John & Anne Wiley

2012/04/28

Flood & Drought

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 23:49

Rivers are so beautiful. Sitting in the reeds, walking the bank, splashing the shore, swimming across, and of course taking it all in again from the air.

1669 Jugular

1669 Jugular

Sometimes the ribbon of life running through this river valley at Fillmore is a thread like this, barely connecting mountain to sea. Summers it’s often a sandy band serving as a wildlife freeway skirting the towns. The wider view introduces a tale of occasional storms that have bathed the whole valley in relentless muddy mayhem when the Santa Clara River rears up and races downstream changing everything.

1678 Flood Plain

1678 Flood Plain

Life, and for humans Love, has such seasons. Dry times and those overflowing. Cultivating the fertile valley nourished by flows and floods is most productive when we can remember nothing is permanent, and that we need to welcome change. Then a richer beauty emerges in our enjoyment of rivers.

2012/04/27

Oil Hills

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:48

The hills in SoCA are alive with oil, and the manses it built. Now I don’t know if this particular manse between Calabasas and Simi was built with “Beverly Hillbilly” oil money, but I like the moat.

1640 Moat Manse

1640 Moat Manse

The moat is actually a runoff control system, and the fence might be as much for falling rock as invading hordes. I like the golf green lawn, and how the whole castle and pool fits into the hillside. The nearby oil facilities, not so much.

1642 Rock Oil

1642 Rock Oil

Granted it almost disappears amid the rocks, but it still seems incompatible. With all the cool rock shapes, seems to me the native peoples used to hang out here. So I guess it’s just my imagination of the ancient silence there being broken by the machinery that doesn’t fit for me. Are these holes in the rock too deep to have been used for making food?

1648 Food or Fantasy?

1648 Food or Fantasy?

If I were living in a stone age culture, stones like these would appeal much more than the relatively small amount of petroleum harvested here.

1649 Oil Town

1649 Oil Town

Of course, a few decades ago it was a veritable flood, and until biofuels are available we get above it all by burning a gallon of the stuff they’re pulling out of the ground to traverse 20 miles of ancient stories.

2012/04/26

Time Crunch

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random — John @ 08:17

Time is getting ever more crunched, ever more quickly it seems. As a kid, tall ships seemed so intriguing and I daydreamed about going to sea as Melville had.

1576 Slow Boats

1576 Slow Boats

Now these sailing ships at Dana Point look to me like beautiful museum pieces, even when they’re moving. So ponderous it would seem glacial to actually cross a sea in one. While some like this were still working ships, the Queen Mary was crossing the Atlantic more quickly regardless of winds.

1594 Queen Mary & Stalker

1594 Queen Mary & Stalker

Now she’s tied up at Long Beach next to monster cruise ships several times her size, and at her bow you can make out part of a submarine like those that once stalked her crossings. As we cruise past at a leisurely 100mph, taking days to go from England to America across a featureless heaving sea seems insufferable. One of our elders once asked what we’d do with all the time we saved on our computers. She was right of course, that something’s lost and something’s gained by living at our pace. But I’d never want to go back and wait days for an important message to arrive, when my phone can get it anywhere in the world within seconds. The crunching of time has made relaxing in a field of flowers watching the birds and bees all the more delicious by contrast.

2012/04/25

Wear Patterns

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 10:43

On each of us are patterns of wear that life has left on us, visible to the observant eye. I thought of that looking at these beaches on Camp Pendleton. The waves and creeks have worn wrinkles on the shore.

1552 Deep Wrinkles

1552 Deep Wrinkles

Another beach has its own story told by patterns, accented by more recent roads, trails, and scallop shapes in the sand at water’s edge.

1553 Layers of Time

1553 Layers of Time

Just as the different forces that shaped this beach reveal themselves in layers of time, our faces can tell stories about us. Things that happened recently, far in the past, and frequently like the crevices formed by smiles, frowns, concentration and surprise. Can noticing the patterns help us to learn and grow, or are we mere observers of forces beyond our control?

2012/04/22

Dreams

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 22:17

I woke from flying dreams this morning, and they felt related to the passage of our Fathers. As I’ve described before, flying itself seems dream-related. So yesterday’s flight with friends was probably a catalyst for last night’s dreams too. Looking at pix from yesterday’s flight, it’s easy for me to see why flying and dreams can be so healing for me.

0054 Dreamscape

0054 Dreamscape

I can feel the refreshing air from the open window and I’m right back in Tripp over this Lompoc flower field. The colors, shapes and textures draw a deep nourishing breath of relaxation through my body and soul. I’m a child wandering that river bank.

0066 Quiet Hilltop

0066 Quiet Hilltop

I’m alone on a hill looking at the rusting water tank, strolling through the mustard flowers, and gazing out over the hills and valleys. And I’m a passing bird glancing at the lone figure.

0069 Crossing

0069 Crossing

The road across this creek evokes the sense of passage permeating my consciousness right now. Through the flow from one shore to another with Life all around.

0074 Greens

0074 Greens

Spring greens along our way filled my heart to overflowing with the healing joy of Life renewed. Climbing past the colors and shapes for the return home, the rolling hills hid our future in an inviting way.

0075 Here & Beyond

0075 Here & Beyond

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.