Meri's Musings

This birdhouse looks inviting, doesn't it? Perhaps it's even a bird hotel, a gathering place, a perfect place to host a family reunion. I thought I'd put this picture out in blogland, and send it mentally to my local avian community, hoping the birds will know I've got their welfare at heart, that they really don't have anything to lose by waiting just a millisecond more for me to focus and click the shutter before they fly away. I keep my camera right by the window next to the computer and yesterday I couldn't get it focused quickly enough to photo-enshrine the hummingbird or the goldfinch each of whom had stopped to rest in the uppermost branches of the vine maple, not more than eight feet from where I sit when I write. Come back! I want my friends to see you.

I'm still more comfortable  with stealing other people's souls     (this is my long-time friend Judie who joined me to shoot spring color,   not knowing I'd steal her soul so shamelessly) than I am with letting the lens  capture a piece of mine. But since I am a soulful woman I guess I can't lose anything by sharing another self-portrait. Some of my blogger friends are so innovative, so sophisticated that they use tripods to take pictures of themselves that look like   glam our shots , like Beth. And then there are Daffodil Divas, like   Judy Wise who expose themselves to all kinds of allergens to snap pictures of themselves with camera at arms' length. I'm not that advanced. I'm taking baby steps toward self-portraits, trying to banish my self-consciousness. It's just me and my camera, in front of something that reflects the two of us. And I realize that banishing self-consciousness must be a process because what registers when I...

What event was so enormous, so impactful, that it serves as the hinge point between "before" and "after" in your life? "Defining Moment" - photograph copyright 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian What happened to change your sense of yourself, of who you are - your feeling of ease in the world - - how you relate to others - - your sense of belonging or being cut adrift - - how you choose to use your gifts? These defining events may have changed you for good or ill, but they unquestionably left their mark. These seminal happenings may be outright blessings, horrible burdens, or blessings in disguise. Everyone can point to one or more than one, at least everyone of a certain age and degree of awareness. What's your defining moment? How did it change you? What wisdom did you gain?

in that moment when I forgot to guard my heart, you flattened me against the earth, pinned me down with silver star points and sang me out to see the crescent moon, more luminous even than the faint pink glow seeping through the crack of dawn, while each hour puffed itself, fanned its peacock feathers in an array of strutting minutes and waited with bated breath for the world like a peach to split open in juicy, pulpy ripeness - Photograph and poem copyright 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian

Sometimes  when we're smack dab in the middle of life, caught up  in the busyness  of living, we lose sight of  the significance of what we're doing  and how it affects the multi-hued tapestry  of our lives. "Reflections" - photograph copyright 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian Only upon thoughtful reflection does the overall pattern become clear, the disparate pieces come together. Sometimes story lines are parallel, sometimes things intersect in surprising ways, all colorful, all part of the whole, the   Bayeux tapestry of our lives.

I'm always excited when I find that through grace or serendipity or whatever you call it "Visitation" - copyright 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian my camera recorded something the eye couldn't see: a fanciful world where time is slowed down and Spirit is palpably present. Sometimes the magic just happens all by itself.

Here's what I didn't see last week but found yesterday: the colors unearthed after a few warm, sunny days. Broad swaths of color. Rows and rows of tulips dancing and swaying in the gentle breeze. Nature's paintbox arrayed in all its splendor. A vista that commanded you to STOP pay attention take in the beauty all around you. What colors your world today? What makes you pause, focus, and devote your full attention to the beauty that surrounds you?

I would so much rather be behind the camera being a voyeur of others' souls than be laid open to the world fearing I will be found wanting too plump not pretty enough too much too little Can you see my loving heart? Is my inner beauty shining through? That's what I want you to see. Look for that in my self portrait.