Tag Archives: sky

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zoned

Blogging from A to Z, the letter Z.

Virtues and views and changes in the definition of feelings over time.

Yesterday we hiked from North Beach towards Cape George and walked 2/3 of the way. My phone welcomed me to Canada! We were not in Canada, but I think the Vancouver Island cell towers took over.

We were paralleled by a sailboat race. The very low tide was at 1:00 pm, so there were other hikers, picking up the beach glass. I found my first marble! There was a marble factory and you can still find the marbles, some perfect, on glass beach. I gave mine to my friend and then he found a cat’s eye and gave it to me.

The sailboats were going with the tide with the wind behind them and spinnakers up! Not in my photograph, at that point they were dipping south of Protection Island. We started back a little before 1:00 and watched the tide turn. The sailboats returned as well.

What does zoned mean to you? The sailboats were in the zone, with the wind behind and the tide helping. A long race and beautiful…..and this is my last letter for the A to Z.

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ugly

The letter U in virtues and views.

U for ugly.

Is ugly a feeling? Have you felt ugly? Is that a virtue or a vice? Why? If vanity is a vice, then is feeling ugly a virtue? Is beauty virtuous and ugliness the opposite, an indication of evil?

From Dictionary.com: ugly

adjective, uglier, ugliest.
1. very unattractive or unpleasant to look at; offensive to the sense of beauty; displeasing in appearance.
2. disagreeable; unpleasant; objectionable:
ugly tricks; ugly discords.
3. morally revolting:
ugly crime.
4. threatening trouble or danger:
ugly symptoms.
5. mean; hostile; quarrelsome:
an ugly mood; an ugly frame of mind.
6. (especially of natural phenomena) unpleasant or dangerous:
ugly weather; an ugly sea.

I wrote the following poem before 2009, when I was thinking that there are people that I think are just beautiful, but it has nothing to do with surface beauty. It has to do with love and trust. The makeup books in the poem are Face Forward and Making Faces, by Kevin Aucion.

Beauty

Beauty is not on the surface in people

People that I love are beautiful to me
They shine
It doesn’t matter how they look
In fact, scars make them more real
More human
Intimacy is knowing what this scar is from
And that
Knowing their stories
That they trust me to tell me
People that I love are beautiful

I have been wearing makeup
I never cared before really
Until a book by an artist
Showed me his vision
The beauty that he sees in everyone
I call it my paint by numbers makeup book
Because he is a true artist
Who believes that art is for everyone
And so he includes instructions for each picture
So that I too can dabble in his art

I will wear makeup at my family summer lake
I do not think my family will approve
Nor do I think they will understand
They may comment
I will say that I am trying to catch a new man
This will confirm their disapproval
I will break the rules by wearing makeup
Which is exactly the point
But I am also celebrating beauty
The beauty that the Beloved sees
In everyone

 

I took the photograph in 2014 from a train….sometimes we talk about ugly weather, but watching the land and weather change from the train was glorious. I hope you feel beauty in your life.

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temperance

Temperance: for Blogging from A to Z, the letter T. What does temperance mean to you? Do you ever say “I feel temperate.” Do you call someone else temperate? Is it a virtue to you?

Temperance is one of the four Cardinal Virtues which go back to the Greeks, Aristotle and Plato. But it meant self control then, not abstinence from liquor. Self control, self-restraint, moderation…I think we could still value that but our culture of drama and advertising and self-promotion and stardom doesn’t very much.

dictionary.com temperance

noun

1.moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.

2.habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, especially in the use of alcoholic liquors.

3.total abstinence from alcoholic liquors.

But… let’s look at the word origin:

Word Origin and History for temperance

n. mid-14c., “self-restraint, moderation,” from Anglo-French temperaunce (mid-13c.), from Latin temperantia “moderation,” from temperans, present participle of temperare “to moderate” (see temper ). Latin temperantia was used by Cicero to translate Greek sophrosyne “moderation.” In English, temperance was used to render Latin continentia or abstinentia, specifically in reference to drinking alcohol and eating; hence by early 1800s it came to mean “abstinence from alcoholic drink.”

Webster 1913 from everything2.com: temperance

1. Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; moderation; as, temperance in eating and drinking; temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth; specifically, moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.

2. Moderation of passion; patience; calmness; sedateness.
[R.] “A gentleman of all temperance.” Shak.

He calmed his wrath with goodly temperance. Spenser.

3. State with regard to heat or cold; temperature.
[Obs.] “Tender and delicate temperance.” Shak.

Temperance society, an association formed for the purpose of diminishing or stopping the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage.
___________________

I want to take words back and use them again and expand them back to previous meanings. Why is Webster 1913 more elaborate and subtle in definitions than Dictionary.com? Have you used the word temperate? Try it today…I will be temperate in my emotions, temperate in eating, temperate when driving…what will you be temperate about today?

I took the photograph from Marrowstone Island… the colors used to paint the sky are not temperate at all, are they?

 

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shy

This is for Virtues and views, Blogging from A to Z, the letter S.

There is more than one feeling that the fog could raise: shy, sneaky, subtle, sleepy. Scary if I am in a sailboat and the fog slides off Marrowstone Island and reaches fingers towards my boat. If I am smart, I am prepared with charts and radio and GPS and radar and I know that the ferry comes through and I will stay out of it’s way.

From dictionary.com: shy.

1. bashful; retiring.

2. easily frightened away; timid.

3.suspicious; distrustful:
I am a bit shy of that sort of person.

4. reluctant; wary.

5. deficient: shy of funds.

6. scant; short of a full amount or number:
still a few dollars shy of our goal; an inch shy of being six feet.

7.(in poker) indebted to the pot.

Yet these all seem negative. Can’t shy be a positive feeling? From everything2.com and Webster 1913:

The embarrassed look of shy distress
And maidenly shamefacedness.
Wordsworth.

That isn’t what I want either, that women should be shy and retiring.

No, I am thinking of the shy delight and mystery of the fog lying over Marrowstone Island while it’s clear on the water. And wondering shyly if the fog will expand as the tendrils reach down to the water… or will it dissipate slowly to a bright clear sunny day?

My shy and secret delight at the beauty of the world.

 

 

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quiet

Blogging from A to Z, the letter Q.

When do you feel quiet?

I feel quiet walking in the woods or on the beach. There is a path through the woods two blocks from me. It is only one block long. But my heart immediately quiets when I go there, even for just that block. Last time I walked though it, a young wild rabbit froze to hide. He was right by the path and perfectly visible. I stopped and waited a little and then walked forward. He panicked when I got close and dived for the briars.

My yard quiets my heart: trees and flowers. (Except when I notice that I should mow again.) The sky, the clouds, the stars all quiet me.

Yesterday a friend asks, “Do you think life is hard?”

“Yes,” I say, “I think it’s often hard but beautiful too.”

The photograph is from Deception Pass, about a month ago. Moss and rocks quiet my heart too.

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nasty

For the Blogging from A to Z, my theme is Virtues and views: two lists of seven virtues, but my goal is to write about emotions. Could feeling nasty ever be a virtue?

Have you ever felt nasty? Have you called someone else a nasty person? Have you ever felt that you behaved in a nasty way? And what did you mean by nasty?

Again, here are definitions from Dictionary.com and from Webster 1913. The definition changes over time.

Webster 1913 from https://everything2.com/title/Nasty

Nas”ty (?), a. [Compar. Nastier (); superl. Nastiest.] [For older nasky; cf. dial. Sw. naskug, nasket.]

1. Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous.

2. Hence, loosely: Offensive; disagreeable; unpropitious; wet; drizzling; as, a nasty rain, day, sky.

3. Characterized by obcenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy.

Syn. — Nasty, Filthy, Foul, Dirty. Anything nasty is usually wet or damp as well as filthy or dirty, and disgusts by its stickness or odor; but filthy and foul imply that a thing is filled or covered with offensive matter, while dirty describes it as defiled or sullied with dirt of any kind; as, filthy clothing, foul vapors, etc.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nasty

adjective, nastier, nastiest.
1. physically filthy; disgustingly unclean:
a nasty pigsty of a room.
2. offensive to taste or smell; nauseating.
3. offensive; objectionable:
a nasty habit.
4. vicious, spiteful, or ugly:
a nasty dog; a nasty rumor.
5. bad or hard to deal with, encounter, undergo, etc.; dangerous; serious:
a nasty cut; a nasty accident.
6. very unpleasant or disagreeable:
nasty weather.
7. morally filthy; obscene; indecent:
a nasty word.

noun, plural nasties.
9. Informal. a nasty person or thing.

I took the photograph in the evening on the beach, with a gorgeous front and the mountains taking turns being lit by the evening. Is the rain nasty weather or is it the spring coming and bringing flowers? Do you celebrate “nasty” weather? Some days I do….