6:36 AM MT in the Rockies - I'm writing from my favorite covered bench looking from the stove fire to the deck to the back side mountain view from the dining window. Finches are beginning to arrive at the feeders. There's 3" of snow on the deck, lined in angles as snow seeped through the board breaks. Nope, that's not the photo pictured. That is from a warm spring day in Oklahoma. A completely different life from a wonderful past. A decade ago from this current life perspective. And that is not what caused fitful sleep and the 4 AM awakening. Thankful for the Insight Timer App -- Meditation is good when sleep is evasive.

Ahhhh, brilliant preparation in early March, I ordered 10# of Peruvian coffee from Ampersand in Boulder. It is delicious. A vice, I realize, as the hot blue corn chips I ate yesterday as my dinner. Food in the time of Covid-19 has been a yo-yo between healthy and comfort. No doubt, I am über fortunate. I have plenty and it's what I choose. Gratitude is beyond my feelings most minutes. Today, though groggy, there is gratitude.
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Last evening's World THANK YOU by Lady Gaga - the Jimmys - Kimmel & Fallon - and so many world entertainers, experts, leaders and more - it was beautiful.. Lizzo's A CHANGE IS GONNA COME blew me away and Billie EIlish's & Phineas' SUNNY took me to summer camp in Oklahoma City in the 60s -- SUNNY was the song of that summer. Gratitude for music, for talent, for inspired writing, for musicians.

FaceTIme with my son is always like the winning shot at the end of a basketball game, for me. Yesterday he was Scruffy-esque [Scooby Doo's Shaggy owner]. We laughed a bit. Cambridge, Massachusetts was having a bit of snowy weather, too. He and his lovely partner were off to get groceries. We're all boycotting Whole Foods for the horrific lack of support for their employees. Bezos is raking in more money than perhaps the USA has access to these days - yet he fires ppl who protest, will not give health care insurance and - I recently learned - is not allowing employees to say they have Covid-19. This soon to be a NYT article.

Ranting... my bad.

A BBC headline today is something like TERROR COMES TO OKLAHOMA CITY. Today is the anniversary of the Murrah Building Bombing that killed nearly everyone inside the building. Gosh, that was a long community healing process. There are likely still suicides and deaths as a result of that horrific morning.. It's slow motion in my mind - I'm at a podium at OCPS admin building about to address all the principles, there are perhaps 200 in the auditorium. I'm speaking - the floor rocks a bit and dust begins to come down from the ceiling. We immediately adjourn and move toward televisions. We were 1.7 miles from the explosion.

That fall, or maybe spring, the Metropolitan Library System had it's first LITERARY VOICES. It was an evening with author, Dave Barry. I believe it was the first time a lot of us had laughed since 4/19 @
9:02 AM CST. And we guffawed. This time of Pandemic is reminiscent of that time of disbelief, horror and sorrow. Because we've survived before, we -- as a world of people -- will survive again.

Namaste

Welcome back to me. I've 1000s of photographs and haven't visited here since 2015 or so. Life has been volatile and adaptive from so many angles. I'm now a resident of Colorado, USA! Officially, as I just completed the census. A children's book of emotional exploration was created by me -- SEA ME SEE ME. There's also a website, albeit a neglected one. The book began with an exploration of my underwater photography and the light-bulb moment of anthropomorphism as a non-threatening teaching tool. This woodpecker reinforces this idea. Check out the features of his face; it's hard to not assume he was irritated and wishing to have the deck to himself to continue his pecking project. It was a good day. Brilliant, sunny Colorado blue skies and it was a day that determined I'd be living here for years to come. If you are still reading, I wish you well during this world pandemic and I'm hopeful you and your loved ones remain healthy both physically and emotionally. Be well and be courageous.

Awakened before dawn. Birds do greet the first sign of light, quietly, reverently. Hiked Chapel at the Cross on Chapel Road from 8 until 1145 AM. It was a qigong / yoga / meditation opportunity with Blair and a mother/daughter from New Jersey. Yogi Blair as he is referred on TravelAdvisor with 5 stars from all who have hiked with him, including me. A very good soul.

Qigong is always fun to revisit. My practice alone is very limited. Perhaps in Santa Fe I'll locate Jamie of the Bagua tradition and learn if he has a group.

Red strands from these blooms captivated me. The flower was on a large shrubby tree. Exceeded my 5'7". And they weren't tenuous threads so much as they were red bursts. Antennae to the sky!

Ciao and my the vortex of good find you.

IPHOTO I took when I arrived here last Wednesday. As I've been in a conference [see missfoundation.org] since Thursday this is it for the photography. It's beautiful in ways that words fail to describe. This morning the scent of a giant bush with yellow blooms was potent and hypnotic. No clue what it was. I picked a sprig for the person sitting near me.

Be well.

An ÜBER successful golf tournament funding scholarships for 3 deserving students to attend Oklahoma State University and Arizona State University was played on Saturday, April 11. This was the 5th! So difficult to really, truly comprehend that Todd has been physically missing from our lives since 2010. We all know she's never, ever missing from our thoughts or surroundings. And her influence is observable in each and every one of the board members, volunteers and those who participate in all things MTBFoundation.

As this is my first time to attend, my first time back since 2010??? it has all been moving, cathartic and a tad sad. Unconditional love is not a well spring in most of our lives, but Todd delivered that to each of us. So we still grieve her loss as we celebrate her life. The power of one is most evident in her life and each of our lives as we commit to be Todd-like, the Benson effect.

Happiness is thick whenever all of you gather, at least that has been my experience. I'm humbled to get to be among you and to be accepted on my occasional sojourns West to this beautiful desert that is your home. You are always welcome wherever I've landed - yet accommodations could be quaint.

Follow me here on zaplife if you'd like. I'll post the remainder of the pictures perhaps before the end of the month.

If there's one you want delivered via email, contact me and feel free to share this site.

Hugs, love and big shine to all of you.

Overcast skies this first day of Spring in southeast Oklahoma near the Texas border. There was an orchestra of rain all night long. A lullaby of soothing proportions that only nature can deliver. Though I appreciate music tremendously, my talent lies in the listening to it, and last night I was imagining a brilliant composer hearing the night sounds, the variations of rain rhythm, the occasional thunder and the different surface sounds as a full symphony. At that point I wondered if that is the influence of the composers; what they hear day in and day out.

Music is a passion and though there's no photo for it it's a means to Spring into life.

Whew. Took me a minute to regain a sense of place after the 14+ hour drive. No timer was used but the book on tape ran out 40 miles from my destination, making it a grueling little, tiny piece of my road trip. Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon was the book. Excruciating in many ways, the topic neurosurgery to correct autism.

As you see, I've skipped from one beautiful setting to another. Delighting me most were the daffodils. These were planted from pots I bought for myself last year. Once the blooms were gone I stored them then planted them in May. And here they bloom. Especially beautiful is the lican (sp?) on the fallen limbs. A seafoam green fungus I believe. Unsure of the spelling as never had the occasion to spell it.

No clue how long I'll be at the wonderful home of my friend. Was so happy to see the crescent moon greeting me this morning. And aren't the sunrise reflections in the water fun?!

I was reading about joy the other day and how seldom people experience it. Joy is not created by anyone, anything, it just occurs; like the joy I felt when I saw the daffodils had lived. Immediate, visceral. And it's available at every moment once receiving and openness has become your nature. Living there is key.

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day. May your pot of gold be filled with love, smiles, happiness and friendship.

Mystical moon peeking behind subdued colors of the reflecting sunrise. When the moon was higher the silver reflection on the water was amazing. A pic for another time.

Tomorrow I leave this magical shore line for a land locked shoreline. Moon set there will be hidden by a forest. Yet, there will be the forest!

Joy will continue to occur in the pureness of moments. I welcome the experience with the expectation that my eyes and my heart are kept open to all that is.

Morning on the beach and the clarity. colors and beach formations are a combination seldom experienced.

There's a call for entries for a Small Art Show in the Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City. Deadline this Friday. I will enter photographs and an acrylic painting. It will be my first entry and I'm unsure of the best approach: three very different pieces, three pieces with a theme, the three pieces most likely to be studied for their beauty or creativity or unique inspiration.

Yes, it's new terrain but the timing is perfect. Arizona may be my home away the week of the show. Guest volunteer photographer will be my role at the 2015 Mary Todd Benson Foundation Golf Tournament in Tempe. Following that there's the Compassionate Bereavement Care® Certification course in Sedona and extra days will be spent there seeking a vortex or two and photographing the beauty there.

My dear friend DeeAnn commented one day, "We'll never make a living with the photography but that doesn't make it less fun." Well, she said something that I'm choosing to remember like that. But it is a part of living, observing beauty in my mind and capturing what provokes me to awe through a lens.

Wild flowers to charm.

Endearing the way the less traditional daisy seems so emphatic and the perfectly formed daisy seems aloof. Yet these two are buds. [pun intended]

Hoping it's okay to share the lines to this beautiful tune John Lennon penned. It's been haunting me for weeks. Lines meandering through my thoughts as I walk, drive, watch a movie. And I've not heard it this year.

A musical "billboard" as transitions occur.

In My Life
John Lennon, Paul McCartney


There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

In my life I love you more