photography

Gideon’s Challenge

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Lilac BudsQuality Time…

It’s like
drops of water
in a bucket.
A minute here,
an hour there,
each moment
adding to another
and another.
Over time
we build a life
together
overflowing
with love.

Quality time doesn’t always come in large chunks of hours on end spent together. In fact, it rarely ever comes in that form. Instead, the truth about love is that quality time comes a little bit at a time, a moment here and a few seconds there, an hour here and a few minutes there.  This is how love develops.  This is how love grows.  This is how you fill a life to the brim with love. You sprinkle it throughout until love eventually becomes the whole of it.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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Cladonia gracilis – Black Foot CladoniaPhysical Touch…

Fingertips
and breath through lips
you skim against skin
and goosebumps rise.
Awake
Aware
with bated breath
I wait.

More.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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IMG_5880Bond…

Attached.
Connected,
we ride the waves,
floating in the depths,
crashing on the shore,
caught between
rock and stone
chipped and broken.
Even then,
together
for always,
until dust we become
and beyond.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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SelfSelf…

Rough and ragged.
Flesh once smooth
now
scored and scarred.
Damaged walls protect
inner softness.
What lies within
concealed.
Supportive and nurturing
and yet
thick walls hide
what lies beneath.

Like the tree I have thick walls, although unlike the tree, as I age those walls become thinner. You chip away at them again and again, tirelessly exposing the meaty softness of tender wood beneath. And yet, there is always more bark… more walls to work through.  The bark of this fir tree marks a part of my ‘self’ that I strive to defeat… strive to find balance with. Each year we are together, I get a little bit closer to finding that balance between damaged mess and flawed perfection.  Each year, you help me find another step along that path.

Thank you.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

 

 

Gideon’s Challenge

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HomeHome…

Hidden deep
swirled within
a bit of spark
has found its home.
Quiet and sweet,
wild but shy
it lingers
trusting
but not alone.
A piece of nature,
a home to one
entrusted
to me.

I can sense the energy of what lives within this broken shell, a little spark glimmering in the dark, hidden beneath the shell.  It lives in my home, invited and cared for, carefully loved and given a spot all its own.  Perhaps some day it will feel safe enough to peek out and say hello.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Gideon’s Challenge

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SupportSupport…

I can’t see me
lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me,
baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life
Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice,
it had to be
The only one for me is you,
and you for me
So happy together

Okay, so I didn’t write today’s little poem.  They’re actually from the song “Happy Together” by The Turtles. But…. it was just so perfect for the picture.

The thing is? You are my support… and I’m yours.  Just like the branch above and organisms that make their life upon it.  Some might classify our relationship as co-dependent, but I don’t see it that way.  I see it as a perfect balance of support reinforced with the snug comfort of love added in.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography