Independence Day Week: leaves, bees, shattered glass

July 1
As summer settles into its lush, green phase, I'm taking a closer look at the beautiful formations of leaves. This one swirls into a pinpoint of darkness, I wonder what lies beyond in there, what knowledge? What gravity or mysterious force pulls these swirls to a single, circular, unifying point?

July 1

A little further along my walk today, I passed a tree that was dropping what looked like flower nests. As I took this picture, several more perfectly formed flower nests plopped on the ground with a thud, thud. It was if the tree's twigs were rigged with springs for these flowers were, literally, before my eyes, bungee-jumping off the branches and flinging themselves to the ground. I'd never seen anything like it.

July 2
Today, I once again looked closely at leaf patterns. These tightly woven ones remind me of those strings of gimp I used to braid into necklaces and bracelets as a girl. Art from nature, of course.

July 3
Trying to get one decent picture of a bumble bee at work turned into a comedic event. I clicked and deleted many failed shots as these fellas move constantly, which made me wonder what keeps them going? Solar panels tucked into their yellow jacket cells? They are not eating and snacking all day, they are flying, lifting off, landing, moving, gathering, searching. Even this shot has a tiny blur as I only had one second at most to get a still moment. I have new respect for these amazing beings.This one, and dozens more, were harvesting this fully blooming hydrangea bush.

Looking into smaller worlds, I found this flowering, purple weed in the grasses. Perspectives around what is small, smaller and tiny become big, bigger and giant within the context that measures it. The question is: what's our ability to see into these dimensions, large or small? What do you think?  

This striped bloom, for instance, with its five definitive sluices that flow to the center--other flowers organize themselves around the number 6 or 4 or 3. Looking closer, these petal veins aren't so different than our fingerprints, a good reminder that we all connect in surprising ways.

July 4th - My short essay is published in The Huffington Post: Independence Day: Facing Fears of Violence.  Here's a link to it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-keener/independence-day-facing-f_b_3546678.html  Hope you'll take a look and let me know your thoughts.

Charles River

My floppy statue of liberty crown

Field surrounding the hatch shell, where the Pops play and guests sing

July 6: At 3 a.m. last night, a body-shattering explosion startled and scared us out of sleep. My husband, son and I gathered in the dark to assess what it was? Silence followed, then we heard clinking, like rain, or hail on the porch floor. We went out to look. Somehow, the glass table top had spontaneously imploded, crashing into thousands of pebble-sized pieces on the deck. Relieved that it wasn't a prankster throwing a rock or anything sinister, we eventually went back to sleep. The next morning, we guessed the glass top probably had a small fissure. The excessive heat caused it to expand against the metal frame containing it, until the glass smashed inward. I swept up the remains and put it in a paper grocery bag. 

And, that, my friends, is how my week wrapped up.-- Shattered glass, which I always take to mean some kind of tension-building karma has been released. During this week in the world at large, we've had a tragic plane and train crash, and eruptions in Egypt. The list goes on, doesn't it. But, life goes on, too.