Traveling

07/30/2022 - Pier Cove, Michigan Supervised Crossing

traveling

Before I got in a car,

To stay in a hotel,

to be close enough to the airport

To take an early shuttle

so i’d be on time to fly

a thousand miles away in a plane-

i watched the wild turkeys

Guiding their babies

Across the road

To the safety of the woods.

July 27, 2022 Fennville Michigan Climbing

July 27, 2022 Looking for beach glass, driftwood and stones, I noticed a beetle crawling on the beach. He encountered a rock and tumbled onto his back getting covered in sand. Then he righted himself and scurried off to the base of a rock. It was as big as a hill to his little beetle body. He started to climb it. He climbed and paused; lifting and waving his feelers into the air when he stopped; then moved on again - over and over. Determined to get somewhere. I don’t know why, or what he expected to find, but I kneeled there watching him for I don’t know how long. Rooting him on.

July 29, 2022 Fennville, Michigan Tracks

July 29, 2022 There is nothing so satisfying as kicking off my sandals on the beach and walking in the cool damp sand, leaving tracks behind that will be washed away before i leave the shore.

August 1, 2022 Azle, Texas Fallen Blossom

August 1, 2022 Azle Texas : There is a drought here, but at the public library, the sprinklers left little puddles on the sidewalk where pretty little blossoms reflected.

August 2, 2022 Azle Texas. concrete path winding through a small city park near my mom’s house. This is where my feet land again and again, where sun is filtered through the trees, creating long shadows. It is a refuge in the early morning. The gardens there are suffering in the heat of this extraordinarily hot and dry summer; but a few flowers still bloom … like the lily here below.

Noticing

Rescue

a leaf,

curling and dry,

tumbled through the night storm

into an outstretched limb of spruce;

catching.

July 20, 2022

In the morning, after a night of rain, I took my “big” camera out with the macro lens attached, looking for small subjects. Whenever I do this, I am startled by how many little things I see. Here is a leaf that fell from a maple tree above the Timberbluff cottages and was caught by its stem on the limb of a blue spruce. It was chance that it caught just like that, chance that i saw it, but it felt like a message. I got you.

July 22, 2022

I looked up the story behind the name a long time ago. Queen Anne (Anne Boleyn, who was later executed by Henry VII), was apparently stitching some fine lace one day when she pricked her finger. A single drop of blood fell on the white lace, leaving a tiny purple stain. Not all the flowers you see will have this tiny little mark, but it was because of those that do that this pretty wildflower got its name. I don’t know if the story is true; but ever since I heard it; I look more closely at the blossoms.

July 24, 2022

I got caught in a rainstorm while running, and noticed (once again, because I’ve noticed before) how the drops fall in puddles and create bubbles on the surface. I stopped to try to catch one; watching them forming, floating, bursting until my timing was just right … I finally caught one. Am I caught in there too?

July 25, 2022

I often see natural compositions so perfect that they seem “meant”. This heart-shaped stone and its two little pebble companions sunken in the smooth sand were like this. It feels like the universe reaching out to be heard…love every little thing…appreciate every little beauty…

July 26, 2022

So many little things calling for my attention. The empty nest that fell in the grass. The red mushroom pushing itself through the dirt in the woods. The tiny grasshopper that jumped inside the barn just as I was about to close the door. So many little things forming, dissolving. So many little lives pushing, pulling, falling, breaking apart, jumping in, jumping out, being rescued, being smashed. How will I ever get any work done?

Wanderlust

Moonset over Lake Michigan July 13, 2022

i wandered early

to blue water, as the moon

slipped silently in

July 12 2022

My urge to wander outdoors again was so intense today. This summer I have been indoors more than normal. Not too many hikes or trail runs – and those few too short. I decided to head out Wednesday – cancel everything else, get up really early and go. But the urge was already so strong that Tuesday evening, after watching sunset with friends, I went back out alone in the blue hour, to the beach. The sun still casts light “upward” to the horizon then, and bathes it in pink and blue orange and red light. Silhouettes are more dramatic – like the little bit of driftwood I caught in a photo looking like a monster or a long pleading arm reaching out over the water.

July 13 2022

Wednesday, July 13 – morning. I woke before 5 am. I wanted to see the moon set, knowing it was full or nearly full today, and moonset was supposed to take place at 5:38. I looked at the weather app and it said “mostly cloudy” so I thought I might not get to see much; but I figured I might as well go down anyway since I was already wide awake. I grabbed my camera and a couple of extra batteries and walked down. I could see from the road that it was dramatic. A big orange ball of light. You could look at the picture I took with my iPhone and think it was the sun setting and not the moon; if it wasn’t for the time of day…but when I got the picture with my “real” camera there wasn’t any doubt it was the moon, a reflection of light on the surface not an internal light of its own. You could see the dark lava “seas” and pockmarked meteor strikes. You could look straight at it without harming your vision. It was magnificent. I breathed in the humid air and felt my luck.

July 13 2022 Later

My next step was to go back home and pack up for a day-long hiking trip to the Warren Dunes.

The dunes didn’t disappoint. It was warm; but there was a breeze and once I rolled up my hiking pants and put on a pair of ankle socks in place of my tall socks (with the precaution of bug repellant on my legs and arms), I was perfectly comfortable. Ok – lets just say as comfortable as you can be with too much camera equipment in your backpack; walking through spider webs and little gnats flying into your eyes. These are things that happen on hikes. The dunes have sandy trails, even in the woods, so you get sand in your shoes and on your skin and it sticks to you because of the bug spray and sunscreen. but this is the thing. There you are freaking out about a bug; and you step out into a clearing and see these rolling dunes and the great lake beyond and the sky so big above you. Then a minute later there’s a dragon fly perched on a leaf, or a chipmunk pausing on the boardwalk, or a beautiful leopard lily blossom by the way post. I was so struck by it. The contrast between the vast and and the small. Infinity in both And there I was in the middle of it all. Happy as a camper. Really.

Knowing this would probably be the closest thing to a camping trip for at least month or two for me; I decided to really take my time on the hike. Stopping every thirty minutes or so to take in the view, drink some water; look around me and be still.

Rhoda Lewis

Photo Journal

Traveling

Noticing

Wanderlust