Ripples of Wonder

This morning when I looked out the window at the pond I saw

Ripples of Wonder

just after a pair of wood ducks landed in the pond and sent out ripples that widened until the entire pond was covered with them. I breathed in the beauty and gave thanks for the many gifts of living here. It was lovely to see blue skies and sunshine after several cloudy days.

Everywhere I look trees, flowers and bushes are waking up. For the past 3 mornings I’ve seen a pair of yellow shafted flickers searching for food in our back yard. This morning I photographed one of them with my 100 – 400 mm lens with 1.4 extender attached. Isn’t it a beautiful bird?

I also played with a lovely begonia plant a friend gave me earlier this week, getting up very close using extension tubes and very shallow depth of field (f/1.8). This afternoon I’m heading outside to do some yard work and I hope to also take a walk in the neighborhood. I am so full of gratitude for life and springtime and for all I am able to do in my life.

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

― Mary Oliver

What are you grateful for today? How do you show up in your world? Are you experiencing ripples of wonder too as spring unfolds?

May you walk in beauty.