Author Archives: beacon2019

Aaah! Anyone who lives in a hot climate knows what a relief it is to spend time in a place like Maine. The temperatures are less oppressive, the humidity manageable, and the food heavenly. What’s not to love? We weren’t far from the coast in a place that allowed us to just breathe and rest,Continue reading “Ah, Maine!”

A friend of mine has written a beautiful text about something dear to his heart, and there I found the perhaps best description of why caring about the environment makes sense. He calls it “taking care of our home.” People often see the environment as something separate from them, as something they are forced toContinue reading “Taking care of our home”

Restaurateur and food expert Alice Waters wrote this statement: “When we force ourselves to slow down, the world comes into focus.” I couldn’t agree more! When we slow down and look around us, we see wilted blooms in sidewalk cracks, and perfectly camouflaged beetles on flowers. We might notice how ducks fly in perfect unisonContinue reading “The world comes into focus”

The American poet Florence Earle Coates wrote:“Who walks the world with soul awakeFinds beauty everywhere; Though labor be his portion,Though sorrow be his share,He looks beyond obscuring clouds, Sure that the light is there!” This describes perfectly what I try to do. Beauty is often in the eye of the beholder, but being willing toContinue reading ““With soul awake””

“An abode without birds is like a meat without seasoning,” says the Harivamsa. From what I understand, India has wonderful breeds of birds, so it would make sense that the love of birds made its way into important Hindu scripture. Songbirds, shore birds, raptors, corvids… I love them all–especially ravens. I don’t feel the urgeContinue reading “An abode without birds…”

The writer Anthony Doerr wrote a book about spending a year in Rome. It contains this statement: “A good journal entry ought to be a love letter to the world.” I love this! I feel the same about photos. Yes, not everyone has the luxury of taking only pictures of nice things. Photo journalists areContinue reading ““A love letter to the world””

A rose has obvious beauty, and so people paint and draw them, ordain their homes with them in vases and on wallpaper, and grow them in their yards. The one pictured here grows in ours. It’s a sure, fail-safe kind of beauty. A picture taken on a foggy morning with the sun peeking through andContinue reading ““Each their own kind of beautiful””

I recently discovered Annie Dillard’s book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which is something of a how-to guide to watching (as in seeing) nature. That’s where I read the above statement: We are on the receiving end of beauty. During a visit to a State Park I was mindful of this and watched even more carefullyContinue reading “The receiving end of beauty”

When I was a child, my friends and I loved flying kites. Each of us had our favorite design; mine was a soaring hawk. I would look up at my kite, high in the sky, and dream of one day seeing a real hawk, not one printed on clear plastic. Since then, I have seenContinue reading “Soaring”

Late last year I spent an evening taking pictures of trees and flowers using my flash for light. The result was fun and really quite beautiful. It had just rained and the flash brought out a different kind of emphasis. Because I used the camera’s flash function instead of a separate light source, I couldn’tContinue reading “Flash done differently”