AFTER THE STORM

The color of the day was pink and gray.  It swirled and whirled it's way across the sky like a painter's brush on canvas.  Patchy and pink, it looked like ink, painted and polished just waiting to pop.  

Wanting to savor the moment, my camera snapped up those colors into their digital home.  No photo, no words can match the raw beauty of the work of the wind and sun joining hands to paint this glorious masterpiece in the sky.  

As I drove, the patches elongated and drizzled high above the horizon.  One second pink, the next moment gray.  It was, after all, the end of the day.  

Tell me, I pray, have you ever seen the sky look this way?

Kudzu in the County

Cobweb canyons of kudzu flourish as summer flees and fall is freed.  Drooping drapes of giant leaves close windows to the past, a temptation for imaginations to run wild.  Lengthy tendrils travel to the light, driven by hormones kept out of sight. The viewer finds fascination in fomenting questions:  did the occupants of the hidden house leave because the kudzu overtook the house, or did the kudzu take over the house because the occupants left?  Fields of the stuff look fluffy and innocent like a new born bunny before it, too multiplies and runs rampant in the yard.  Lush, green, almost jungle-esque it lounges over trees and stumps, highways and byways, poles and lines making an impervious veil for shy cows and crows.  
It's Super Food, nothing can harm it; bugs won't touch it, cow's won't eat it, people can't eat it!  Super Food can leap tall buildings in a single growth spurt.  It's the big green monster that grows out of the woods into the fields and over the hills and fences and houses and sheds, oh my! 
 If you don't believe this silly tale of chlorophyll curtains and monsters and such, then come to Pittsylvania county and see for yourself!

TENACITY HAS WINGS!

Tenacity has Wings
A vision of persistence hops across the pavement, it's determination and perseverance apparent in every movement.  Pecking and pulling with a dogged strength of purpose, it's reward is fleeting and must be repeated with resolve and purpose.  Seeing it's endurance and stamina brings to mind the human condition.  We must never give up.  Obstinacy rules the day.  Peck, peck, peck away with the stubbornness of a splinter in the finger, the obstinacy of a desirous child for candy, the resolution of a persistent Preacher in the pulpit. Intransigence pervades its' constitution.  There is no stopping the insistent pecking, searching, finding the minute morsel of worm.  The end game is so delicious and sweet, endurance is the only option.  Steadfastly listening out its' prey, feathers unruffled, red breast puffed in accomplishment, beak full of booty buried in leaves, soil and grass, it basks in it's glory.  Lunch in Pittsylvania County, a virtual cornucopia of nature, nurture and determination.  Listening and learning, step by step, the goal is met. 
Tenaciousness grows wings.  

Tenacity:  the quality or fact of being able to grip something firmly.

BRICK BY BRICK

A gateway to knowledge, maturity and futures untold unfolds brick by brick in Chatham, VA.  The skill and expertise of all the ages has built a fortress of an entrance, a bridge and a work of engineering art. The eye is fooled by the majesty of bending bricks as they lay and overlay, curving and bending lending their solidity to the illusion. Month by month, brick by brick the gateway has raised it's form under the diligent hands of skilled artisans who's stories remain untold.  A story-book entrance is writing an invitation to adulthood, to education, to cultural experiences.  Higher hard skills meet higher soft skills and welcome awaits each on the other side of the precipice.  Chatham Hall has commissioned a fairy tale gate to the future.

Leaf by leaf green appears and each growing soldier stands in lock step with the next in calibrated rows.  Uniformly curved across the sloping hill, they spread their wings and grow.  Week by week the layers form, marking time with the sun.  The rain falls, the sun shines, the soldiers grow.   These emerald spectacles have no mind, no emotions, no pain,  They are unwitting players in a centuries old game.  It is everything in one compact product: glamour, power, relaxation, sex appeal.  Dark hands from across the ocean tended and tilled it, and; it filled their days with pain and fear.  Those hands traveled here in ships just like the layers of gold leaf piled one on top of another in the carts carrying it to market.  Backs were beaten, families were decimated. It caused a war! Such natural beauty nurtured by human hands wreaks havoc on the human condition, from its’ very beginnings to this day: from slave labor, to destruction of the human body, to ecology, to illegal trafficking, to addiction, to profiteering.Statesmen tax it, laws relax it, doctors tell us what the facts is.

Death of a Season, Life for a reason

Nature abounds in death in Autumn.  That death makes way for other expressions.  It is the pathway to Winter and along that pathway are natural beauties that delight the onlooker and soften the blow of the bitterness that lies ahead.

Seeing the true nature of a tree is what is happening when the earth begins it tilt away from the sun, and the leaves reveal their true selves.  Deprived of sunlight, a part of them recedes bringing forth their true being.  Deprivation is most generally perceived as a bad thing, but; if we look at leaves deprived of their ability to make chlorophyll , we see beauty.  Their true selves shining through, the ground becomes their skirt, scattered leaves adorn not only the wind, but the earth, providing nourishment for the soil.

In witnessing this revelation in nature, could we not transfer this as a revelation of ourselves?  When we are deprived of parts of ourselves or our needs, we are forced to look deeper into who we are and how we want to manifest our true selves.   If and when we show our true selves, we spread the joy and love that lies at our core, and; we blanket others with those expressions, providing nourishment for the soul.

On November 22, 1963, our President was assassinated.  Only a few people in history have lived through such an event.  Soon no one will be alive who was alive then.

That solitary event gave those living through it, a chance to see what can happen in life.  A young mother was left with two small children to raise.  A nation was left without a leader.  Young people learned that fathers die. Somehow, though, facing those frightening realities strengthened the nation, strengthened individuals to be their true selves.  We can face events in life that force us to see our true self and be like the trees in Autumn turning those events into something beautiful and meaningful for all to see.

The trees in Pittsylvania County look tall and proud and strong and fearless.

This isn't my usual fare of Sites & Sounds, but; I am in Pittsylvania County, and; this is what I thought one day while I drifted through its space.  However, I think it follows the theme:  seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.  I hope you enjoy it and will make a comment.

Miss Betty's Daily Adventures

Miss Betty travels through time and space.  She always has a good day.  There's always fun going on when she's around.    A walk though the park is like a trip to Utopia.  No weapons exist, no hate is felt, no negative thoughts cross her mind, no competition just to prove a point, no jealousy.

So, today Miss Betty awakes to the smiling face of her spouse.  He made the coffee and it smells like heaven opened up.  He bends down and kisses her cheek and the day gets off to a great start!  He says funny things and she laughs like there is no one funnier.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!  "Stop, my sides are splitting!"

Breakfast is on the table like magic and tastes like summer and winter had baby chicks and they married a lamb.  The toast is light and crispy, the eggs are easy over, the grits are southern cuisine at it's most basic and delicious.  The butter melts like mountain snow as it slides down the sides of the grits.  Yummy on a plate!

Miss Betty gathers her coat, lunch and water for the day.  She dances her way through the dining room into the living room on her way to the door.  Snapping her fingers and whistling her way down the steps, her husband swoops her up and kisses her on the lips like it was the first time.  The first time he enveloped her soft, silky pink lips between his lightly biting lips, the first time his heart fluttered and she fascinated him, the first time he wanted to be a part of her life, that's how it felt to her.  She had suspended time and space for those few moments; and they were glorious and joyful and titillating.  Every day was a hit parade of joy and acceptance.

The sun shined through the windshield and her sunglasses shielded her eyes.  It was warm and light and the car drove like a dream.  165 miles to the gallon was a great deal.  Just the thought of it sends shivers down her mind.  She makes it happen every day.