macro photography

Gideon’s Challenge

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IMG_8232Disappointment

Lack of access
and a touch of laziness
has lead to
lack of availability.
Sad to say
now it’s too late
and I’m missing
the harvest
I desire.

Due to the huge lockdown from the pandemic this spring, I didn’t get to plant the Lobelia that I usually plant alongside my pansies each year.  Sadly, that means now in the peak of summer I find myself without the abundance of Lobelia that I’d usually have.  I had a tinge of disappointment about that today… and maybe just a little bit of a pout on it as well.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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TendernessTenderness…

It comes
with the softest touch.
Delicate
like a feather.
Warm
like the kiss of sunlight.
With senses
heightened
even the slightest brush
creates fireworks.

As much rough and tumble as we enjoy, it’s the tender moments that sink the deepest.  Intimacy between us is so intense and often violent, and yet the aftercare is the sweetest tenderness I’ve ever known. I do not need to be treated like delicate porcelain, I crave that intensity and collision of power and need… but it’s the tenderness that comes after that touches the heart and breaks open the inner protective shell, granting you access to that part of me that none other has ever been allowed to witness or touch.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

 

 

Gideon’s Challenge

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PassionPassion…
comes in many forms.
Between sheets
skin slick with sweat.
Within a board room
voice filled with conviction.
Lying in a field
picking shapes from the clouds.
It is that inner spark,
the flicker of flame that catches hold,
and the inferno that drives us.

I am a man of many passions. They swirl around me, a fiery spark flowing through my energy like a whirlwind. Curiosity and interests abound while creativity flourishes even in the darkest of times.

For me it is passion that drives everything I do from the moment’s first spark of interest to the glimmering flame of pursuit to the full-blown inferno of commitment.  It is present in my relationships, with my work, in my play, in my spirituality.  It is an integral part of who I am.

Passion is the spark that makes life worth living.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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NatureNature is…

Kind and loving
Harsh and cruel
She nurtures
She punishes
She embraces
She grieves
Nature feeds the snake
the precious eggs of the unwary
And stands guard
over the helpless
as they nap in the grass

The vastness of nature and the myriad of its facets is breathtaking and awe inspiring.  It encompasses not just the earth or the trees that I connect to so strongly, not just the oceans and rivers and seas, not just the sky and clouds.   She is not merely the sunsets and sunrises, not merely the storms and quakes.

She is all of these things.  She is vicious and she is sweet, beautiful and horrible. Nor is she only a “she”… or a “he”.

Nature is vast… immeasurable… and ineffable.

Everything… and so much more.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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buttercupsButtercups…

are like delicate
dollops of sunlight
bobbing in the breeze.
They greet you
with a sunny smile
alongside paths
among the trees.

Buttercups remind me of childhood and walks to and from the bus stop.  In the spring and summer months, they were always there along the side of the road, greeting us not with the brash enthusiasm of the dandelions or the muted hello of blackberry blossoms, but with a cheery bright smile and delicate reach.

They still greet me in the same way now that I’m grown and encounter them more often along forest trails than in overgrown ditches, and still lighten and brighten my soul even on the darkest of days.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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Pagan SpiritualitySpirituality…

Creation
Evolution
Balance
These are the energies
I revere in my practice
and connect to
most strongly
upon my path.

These energies are never more evident than in the rainforests I am most at home within, where life abounds in so many ways, blending with death and a dance of balance and creation.

Every time I visit the forests, I am filled not just with a sense of respect and reverence, but with abject wonder at my surroundings and the constant give and take that balance requires that can be seen and felt in every leaf, root, soil, insect, and creature.

This is my home.  My soul’s breath.  My spirituality.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography