first morning light

 

water lilies in first morning light

Pearl City, Hawaii U.S.A.

photo: bruce behnke 2021

(c) all rights reserved

Caring

 

People don't care how much you know

 until they know how much you care.

~Theodore Roosevelt

Photo: Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, U.S.A.

(c) 2014 bruce behnke

once in a lifetime opportunity

 

I rake up the Eucalyptus leaves in my yard every morning so the wind doesn't blow them into my fish pond.  But this morning my raking meditation was interrupted by the thought that these individual bits of nature will never be seen or appreciated again. They're presenting a once in a lifetime opportunity.   So, here's one more opportunity for them, and you.

photo: Pearl City, Hawaii U.S.A.

Bruce Behnke 2021

my pond

 

fish in my pond

Hawaii

2021

The present

 

The present... is a gift.

Pearl City, Hawaii

photo: bruce behnke 2021

Happy Lunar New Year 新年快樂！

Happy new year!

新年快樂！

May this year of the Ox bring health, happiness and joy to all of you!

 祝您身體健康，幸福快樂。

Tianmu Sanyu Temple

三玉宮

Taipei, Taiwan

台北，台灣

photo: (c) Bruce Behnke, April, 2016

something better

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

~Mary Oliver

verse from Sleeping In The Forest

© 1978 by Mary Oliver

photo: Mt. Horaiji, Aichi Prefecture, Japan 

© 2019 bruce behnke