Dazzling Dahlias

The dahlia test garden at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is one of my favorite late August photo destinations. The varied flowers’ delightful and whimsical blossoms fill me with joy.

Dazzling Dahlias

There’s something about dahlias’ many layers of petals that appeals to me. Some of the flowers have petals that are tousled and free and others have petals that line up in offset rows each one perfectly replicating its neighboring petals.

It makes me curious about how the plant breeders create the different varieties of dahlias. How many flowers fail the test and are destined for the compost heap? And how many make it to the test plot and then fail for one reason or another?

Still I am filled with wonder at nature’s endless creativity, beauty, and forms.

At the Arboretum, I wandered back and forth among the rows of flowers, photographing from one angle and then another. Flowers that I initially ignored grew on me the more I looked at them. I could spend hours in this place and indeed I plan to make a visit with extension tubes, my canon camera, and my nifty 50 mm lens for experiments with macro shots and very shallow depth of field.

The one sadness I had during my recent visit to the Arboretum and all of its beautiful flowers, was that I didn’t see a single butterfly at all during my visit. I am hopeful that this is just an unusual year or because it was a cloudy day, but I fear that this is a harbinger of loss.

Still I refuse to lose hope or imagine what the future might bring.

The Only Breath That Counts

If I’m waiting for

safety, there’s no hope.

If I’m waiting for the

perfect day, the moment

when outer circumstance

and inner mood line up

like sunlight through

Stonehenge on the

solstice, I might as well

give up. If it’s never the

right time to change,

why not be changed now?

Why not say, “This is it.

I’m living as if there’s no

tomorrow?” Happy for

no reason, joyful just

because, mindfully taking

the only breath that counts.

   — Danna Faulds, Limitless

This is what I tell myself, when I begin to worry or feel gloomy about the future — “This is it, might as well be happy, might as well be joyful.”

And I am as I gaze at the flowers in the garden and contemplate this moment, this breath.

How about you? Are you ready to be happy for no reason and joyful just because?

May you walk in beauty.