Just Going Along Is Going Nowhere ~ Wisdom From Our Garden/Temple

 

Wisdom From Our Garden/Temple

Before the municipality put in streetlights, and we started to get neighbors, our backyard was terrifyingly dark. One clear moonless night, we wandered out to enjoy the night sky: 

What do you think that little cotton ball is? I don't know, but maybe I can find something on the web. I think it's M-42, the Orion Nebula. Here, check it out with the binoculars. 

That was the beginning of our and then my amateur astronomy. Naked eyes, binoculars, a 4" reflector and finally an 8" Lightbridge. M'lady would be working on her doctoral, and I'd be seeking out the glories of the universe. When I would find something spectacular, I'd call M'Lady out, and we'd share it together. That is, we'd share it until I started seeking out the extremely dim glories of the universe. That required some rather special seeing techniques that M'Lady didn't develop. 

Small Sagittarius Star Cloud as seen from our backyard. Shot with A Sony Alpha a68, Tamron 90mm macro lens

Later my back started to give me pain and hauling around an 8" Lighbridge was not a good idea. So, M'Lady bought me a S4200 Fujifilm bridge camera. I would spend hours wandering around our garden/temple learning how to use the camera and slowly but surely realizing that outer and inner space are both places of awesome beauty. And, that if I would only take the time to learn how to see into the garden/temple, the wonder I had felt peering through the Lightbridge would be matched by the wonder of looking through the Fujifilm. 

Grasshopper

Everything has its season. There is a week or two every year when the above grasshopper is in abundance. Over time, I learned how to see these wee fellows, and I learned how to use my S4200 to its limits. 

I have found that the same lesson applies to the rest of my life. The deeper I look, the more I see and the better my life becomes. Just something to think about.

Brian