Life Is So Incredibly, Frighteningly Fragile

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I found this beautiful baby bird, a baby Mockingbird, in the lawn. It seemed as though maybe it were trying to learn how to fly, and not quite having the hang of it yet. So I put it up in a tree, safe from cats I hoped, and let it be.

Well, that is, after I took a dozen pictures of it.

Whenever I ponder non-human living things for more than the few minutes it takes to de-Disney-ize them, it strikes me how terribly fragile life is. No matter your species, you are always only a slender step away from death.

As always, if you'd like to see the photo above at twice that size, click on the photo. However, if you'd like to see this one REALLY big, click here. The detail is pretty cool!

On Life And Living Pt 1

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Sometimes, it seems as though the littlest thing, the most minor glimmer, can set my mind to ponder the biggest things. What ABOUT life? What is it all about? What is the purpose? Can it be so simple... can it be as simple as this: The purpose of life is to enjoy the beauty and wonder of a tiny little flower growing at our feet by a mailbox at a small house in a small neighborhood in a small town in Florida?

After all, what more is there? What of more importance is there in this world? If we cannot appreciate the wonders at our feet, what else is there? I work with people who would not give that flower a FIRST thought, never mind a second thought. Their purpose in life revolves around profits and reports and volume growth.

Other people I know wrap their world around their children. No doubt, children are important. But are they the purpose of life, or merely the propagation of further life for a purpose that may or may not be fully understood at the time of propagation? Are children the purpose, or the result? A directive or a side effect?

I don't expect to find answers to these questions. I suspect that the answer is different for each of us. But I also suspect that some answers are not valid, while others are. For some, the purpose of THEIR life might just be earning money, acquiring power, controlling others. But I don't think that qualifies as the purpose of LIFE.

What about you? Any ideas? What do you feel is the purpose of YOUR life?

Duck's Eye View: Perspective Re-Programming

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Have you ever wondered what the world looks like through some other person's eyes? What about the eyes of another species? This is what Alamo Lane, in Dunedin, Florida, looks like from the level of a duck's eyes. Wow, very different isn't it.

What Spring Looks Like

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Green is my absolute favorite color, and this is pretty much why... it's a GROWING color. It is life. It is nature. It is, to me, spirit and fresh and alive! This picture captures the newest leaves on an oak tree that is growing on the bank of Lake Paloma, in Dunedin, Florida.

In Serried Ranks...

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In serried ranks they stretch to the horizon, like so many unremembered dreams come back to haunt me. Each of them an eye to inside, each of them a hollow stare.

I wandered not amongst the hills so steely gray, nor danced among the violets gay.

Under yonder hills it lay, a world beneath, a world of different day.

What horrors lurk beneath to find? Why none but those from in my mind.

Mace

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This is one of my best friends. His name is Mace. This is one of the best pictures I have ever gotten of him. The other day he was just holding perfectly still for me when I had the camera. I think he was jealous of the primary subject of my snapping at the moment. So I agreed that it was time to snap him again.

Mace has had quite a life. He was born here in Florida. Then he moved to Washington State for a while. He spent ten years out there, enjoying the country life, including some snow even, and a coyote attack, sadly. But here he is, living in Florida again.

Lantana

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I am just going to let this Lantana speak for itself.

Car 24 Where Are You?

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It would seem that Car 24 is having some difficulty. Better call the Auto Club!

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Cool Paint Job On This Bug

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At first glance this bug looked somewhat ordinary and plain. Then I looked closer. Wow. So I took the very best closeup I could manage at the moment. Then when I got home and downloaded it... WOW again, times ten!

What a COOL looking insect. You really MUST click on it so you can see better detail. That is one very interesting insect. I just hope, having said such nice things about it, that it doesn't turn out to be some horribly damaging pest that is destroying the ecosystem. I snapped this little guy at the Moccasin Lake Nature Park, in Clearwater Florida, using my Nikon D80.

HOME

New Year - New Beginnings

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I did not make any 'formal' New Year resolutions. But I do feel as though it is a new beginning, like this mangrove seedling in Tampa Bay. Things I don't like about me can be left behind in '07. Things I wish for myself can be pursued in '08. Bad habits can be challenged, better habits can be sought and adopted.

I don't remember the source, but here is a quote:

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."