so I'm happy that I can participate despite my busy schedule. The prompts this week are forest, morning light, touch, newspaper, and coffee (or tea). This will definitely be my last blog post until on or after August 26th. Have a wonderful week!

1. Forest. This was taken in daylight, but after using several apps, I got this beautiful dark effect. The sun light is exaggerated dramatically thanks to one of my new favorite apps called "Rays". Apps used: Snapseed, Blender, Rays, Pixlromatic


2. Morning Light. (Please don't look too hard at my dirty window. I swear it doesn't look that bad in real life...lol.) Apps used: Snapseed


3. Touch. This photo reminded me of when my daughter was three and I'd say, "Look, but don't touch!" when we were in a store looking at toys. Now she's 21 and there's no need to say it, but she still loves to look at the princess dolls at the Disney store! Apps used: Snapseed, Picfx


4. Newspaper. Apps used: Snapseed, Photostudio (Pencil Paint 2 filter)


5. Coffee. Apps used: Snapseed, Picfx


Thank you for visiting! Please click on the button below to see more Scavenger Hunt Sunday photos, or to see next week's prompts.

Photo Art Friday - Container

For this week's Photo Art Friday, we were to center our image around the word "container". I chose this image I took at the Baltimore Aquarium of some of the boats in the harbor...boats hold people, right, so don't they count as a container? :)

I used Bonnie's "Age It" texture at Difference/92%. I then played around again with Gradient Map (black to white) blends, first at Darker Color/100% and then at Normal/75%. I wanted it a little darker, so I duplicated it and used the Multiply blend at 100%. I finished it up in RadLab to warm it and sharpen it.

The next ten days will be very busy for me as my daughter gets ready to move back to school...I will try to post if I can, but if I'm not here you'll know why. Things should be back to normal for me by August 27th. Thank you for stopping by - please click on the button below to visit more creative photo art!

Dreamy Summer Days

Let me enjoy this late-summer day of my heart while the leaves are still green and I won't look so close as to see that first tint of pale yellow slowly creep in. I will cease endless running and then look to the sky, ask the sun to embrace me, and then hope she won't tell of tomorrows less long than today. Let me spend just this time in the slow-cooling glow of warm afternoon light, and I'd think I will still have the strength for just one more last fling of my heart. ~John Bohrn, Late August

I got a few minutes this week to go to the lake and take some pictures...it's that time in the summer where one can sense that the edge of the new season is getting closer and closer. This morning I was outside and, for the first time, had that intangible sense I always get on a mid- to late-August day...the air is suddenly different, the light is different...it's as if autumn is sending an invisible signal that she'll be visiting soon. I used Radlab filters (Maple, Prettyizer, and Lux/Soft) and like the dreamy look, as if the memory of them is fading away...just like summer will soon be fading into fall.

Looking Down

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does. -John Kenneth Galbraith

For this week's Texture Tuesday, Kim has asked us to use one of her textures with an image featuring "looking down" (or in my case, "on the ground"...lol). This month has become so busy that I've had very little time to pick up my camera. My daughter heads back to college in two weeks and things are hectic while we organize, pack, and prepare! So, I hope no one minds that I picked a beach photo from my archives for this week's prompt. It takes me back to that wonderful week when I thoroughly enjoyed some total mental inertia. On one of our daily walks by the ocean, I saw these sweet beach flowers sprawled along the beach line and I couldn't resist getting down to their level. How I envy these flowers! They spend their days with a breathtaking view, the salty air, and the soothing sounds of the ocean...