"Beauty the Brave"

Beauty The Brave - 2017  

Walk Into This Picture.

On this Memorial Day in 2017.  I feel deeply for those we have lost and those who are still fighting for our freedoms.  My words are not adequate to express my gratitude for this privileged life I lead.

So I will do want feels right for me - share a poem of beauty by Mary Oliver.  Imagine each flower holding the life and love of someone who has passed.

Enjoy this moment of mindfulness.

"Peonies: A Poem By Mary Oliver

"This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open —
pools of lace,
white and pink —
and all day the black ants climb over them,
boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away
to their dark, underground cities —
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding
all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again —
beauty the brave, the exemplary,
blazing open.

Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?"

from New And Selected Poems by Mary Oliver"

Limited edition reproduction available at

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/peonies-beauty-the-brave-wendy-blomseth.html

You Are Simply Irresistible

Simply Irresistible, March 2016

How can one resist an early morning bouquet of peonies that are hand delivered by a kind and generous neighbor?  I cannot.

I had packed up all my photography studio equipment four days ago because I was totally convinced that I had created everything I wanted to create with the flowers I had on hand.

But early in the morning I got a telephone call from my neighbor Sarah  saying she had peonies she wanted to share with me.  They were in full bloom which meant they were drooping and were going to be laying on the ground soon. She couldn't bring them in her own home because her cat, Rocky, eats everything in sight, including her flowers.  I was helping her out by accepting the flowers.

Needless to say, I accepted the flowers with much gratitude and appreciation.

I quickly pulled my posing table and table top mirror into action, posed the flowers in a vase as fast as possible and captured these simply irresistible peonies on my mobile device and ran off to work.

They are simply irresistible.