Time to expect the unexpected

“There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected:
the expected for which one has refused to prepare.”
Mary Renault

“A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes”
Mark Twain

(premature fallen acorns / Troup Co. Ga / Julie Cook / 2015)

This morning finds us turning the page once more, summoning forth yet another day and another month.
September has rather unceremoniously arrived.
No fanfare.
No gala.
No festive celebration.

Yet September, this 9th month out of 12, is truly a month of the unexpected,
the unpredictable, the unassuming. . .and albeit a bit of the unappreciated.

Obviously no one has told the tired old thermometer that Fall is all but a few short weeks away.
The mercury continues to hover at 90 as the humidity continues to cling to our very being like a sticky, hot, wet towel. . .yet the shift has secretly begun. . .
We sense ourselves sliding into something different, something changing
and something slightly new.

We are creatures of the season you and I.
Delightfully craving the ever changing and ever new which can only be found in the trading of one season for another.

We both yearn and long for what the coming change has in store for us.
We are as giddy as children on a bright Christmas morn as we’ve anxiously waited—waited to finally feast our eyes on what lies under the tree—
Our time has finally drawn nigh.

We find ourselves shifting gears as our likes and dislikes begin, once again, to ebb and flow.
Our taste palettes are now craving the savory as our surrounding palette will soon shift to warmer tones yet cooler nights and crisper days.

Our brains are screaming that the time is here yet the world arounds us seems to be stuck in place. It’s as if life is in slow motion as it appears Mother Nature may need a gentle nudge reminding her that we have had our fill of heat and humidity, bugs and pests.
Like a hungry child anxiously anticipating the hearty simmering fare on the stove, we hold our arms outwardly stretched ready to embrace cooler, crisper, softer.

Will today be the day?
Will it be a day which still thinks of itself as a child of the Summer
or. . .
will it be a day of change. . .
refreshingly clear, cool and full of the unexpected. . .

Embrace

“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

(the lingering colors of fall / Julie Cook / 2014)

Flavors of the season,
orange sherbet
lemon custard
and
cinnamon–
envelop us dripping lusciously down trees like ice-cream from a cone on a warm sunny afternoon.
Dazzling displays of color,
tantalize
tempt
and
tease–
whetting appetites and visual tastebuds.
The warm yet vibrant hues of the Master Artist’s palette sweeps across the season’s canvas as a jewel toned curtain descends on yet another delicious November day.

Life’s muted tones

(the fading blooms of a hydrangea / Julie Cook / 2014)

“Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this – when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters – when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day – and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!”
Lewis Carroll
from An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves “Alice”

an advent of color

Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.
Paul Klee

(the first signs of spring as seen on the forest floor / Julie Cook / 2014)

As tightly wound fists rubbed sleepy bleary eyes
The senses slumbered for. . .has it been 3 or 4 months?
A cold world lay splayed open, frozen over and bathed in monochromatic tones

White, grey, brown, with every shade in between.
Heads and faces, turned downward, stare blankly at the grey mush underfoot
As all senses lack stimulation.

On a tired grey morning an amazing event transpired
As heavy faces remained downcast, with blank eyes staring emptily at the dead brown leaves,
A tiny piece of life fell from a tree.
What is this new strange object?

What is the word for this new phenomenon, we nervously ask.
Have we forgotten the words which represent this new oddity?
Could the word perhaps be “color?”
Is it red?
Or is it green?
Maybe it is blue?
Delightful words, words such as “bright,” “vibrant,” “saturation”. . .?

The reality of this presumed mirage, observers muse. . .
. . .merely the change of seasons.

The timely new word is Spring!
Marvelously bright and delightfully colorful Spring!
The scales have fallen from our weary bleary eyes and we are, joyously. . .
Amazed!!!

“Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul.”
― Wassily Kandinsky,

Pretty in Pink

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.”
Audrey Hepburn

(Beautiful pink bloom, San Antonio, Texas / Julie Cook / 2014)

Vibrant pink complimenting a lapis lazuli blue sky.
Accents of brown and grey juxtapose a myriad of bursting blooms
For a brief nano moment, which is all that the eye needs in order to swill and mix a fresh blend of pigments, I smile.

Gone is the grey and dirty white of cold.
No more of the monochromatic tones of nothingness.
Clouds scatter revealing pure saturation
The color overload is welcomed and necessary
Eyes must adjust from the world which has been void of tints and shades to the current breathy palate of a spectrum overload

Are not the birds louder?
Is not the air now sweet?
Sun pulls me from the shadows
Canopies of tiny vibrant chartreuse budding leaves dance overhead

Change is in the air.
Electric energy stirs the Earth’s inhabitants
We are all now on the move.
Spring is calling
Can you come out to play?
It beckons.
And I must answer.