witness

Monarch Butterfly, laying eggs in my backyard garden

This magnificent monarch drifted into our backyard, a splash of sunshine on a warm summer day. #RoyalVisitor

She fluttered among the milkweed plants for several minutes, making touch-and-go-landings and then drifting upward.

With the assistance of my zoom lens, I soon realized she was curling her abdomen around their long, oval-shaped leaves. She pausing for a quick moment on each, and then wafted over to the next plant. 

Can you guess what she was doing?

She was laying eggs on the undersides of the milkweed leaves, where her caterpillars will eventually feed and grow!

How lovely, to witness firsthand this first stage of the metamorphosis cycle. Not to mention, a refreshing break from the 24/7 news cycle.

Friday Five: Quotes of the week

1. Gardens are a form of autobiography.  ~Sydney Eddison

2. Everything changes once we identify with the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it. ~Ram Dass

3. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

4. At any given moment, you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end. ~Anonymous

5. And now the page beckons.
Thin as the layer of silver that makes the mirror reflect, it urges, Set down here what you saw, and you will understand it as never before.
And so will all the world.  ~Bonnie Friedman, WRITING PAST DARK

2011: The year for Witness

We will open the book. Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

 

In 2009, Grace led me up Life’s highest peaks and guided me through its narrows. Then in 2010, I chose Joy as my traveling companion. [On a related note, I changed my blog name from Front Pages to A Joyful Noise.]  And now that we’ve turned the page on yet another year, I’ve got a new one-word mantra. Behold, that word is Witness.


Witness:  perceive, watch, mark, notice, observe, testify. See also: proof, confirmation, evidence.
 
Here’s what Witness looks like, at least for me: 


  1. Approach life with a sense of wide-eyed wonderment (my natural tendency).
  2. Actively observe the world and its inhabitants (as is my  wont).
  3. Find creative ways to record my observations. (Note to self: Keep writing implements, DSLR camera, and art supplies closeby.)
  4. Look for new opportunities to be of service.
  5. Deepen my meditation practice, including the art of mindfulness & being an inner witness.
  6. Produce tangible evidence of my writerly aspirations. My publishing dreams were first realized when my essay, "Luz," got accepted for inclusion in DEAR BULLY (Harper Collins, summer/fall 2011). And over the course of this past year, I’ve approached CAN I GET A WITNESS with increasing confidence. I realize that I don’t have any control over the reception it might receive in the publishing industry, nor in the larger world beyond that. But I’ve been nudged forward by my Nancy Drew adventures, and I’ve strengthened my storytelling abilities along the way. Also: visual person that I am, I’m inspired on a daily basis by this mock book cover (thanks again, Emjae). I can’t predict what any of this might mean — beyond the personal satisfaction that comes of finding my voice, of putting my story into words– but I believe with all my might that this will be the year for WITNESS.

Congregation of canaries (photo) via Getty Images


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