Just sitting here staring at the scenery seems good right now…

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Photo #696: Mellow TreesLocation Taken: Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario
Time Taken: June 2010

There’s a lot to be said for being mellow. It’s a very pleasant state of mind, and one you can keep up for a long time. It’s not like happiness, where the sheer joy can weigh on you after a while. Mellow just is, and is happy being so.

When you’re mellow, you can acknowledge all the stressors of life without really caring about them. The weight goes off your shoulders, and you are content with the state of the world. It may have all sorts of bad things in it, but right now, it is what it is, and what it is is pretty good.

There is one downside to being mellow, though. It’s an awful state of mind for being creative. That certain drive that pushes one forward is missing entirely. There’s a reason why many of the best artists were also the most tortured. It’s tough to say something meaningful about the world when your opinion about it is that it is.

I’d feel annoyed about that, but hey, I’m too mellow for that right now.

  

The Curse of the Introvert. Or is it a Blessing…

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Photo #695: Calm BeachLocation Taken: Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008

Some days it’s really tough being an introvert. I mean, sure, I’m never truly lonely, and I think those marvelous long thoughts, but those times when I’m actually feeling social? I pay for it later.

I overdid it a bit yesterday. Hung out with all sorts of people online, for hours, and had fun the whole time. Definitely don’t regret spending my time that way.

Today, though, I need my alone time. I have a store of energy that gets drained when I socialize, and doing things on my own recharges it. But it does take time. I’ve been largely avoiding human contact today. I finished the book I was reading, started another one, spent some time with my dogs.

Oh, and a touch of meditation. Draining my socialization energy always makes me feel a bit off-center, and meditation is great for fixing that. It catches up all those loose parts of myself and tidies them up.

If I could, I’d go to a peaceful place, somewhere nature is in its full glory. Those are great for letting go of all the clinging worries of life. But I haven’t found a place near here for that, so I’m sticking to the areas I feel most comfortable. It works nearly as well.

  

By the Glow of the Evening Sky

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Photo #694: Suns GlowLocation Taken: Pennsylvania
Time Taken: May 2007

It’s amazing how just a little bit of cloud can change everything about how we see the sun.

Perhaps my favorite example is what I call rainbow weather. Making a rainbow requires a delicate balance of light, cloud, and rain. The clouds must be patchy enough to let the sun through, but thick enough to produce rain. And the sun must be at a certain angle, usually lower in the sky, so it can reflect off of the water droplets in just the right way to split the light into a prismatic display.

Even when you’re inside the storm, away from those ideal angles, there’s something special going on. The sky becomes an odd color, the gray of the clouds mixing with the reds and yellows of the sunlight. In normal storms, there’s too many clouds between the sun and ground, and it blurs out fully. And of course, if there’s no clouds, there’s nothing blocking the light. But rainbow weather has that odd halfway look.

It’s most noticeable when you look at the sun. The edges blur, but enough light gets through to turn the center of the glow a brilliant white. It no longer looks like the ordinary ball of too-bright light that we see every day. The sun becomes more than it is, becomes what inspires so many stories and myths. The essence of the light of the sky.

  

As the Sun Sets, and yet, goes nowhere…

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Photo #693: Deep SunsetLocation Taken: Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: February 2008

I found myself using the phrase “Time to call it a night” today, and the more I think about it the less sense it makes.

The meaning applied to this idiom is along the lines of “I’m heading for bed, which requires me to stop doing what I’ve been doing, and thus stop talking to you.” There’s a bunch of idioms along that line. Might have something to do with us not wanting to say “I’m going to go lie near-motionless and oblivious to the world around me for a while, ok?”

But the literal meaning? That’s a bit of an odd one. You’re declaring that the opportune moment for designated an unspecified “it” to be the time of day when the earth is blocking the sun’s light has come. If it’s daylight out, it makes no sense, and if it’s night, well, you’re just stating the obvious.

And yet… Maybe it has something to do with the difference between daytime and nighttime activities. If your daytime activity happens to go past sunset, well, it’s still an activity normally done at day. By declaring that it is night, you’re implying that it is time to swap to the nighttime activities instead. Or something. Idioms are weird.

  

Think Deeply on the Concept of Bird

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Photo #692: Concept Of BirdLocation Taken: Arcadia, Michigan
Time Taken: December 2007

Yeah, the longer I stare at this, the better it looks!

I mean, sure, the bird is completely out of focus. But don’t you see, that distills it down to the essence of bird! It’s a deeper concept! And how amazingly back-lit it is, too! There’s a motion there, an impending action.

And look how beautifully lit the pine needles are! You can see every speckled shadow forming intricate patterns on each thin spike.

Can’t you just see this hanging on a wall, being mused over by haughty guys in black turtlenecks?