ONE LEAF

We were hiking in the woods yesterday…very near a waterfall

The colors of Autumn were in their infancy….just beginning to enthrall…

Many leaves were still green and as we looked around

some had already changed their hue…others had fallen to the ground.

The sun was shining through the tree tops…the aroma of pine was sweet…

and as we walked along the forest path…leaves were falling at our feet.

We were heading back toward civilization…our saunter almost done…

when we happened on a tree that had dropped it’s leaves…

all it’s leaves…save one.

We couldn’t believe our eyes and both immediately stopped to see…

Sure enough:

One leaf which had turned to yellow was still clinging to its tree.

There is a fluidity to nature…a wonderful asymmetry…

A gentle random way about her…that adds to her artistry.

Yet sometimes I have to wonder…when I think about this land…

If nature is completely random…or if sometimes things are planned.

In the profusion of leaves surrounding us…could it be that we were blessed

to come face to face with one leaf…that stood out from all the rest?

Could it be nature took the time to set this leaf apart

so we could discover its singular beauty…one natural work of art?

As we began to walk away we happened to stop and turn around

in time to see that lonely leaf fall gently the ground.

We smiled having witnessed this…and I am now of the belief

that nature allowed us a moment…to see the beauty in one leaf.

WHERE THEIR LOVE BEGAN

They were seated at the table next to us…(that is where this story begins)

an older couple talking loudly…we couldn’t help but listen in.

The man spoke first “Today we celebrate the day our happiness began.”

The woman closed her eyes and smiled as they sat together hand in hand.

Then she looked over and winked at us…”It’s not what you might think.” she said…

“It’s not a birthday, or the anniversary of the day when we were wed.”

“Instead,” she continued, “we choose to remember a different kind of date.

It was the day we first said I love you to each other…and this we celebrate.”

“Oh I was perfectly happy before I met this woman,” the old man smiled

“And I was perfectly happy before I ever met this man.”

But the day we said, ‘I love you’ to each other…

was the day OUR happiness began.”

“For that is the day we came together,” he said…”the day our worlds aligned…

The day I put my happiness in her hands…and she put hers in mine.”

We shared in their happiness for a moment…shared their joy and their felicity.

We toasted them, wished them well and then we let them be.

They said goodbye as they left the restaurant…still exuding grace and charm

and we watched them drift off down the sidewalk…together arm in arm…

Their story is a story about growing old side by side…

It’s a story of a woman and a man…

who understand one of the keys to a lifetime together

is remembering where their love began.

They were seated at the table next to us…two strangers…

who became our friends…

An older couple talking loudly…

(A love story that never ends)

OLD OAK TREE

I was walking down an old and weathered path…a carefree activity.

The path twisted and turned in the forest…until it passed by a old oak tree.

Something was different about this old tree…

I thought: In some way it must have been blessed

because in a forest filled with a variety of trees

This one was bigger than the rest.

Taller and rounder and wider…It was a mystery to me…

So I left the path in order to discover…The secret of that old tree.

The same sun shines onto its multitude of leaves.

The same wind brushes through its hair.

The same rain quenches its thirst

There must be something more there…

Then I ran across a heart carved into that old trees bark.

Two lovers wanting future passers by to know

that they walked this path hand in hand 

and stopped here long ago.

And I wondered how many lovers this old oak tree…

since he was planted under the land…

has seen walk by his aging bark…together…hand in hand.

If this old oak tree could talk …if it wasn’t, by nature, mute

could it tell me how much love it’s seen…Since it has taken root?

How many hands have caressed his bark?

How many smiles has he felt?

How many times has he heard, “I love you”

at his base…where lovers knelt?

And I wondered if that is the key to this tree…

what makes him stand so tall above…

Years of lovers walking by hand in hand

who have stopped to share their love…

Now I smile every time I wander this path

when that old oak tree comes into view…

for without saying a word he has come to show me

exactly what love can do.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN...

We love to read them fairy tales…filled with princes and villains…old and new…

We read about Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella…and happily ever after too…

Fairy Tales are filled with adventure and intrigue…but we know at the end of the tale…

The villains will eventually suffer defeat…the heroes and heroines will prevail.

But Fairy Tales are romantic and idealized…where wishes and dreams alway come true…

How do we explain to our daughters and granddaughters…

there are villains in the real world too.

Bill Cosby…whom we all loved to watch on TV…behind the scenes did things we’d forbid…

How do we explain to our daughters and granddaughters…the horrible things that he did?

How do we explain that the real world is different?…how do we make them see…

how sometimes we don’ know until it’s too late…just who the villains might be?

During his run from the presidency we heard how Mr. Trump mistreated women

the things he did and said…what a horrible display!

How do we explain to our daughters and granddaughters…that we elected him anyway?

How do we explain they need to be careful…of those villains out there in the woods…

because the stories that take place in the real world…don’t always end up the way that they should.

Now we find out Harvey Weinstein has a history of abusing women…

His behavior…so disgusting…so wrong.

How do we explain to our daughters and granddaughters…how this behavior went on for so long?

How do we explain this to our daughters and granddaughters…as we lay them down to sleep?

How do we explain there are wolves in the real world…wolves who dress up like they’re sheep.

How do we explain that they need to be careful…because this is the way some men act?

How can we stop our daughters and granddaughters…from being someone a wolf might attack?

It’s easy to explain the morals of Fairy Tales…once they’ve been read and returned to the shelves…

But how do we explain the amoral behavior of real world villains…

when we don’t understand it ourselves?

WHY BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY?

What is the purpose of black and white photography?

I admit…I wasn’t sure when I started this task…

but after spending 7 days exploring…

it’s a question I no longer ask.

Take a child for instance…filmed in black and white

you see her innocence…her grace…

Emptied of all its color and hue

the camera captures childhood…there…on her face.

We see her sitting in the grass with a smile on her lips

as the sun on her cheek adds a sheen.

We look into her eyes…and it’s there we discover

exactly what childhood means.

Childhood is eating moon pies..it’s chocolate…

It’s splashing barefoot in a cool mountain stream…

It’s catching fireflies around a campfire.

It’s climbing trees and eating ice cream.

It’s picking flowers because you like their color.

Its putting pennies on the tracks of a train.

It’s catching snowflakes on the tip of your tongue.

It’s dancing…outside…in the rain…

It’s getting dirty…it’s chasing butterflies…

It’s playing tag with the waves at the shore…

Yes, in her eyes we can see how her childhood

are all these things…

all these things…and so many more…

I wonder if that is the purpose of black and white photography…

perhaps that is its goal…

In color you capture a subject’s presence…

In black and white…you can capture their soul.

RELIGION

There is grandeur and beauty in a church…even a small one is sublime.

That’s why we stop to take their pictures…that’s why they lend themselves to rhyme.

Churches were built to help us learn to love…to share…to accept…to give

to help us understand who we are…and make this Earth a better place on which to live.

But there are some churches out there…some, I believe, who have lost their sight…

whose religions have one set of rules…their judgements…black and white.

Where their way is the only way and we have no choice but to agree…

And so their religion cedes its love an understanding…to hate and bigotry.

I’ve seen how religions have divided us…as some of them have forgotten the notion

that we are all part of something wonderful…like one wave upon the ocean.

In their zeal for their rules and canons…they believe come from somewhere up above

they have suppressed how nature should be our church…

and our religion should be love.

For when our heart is filled with love for everyone…yes everyone

when we learn to share…to accept…to give

Then we are that one wave upon the ocean…

and we have made this Earth a better place on which to live.

Perhaps every photo of a church we take should be colorless…

To remind us, when we pray…

this world we think is black and white…

Is often painted gray.

OLD FENCE

I love old fences…they remind me of an era…

an age that was simple and slow.

They are rustic, pastoral…picturesque…

and harken to a time long ago.

They span generations…they are a link to our past…

In the present…they can still be our guide…

and when we climb them we gaze into our future…

waiting for us…on the other side.

It’s easy to tell by their crudeness…

They were built with a few tools…all by hand.

You can find them all over the countryside

they add beauty and texture to the land.

They were valuable to the farmers

They controlled livestock while allowing the wind in to air condition the trees.

They were places to sit and talk with your neighbor

to exchange ideas…or just shoot the breeze.

Old fences remind me of dreams that I’ve had.

Dreams built in another time…long gone by…

Perhaps they have weathered a little over the years

But they’re still standing today…as am I.

We need old fences in our life…

as mementos of the dreams we’ve amassed…

to remind us as we look to our future

It’s still wonderful to remember our past…