Oh June, where did you go?! It seems like it was just a few days ago that I was at Ang’s bachelorette party, laughing so hard I was literally crying as we watched Bridesmaids and enjoying a night full of Red Cat, mango salsa and more laughs, but alas that was almost 4 weeks ago! Each weekend has been full of friends and family and each week has provided a marathon experience as the end of Legislative Session came crashing upon us here in Albany (but what a FANTASTIC finish!). But now that the craziness of life has stilled for a bit, at least for the moment, I can take a deep breath and find my bearings once again.
So where were we? Today’s prompt: A picture of something you love.
Well that one is easy. I’m just going to have to say the opposite of something I hate: yup – it’s nature.
While I do love the natural world, there are several things within that realm that are more of my “favorites”:
1) The smell of fresh-cut grass; laying in a field of green grass under the summer sun. When I go home, the first thing I do as I turn onto the back country roads is to roll down my windows and take in the smells of summer. I love the sweet smells of fresh-cut grass and hay – the intoxicating smells that have a way of flashing memory after memory in my mind. And when you can find a patch of grass, especially if it’s remote and untouched by the chaos and hubbub of the “real world”, it is pure bliss to just enjoy the ways that the natural world feels and sounds as it envelopes you.
2) Clear, crisp nights where you can watch the night sky, uninterrupted by lights, clouds, or any other distraction. I really wish I had a picture from home of how beautiful the night sky can be at times. I love looking up at the sky and the feelings of vastness that wash over me. It may sound odd, but it almost seems as if it puts me in check – we are so small, so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. All the little things that I worry about seem to melt away when I lay back and take in the beauty of the night sky.
3) Owls. I don’t know what it is, but I love them. Especially barn owls. There is something mysterious about them – perhaps the way they look so innocent and docile, and yet they are fierce predators. Maybe because I saw Labyrinth too much in my youth (David Bowie becoming an owl…whoa), but their presence can be haunting at times. I also am a fan of the Greek goddess, Athena (goddess of wisdom, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts, crafts, justice and skill), and her right hand pal is, you guessed it, a barn owl.
4) The fact that nature will prevail. Even if we don’t. At the end of the documentary The 11th Hour, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations, Oren Lyons, stated what I feel sums up the argument pretty nicely:
“What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth, by whatever means? The Earth goes nowhere. And in time, it will regenerate, and all the lakes will be pristine. The rivers, the waters, the mountains, everything will be green again. It’ll be peaceful. There may not be people, but the Earth will regenerate. And you know why? – Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don’t. So I think that’s where we’re at, right now.”
So there it is. These are just several reasons why I feel such an affinity for all things natural, and why I have chosen a career path that works to better a future where our world is less caustic, and where we embrace what was here before us, rather than trying to assert our dominance over it.
