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All About Love

The older I get the more I believe that this life we live is All About Love in one way or another. Love is the simplest word to speak and maybe one of the hardest ones to act. In this week when many celebrate Valentine’s Day, I am thinking a lot about love and loss and the why of it all. There is a huge difference between falling in love and simply being in love, or even more simply being love. Grief is a natural part of loving someone or something deeply. Whether that love is for a spouse, child, Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Today I am declaring this year’s season of amaryllis beauty and photo play over, so I say Sic Transit Gloria Mundi or in other words, “Thus passes the worldly glory.” I am sad to see the flowers all faded and dry. But to be truthful, I am also running out of enthusiasm for photographing them after over a month of almost daily practice doing so. Earlier this week we had a rainy day—in early February!—that felt so weird for this time of year. In fact the winter we have been having is feeling wrong to many Minnesotans. Though I personally Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Benediction

I discovered a poem by Mary Oliver this morning that I’d never read before and it felt like a Benediction this damp gray unusual February day. White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field Coming down out of the freezing sky with its depths of light, like an angel, or a buddha with wings, it was beautiful and accurate, striking the snow and whatever was there with a force that left the imprint of the tips of its wings — five feet apart — and the grabbing thrust of its feet, and the indentation of what had been running Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Season of Grief

I have led a very blessed life. Until recently I had not grieved the loss of anyone deeply. When my parents and mother-in-law died when I was in my fifties, it seemed that their slow deaths were a release from suffering. And though I was sad I was not devastated. The death of my sister-in-law in a car accident saddened me too but I wasn’t overcome with grief. But right now, I am experiencing a Season of Grief that has come quite unexpectedly and hit me hard. My husband, Jon, suggests that it is the suddenness and surprise of the Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Teaching Flower Photography Workshop Soon

This weekend I am working on preparing to teach a Flower Photography Workshop at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts Saturday, February 17. So I thought I would share some of the flower photos I made this week and a few photos that I’ve made during the past year as well. I’ve been playing with photographing amaryllis flowers all of January. Now, though the flowers are faded and withered I am still finding beauty in them. Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, Read more…

By Marilyn, ago