Astonished by Life

Quote of the day:

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
― Mary Oliver

Seeing beauty on a fall day

November, when day length shortens and gray skies prevail, is my least favorite time of year.  I love the warmer months with gardens growing and green leaves blowing in the wind.  I love the lush greens of Minnesota woodlands and nature.

This November I have deliberately looked for and found beauty and astonishment even amidst the graying of our landscape—embracing what is, finding beauty in everyday life around me.

The other day when I was driving home I decided to take the slower more scenic route along Medicine Lake. For a moment I thought one of my habitual thoughts about November, “It’s a gray day and there will be nothing to see,” but I quickly followed that with, “I wonder what I’ll see. Maybe some ducks or geese or swans.  I want to see the water and the ducks and maybe some geese, even if it is a gray day.”

Though most of the sky was cloudy and gray there were some glimpses of blue sky. I noticed the ice along the edges of the lake and the light, reflecting off water and ice creating a bright light landscape, the curves of ice and reeds in the lake creating shapes that cannot ordinarily be seen along this stretch of lake.

Intentionally blurred to show shapes and light

I hurried home, grabbed my camera and tripod and headed back to the lake to photograph what I had seen before the light changed. Astonished by light and color and shapes!

Astonished by Life!

Beauty is always there. We choose whether to see it or not. Even in the most dire circumstances, I believe that beauty, wonder, and gratitude can be found.

Log mostly surrounded by ice

Pause for a moment. Look around. Pay attention. Be astonished. Live life fully every day!

Ice patterns

This morning after I meditated, I sat gazing out the window at the pond behind the house. I could see that part of the ice on the pond had melted with the mild weather of the past two days. Circular ripples emanated from a point blocked from my sight by a large tree limb. I waited for the duck that was creating the ripples to appear. Soon a single mallard, plunging his head down to the bottom of the pond, rear end thrust in the air mooning the whole world, feet paddling like crazy to help his head stay down and rear end up, appeared.

Ripple maker

As I watched him I was astonished all over again by life. There was still ice on the pond so the water temperature must have been near freezing. Yet this beautiful creature was swimming around and submerging his head over and over again to find food at the bottom of the pond.

Here I sit in my heated house with warm clothes on and there in my own back yard, is this beautiful creature. I am filled with wonder—does he feel the cold? where will he go when the pond freezes over again? is he lonely all by himself in the pond? will he join other mallard ducks to migrate south?

Lone duck

Look closely at this beautiful duck. Mallards are one of the most common ducks in Minnesota, so we often take them for granted—”Oh, it’s just a mallard.”  When I let go of that thought, and really look, I appreciate their astonishing beauty.

How much beauty do we miss because we take it for granted? How much beauty do we miss because we’re not really looking? It’s there. Look and you will see it.

Canada geese coming in for a landing on Medicine Lake

Three mallards in Medicine Lake

Rhythm of the reeds and reflections of reeds

Blue and gold