145/365 Her

"Harley'

Harley is the only "her" around today.  The her children are out of town and the her cat wants nothing to do with us because we cleaned out "her" closet today which disrupted her napping routine.

144/365 Catch Lights

"When You Wish Upon A Star . . .Your Dreams Come True"

Because we had no snow days this year, Weber had today off as it would have been the snow make-up day.  We did clean out a closet, but also took time for a little fun.  Bubbles are an endless source of entertainment around our house.

Today;s prompt focused on eyes.  Weber has the most beautiful eyes so I am always happy to photograph them.  Here is another of my favorite photos of the day.

I am always fascinated by the way some photos look when converted to black and white.  I particularly like the subtlety of he bubble in this image.

This is quite the opposite concerning the bubble - not subtle at all.  I find this structure pretty amazing.   It almost looks like a magic wand the way the perspective has it sitting atop a branch.

Simple things for simple minds . . .

143/365 May Flowers

"Anthuriums"

There is not much blooming  in our yard right now.  I have not planted any annuals yet, either in the ground or in pots.  We are in between the blooming of  the irises and the day lilies.  So, the best it gets is this anthurium that is living on the back patio.  Even it is a little faded.  I guess I need to go get some colorful annuals this weekend and do some planting.

What Can I Do?

Disasters, both natural and human, have plagued my area for the last month.  Cities, homes and hearts have been ripped apart in many places by different things.  This recent string of events began on April 17th with the fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant in the small town of West, TX, which is about an hour and a half south of Dallas.  Not quite a month later, powerful tornadoes ripped through Cleburne and Granbury, also small towns an hour or so away from DFW.  And then this week, only days after the Texas tornadoes, a few hours north of us, a life-taking tornado in Shawnee, OK was followed the next day by the massive EF-5 tornado that obliterated a substantial part of the community of Moore, Oklahoma.

While those whose lives are directly affected by these tragedies are busy trying to recover, rebuild and establish a new normal for themselves, their families and their communities, there are others, primarily those who exist outside of the vivid immediacy of these circumstances, who are trying to lay blame on someone or something for why these things happened.  All to often that blame is placed in the hands of a vengeful God.  That kind of rhetoric makes me angry right down to my innermost being.

We have all heard the proclamations by some that hurricane Katrina was sent by God to destroy the burgeoning gambling industry along the Gulf Coast and to prevent a very large GLBT gathering and celebration from taking place in New Orleans the following weekend.  Mind you this particular event that God was supposedly trying to stop had been going on for 33 years previous to 2006 when Katrina struck.  If God truly wanted to put an end to this gathering, wouldn't he/she have done so sooner?  "Southern Decadence" still convenes annually in New Orleans.  Is God so weak that he or she could not prevail and prevail against this perceived evil?  Is man truly stronger than God?

Oh, and did you know that hurricane Sandy was divine justice for the state of New York's 2011 legislation legalizing same-sex marriage?  If this is true, God needs to be put on some kind of performance improvement plan; his work is kind of sloppy.  If God was intending to punish New York, the actions taken sure impacted a lot of other states along the east coast.  

And, I hope none of you has been praying in the last week.  God has been rather myopic in his/her consideration of incoming prayers.   Attention has been turned on figuring out how to punish Oklahoma Thunder basketball player Kevin Durant for supporting Jason Collins with regard to his coming out and as gay.   I can see that.  Doesn't it seem reasonable that the God of love would punish one or two people by destroying homes and causing absolute mayhem in the lives of thousands of people and would kill innocent children?  Seems like a perfectly reasonable figure in whom to place our faith - a vengeful, retaliatory, self-serving, weak, sloppy God - right?

Lets get real.  God, the one who calls each one of by name us a child of his/her own, does not work like that.  If God does behave in such a way, CPS has a massive job to do.  I believe my God to be a God of creation, not destruction.

So, why then do these terrible things happen?  The answer does not lie in placing blame, but in taking responsibility.  (Please note, we are not responsible for, nor can we be blamed for, our sexuality; God is responsible for that.). Bad things do happen on earth because human beings make poor choices.  We, humankind, are responsible for most things that go wrong in our lives; not God.

The explosion in West hopefully was caused by some kind of accident.  The weather disasters are the result of our irresponsibility toward the care of our shared home, Mother Earth.  As the measurable effects of global warming have become more visible, so have the frequency and the intensity of our weather phenomena.  This is not coincidental.  We all share in this responsibility- not just the gamblers, the drinkers, the homosexuals, and the friends of homosexuals - every single one of us who occupies space on the earth must accept that we are in part responsible for what happened in Cleburne, in Granbury, in Shawnee, in Moore.

What can we do to turn things around, to have a positive impact on our world?  Here are a few simple actions that each of us can easily implement into our daily lives that will help stop global warming.

1, Replace all of your lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

2. Only run your dishwasher when it is full.

3. Use recycled paper products.

4. Adjust your thermostat by 2 degrees - 2 degrees warmer during the summer and cooler during the winter.

5. Take shorter showers.

6. Carpool and use public transit.

7. Recycle.

8. Plant a tree.

9. Turn electronics off when they are not in use.

10. Avoid plastics.

These simple suggestions will help diminish the potential for weather disasters that result from the effects of global warming.  What can we do about incidents like the horror of the Boston marathon bombing or the explosion in West?  I know that we can not stop these kinds of things altogether, but perhaps, as with our steps toward slowing the progress of global warming, we can nudge such occurrences in the direction of being less frequent and less violent by faithfully following our loving God who bids us to love our God with all our heart and love our neighbors as ourselves.

142/365 Clouds

"Imaginary Clouds"

After several days of threatening storm clouds, there was not even a hint of a cloud in today's sky.  With the prompt of the day being "clouds", I had two choices; I could either dig a cloud photo out of the archives or I could make some clouds.  As tempting as it was to use a photo of clouds that I took exactly a year ago, with the help of my friend Claude, we created our own clouds.

Where there is a will, there is a way!

141/365 A Perfect Gift

"A Second Chance"

Nothing in life is guaranteed; certainly not second chances.  But every now and then, we are surprised.  The best gift that I have received is a second chance to find love.  

I pray that all of those who lost their homes and loved ones in Oklahoma on Monday will find the strength and courage to believe in second chances   I think my inclination to photograph this as a silhouette may have to do with the deep sadness I feel for those who will never again feel the touch of their child, sister, brother, mother, father, husband, or wife.  

On a somewhat lighter note, I like the way that there is almost a heart shape between our chins and shoulders.  If I had a beard, it would be even closer.

140/365 Where I Live

"Home IS Where My Heart Is"

Just as I finished taking this photo yesterday, the news of the terrible devastation in Oklahoma started pouring in.  It felt wrong to post a picture of my home when so many people had lost not only their homes but their children and loved ones.  My prayers are with all those whose lives have been torn apart by Brother Wind.  May God give them strength, courage, love and a sense of community as they begin to rebuild not only their homes, but their loves.

As I post this now, I do so with much thanksgiving for what I have but knowing that it could all be gone in only minutes.  This place holds many, many memories from many, many years - some good and others not so good.  We are doing our best now to create more of the good ones.  Still, this is only a material place; the true home of our memories is in our hearts and souls.