2.22.22 Note for Two

 

 

A favorite scribble from about a week ago.  

They've bloomed magically in the days since.

Your painter, 

OH

The Whole of 2021

In no particular order:

Clocked 838.9 active (running/hiking) miles (vs last year's 735.2).  Started bouldering.  Moments that seemed strangely surreal.  Monarchs.  More bouldering.  Coyote friend on the trail in the morn.  New Mexico twilight.  This year's reads.  Slow work.  Autumn.  Annual October road trip (ten days, six SW states, approximately 3200 miles; separate post to follow).  White Sands, Alamagordo.  Pumpkin.  Sunrise at Mather Point Overlook.  Trail work ahead (life application).

The visuals of 2021, a year that came and went far too quickly.

Love & Light, 

OH

The Relationships We Have

 

 

Consider the relationships our lives are comprised of and by which they are formed.  

 

Familial, romantic, and platonic are terms to differentiate the types of direct connections within our human group.  Outside of these, there are the spiritual and political.   Less obvious are the relationships we have with our careers, passions, vices, physical bodies, conscience, and thoughts.

 

How does the nature of each relationship reflect behavior?  How does it inform our sense of self?  How does it lend to the purpose of life as well as our purpose in life?  

Is it possible to separate ourselves and our relationships from the carnal, the visceral, the flesh, the intellect?  That is, can a relationship exist independent of its associations (inherent or otherwise)?  Is it futile to search for a relationship that does not feed from expectation nor carries out like a well-structured syllabus?  A relationship that exists in this sphere because it does--because to exist is enough?

To exist should be enough, but it is not.  It hardly ever is, or seems to be, enough.  

 

There is a yearning that persists.  An active curiosity that pulsates loudly.  It leaves me questioning the  "realities" that are apparent, and it makes living feel like a horrible chore.  Gradually, I feel less and less human, dissolved from a world where relationships of any form have to demonstrate a certain level of return and equity to qualify as valuable. 

I wonder this: can love exist outside of a shared connection between two entities?  Can love live on its own?  

 

If it is possible, then surely it is proof that to exist is, in and of itself, enough. 

---

 

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 

 -1 John 3:18

 

 

(Entry written on September 11, 2021) 

The Search for 2020

 

 

Photos from a year I had mistaken to be lost, but eventually found in the simple, unconfounded tones of everyday life.

Sending infinite love and light to all . . . 

-OH

An Exchange

Sutro (San Francisco, CA - October 13, 2020)

Yesterday.

I made my way through the ruinous baths on an unusually warm October morning.  As my feet fell in line with the familiarities of the dirt trail, my eyes fell upon a man and a woman perched on the remains of a west-facing wall.  The sight stirred me and I gave pause.

In a year that has uncovered deep-seated contentions and the divisive, obliterating nature of humankind, the scene of two individuals engaged in a doting exchange while sitting among century-old ruins marked a stark contrast.  A composition of opposing elements.  A lifeline found amid physical devastation.  

 

As the mist of the grand Pacific gently kissed the pair's rosy faces and waves crashed against jutted rock formations a short distance from their feet, I found myself bearing witness to a candid embrace of human affection.  And I thought, How wonderful it must be to find safety in another being, to know its presence in a collapsing world.

 

-OH

35

 A Morning Named October 7th (San Francisco, CA)

 

One last morning as 35

One part hollow mixed with two parts regret

One deep yearning for a year unspent.

 

The High Sierra (Happy Earth Day)

 The High Sierra, October/November 2019 (35mm film)

In honor of Earth Day and its 50th Anniversary, I thought to share some photographs I took while camping in and through the High Sierra last year . . .

An autumn ago.
Solitude and stillness. 

---

Allow us to be better stewards of our planet--for each other, for our children, for our children's children, and for their children's children.  For our magnificent wildlife, our vast marine life, our invaluable plant life.  For the whole of nature.

We have one Earth.  Be kind to her.

In no lesser degree, may we also remember to show kindness to our fellow humans during this time of global crisis.

Our Earth and world are hurting collectively.
Be the antidote, not the poison.


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