Sunday snapshot: Instinct

I wrote this post for the gardening blog where I also play. Take a look! www.backyardfarming.blogspot.com. I'd love to get more readers for the blog. 

My words here are spare, the distillation of grander thoughts. Like a seed at the end of one harvest, I guess, able to sprout into another. Who (whom?) am I kidding? I'm not that deep. Anyway, is it weird to be pleased with a string of words? Thanks for reading.

I'm amazed that seeds can transform from a pebble in a little boy's pocket to food for his tummy.

I'm amazed that a baby robin -- so new out of the nest that it doesn't yet know how to fly -- nevertheless knows how to run, and when that isn't enough, how to puff itself up something fierce to scare off a curious, playful dog.

I'm amazed at these things, and my own instinct is to smile and be grateful for my backyard piece of this beautiful world.

Rehearsing

OK, I'm back. My last post, of social media resignation, was thrown out on a whiff of a whim. It was probably a bad day, a "ready-shoot-aim" kind of day. I know I'm fickle! My blog is now private for a select few, like you.

Since my last post, a friend asked me to help with some writing/blog projects, and I realize that I need lots more regular writing practice. -- hence a reason to continue here. It's still not easy for me but I hope to regain some fluency. I need to flex some communicative muscle (hmm, why does that sound like a disease? ... communication, communicable ... ah, that's why).  See, I need to run through my paces.

In the meantime here are pictures from Elise's ballet staging rehearsal today. I struggled with the manual focus of my lens and was really disappointed that so many shots were blurry, like this one:

I kept thinking, if only this picture were in focus, it would be so beautiful.

It's beautiful anyway because it captures my daughter's radiant smile.

I remarked on the drive home about the constant smile that accompanies her dance movements. Elise giggled. "Yeah, I really worked hard on that for last year's recital. And then I couldn't stop. I'd be at the barre ... and smiling even then!" She thought this was tremendously funny. Plus, she pointed out, if you don't smile when you dance it's too easy for your tongue to roll out.

Elise's dance was called Rubies, after the fiery gemstone. I'm grateful Elise has ballet and violin study as outlets for her willful personality. Music and dance give such beautiful shape to her overflowing emotions. She's a passionate one, our Elise. We sometimes step carefully around her at home, the way you do with an open flame. Yet her capacity to offer warmth is great -- and is, it most be told -- her underlying desire. How I love this girl.

2. Elise got a kick out of this picture with her teacher. "It looks like I'm putting my head down because I did a no-no!"

3. Elise is the farthest on the right facing right.

4. Elise is in the middle.

7,8,9,  Elise is second from right.