#hellospringcbc

🌸 #hellospringcbc #ottcity #myottawa . There are things that I find difficult to photograph. Red or bright fushia flowers is definitely one of those things. There is something about how the digital image is captured that always looks artificial and harsh ... and it is difficult to fix. . Life is hard right now. I'm frequently overwhelmed and feel like I'm gasping for air ... I'm treading water and trying to keep my head above the waves ... . One of the things I've learned that helps is taking something that challenges me in a small way. A red photograph ... a corner in my closet ... a recipe ... a page in my journal ... . Working through these small things gives me a tiny boost of confidence and courage. It helps when I need to go out into the world and do those big, hard thing that are always waiting for me ... . Facing my fears makes them grow smaller and less obnoxious. When I nurture those things that give me hope and joy ... when I ignore that judgey inner critic and learn to love my particular way of seeing ... then grace and goodness can take root. Through this process I have learned how I can bloom in beautiful ways. Each photograph I take has a story ... the one behind this bright peony is a story about courage and starting where you are ... #sharingwhatinspiresme . #HappyFriday #TGIF _________ "We want life to be as dazzling and painless as possible. Life, on the other hand, has a way of humbling us, and heartbreak is built into its agreement with the world. We’re young, until we’re not. We’re healthy, until we’re not. We’re with those we love, until we’re not. Life’s beauty is inseparable from its fragility. One of the greatest human triumphs is to choose to make room in our hearts for both the joy and the pain, and to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This means seeing feelings not as being “good” or “bad” but as just “being.”" — Susan David . . . . . #Peonies #flowerphotography #flowersofinstagram #flowerphoto #flowerstagram #flowerlovers #flowers #flowermagic #naturephotography #sharebeauty #peony #ottawa (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBo5CQWpMam/?igshid=1mgsia01pe2pl

🚶🏽‍♀️#hellospringcbc #myottawa #ottcity . Ontario has entered into Stage 2 of reopening. You can do more things ... the restrictions are less severe ... . #Day92 of #CovidCoping comes with a deeply felt awareness of how #COVID19 exposed our deepest vulnerabilities in visceral and often painful ways. The question is what do we do with this new understanding ... as we move slowly towards reopening? . Do we now scurry back to our old ways ... where it was easy to forget ... pretend that we don't know what we know ... reverting back to old habits ... the familiar ... the short-sighted and shallow ways we like to be ... and to simply carry-on as if nothing ever happened? . Or do we use this moment and everything we have gone through to reimagine a future that is better? A way to rise from this place that showed us there are cracks and where all the broken places are ... so that we can be stronger and more resilient? Will this emerging new chapter become the chrysalis that reinvents "normal" to include the virtues of courage and compassion ... truth and goodness ... and that benefits from the wisdom gained through hardship? The stark and harsh knowing of all the things that we faced #alonetogether ... including the undeniable "inter-related structure of reality"? That which connect us ... to each other ... to the world and to all things. The fullness of knowing that "whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly" (Martin Luther King Jr.). And a sincere commitment heal and love our way into wholeness ... that is grounded in an invincible hope for better days ahead ... . Which reality are we going to choose? ________ "The Uses For Sorrow: Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." — Mary Oliver . . . . . . . . #ottawa #exploreottawa #flowersofinstagram #flowerphotography #flowers #naturephotography #naturelovers #shareyourweather #OutWalking #comewalkwithme #forest #forestphotography #clover (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBYC9HKpHxb/?igshid=jlhvw3cf3he3

🌼 #hellospringcbc #myottawa #ottcity . I still can't talk about the murder of #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter protests. For anyone who has experienced suffocating, debilitating racism ... everything feels really real and raw right mow. This has opened the world's eyes ... but in ways that are different ... depending on whether you see "Them" or "Me" on your TV screen. . There is a difference ... . And also disappointing to still come across people online that still don't "get it" ... what is it going to take for them to see that racism is very real? This isn't a partisan issue (left or liberal) and has nothing to do with patriotism ... instead it has everything to do with the plethora of comments that demonstrate the line they see between "them" and "me" ... misguided souls who think they can whitesplain and police rage ... and then there is the deafening silence of the rest ... and their implied complicity and/or indifference. Its sad really ... . I know this will change me (it already has). But not in ways I expected. After this, I think ignorance is going to be harder to tolerate ... there are no more excuses really? The truth is raging and loud? You can't miss it? . So you know ... all those people who don't think they are racist because they have black "friends" ... then go ahead and vote for blatantly racist politicians because ... you know ... black people don't need to be represented by their own government ... or don't need to feel safe in our own communities ... they make their flimsy excuses ... because there are "things" that are more important than black lives? Yeah, those people ... . So I guess I am more ranty than I anticipated I would be when I started this. I thought I could get away with posting a pretty picture ... maybe a nice quote ... and call it a day! Guess not ... . #Day87 of #CovidApocalypse #SociallyDistancing (which is probably a good thing) ______ "Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie . . . . #RacismIsReal #SpentTooMuchTimeOnTwitterToday #flowerphotography #flowersofinstagram #flowers #flowerlovers #flowermagic #flower (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMONkfJGo_/?igshid=wqm1v04imgjs

🌸 #hellospringcbc #ottcity #myottawa . "Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing. It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in the people around us. When we listen, we offer with our attention an opportunity for wholeness. Our listening creates sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person. That which has been denied, unloved, devalued by themselves and others. That which is hidden." — Rachel Naomi Remen . . . . . . . . . #lilac #lilacs #purplethings #purpleflowers #flowerphotography #flowersofinstagram #flowerphoto #flowers #flowerstagram #flowerlovers #flowermagic #springflowers #exploreottawa #ottawa #shareyourweather #covidcoping #loveoverfear #BreonnaTaylor (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBF7WeVptiG/?igshid=4tb8n7957xze

🌸 #hellospringcbc #shareyourweather #ottcity #myottawa . "Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness - mine, yours, ours - need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life" — Parker J. Palmer . . . . . . . . . . #lilacs #springflowers #flowers #flowerphotography #flowersofinstagram #flowerphoto #flowerstagram #flowerlovers #flowermagic #exploreottawa #ottawa #loveoverfear #purpleflowers #purplethings (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CA6SHGlJgBm/?igshid=1dbgg18kx6ubt

🌡️ #stayingcool #hellospringcbc #ottcity #myottawa #shareyourweather . It was HOT 🥵 today. So I found a quiet spot by the #OttawaRiver where I could safely #socialdistance ... and spent some time there to cool down ... and it was LOVELY 🥰. I desperately needed reprieve not just from the heat ... but from everything else ... ... a change of scenery ... ...breathing space ... ... feeling the gentle breeze on my skin ... ... my senses alive with beauty ... ... listening to the waves ... ... the blue of sky and the blue of water ... ... finding peace ... ... and realizing how very much I missed it ... . . . . . . . . . . ______ "In times of turmoil and danger, gratitude helps to steady and ground us. It brings us into presence, and our full presence is perhaps the best offering we can make to our world." — Joanna Macy . . . . . . #ottawariver #cats #rescuecats #hotcats #river #summer #exploreottawa #ottawa #ottawaparks #Gratitude #hellosummer #heatwave #river #catsofinstagram #orangecats (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAthXuXp3XM/?igshid=s3b9vdysu2j1

🌡️ #hellospringcbc #ottcity #shareyourweather #myottawa . I remember days like this from my university days in southern Ontario ... when the air becomes soupy with humidity and temperatures soar. . Ottawa is officially experiencing its first heat wave of the summer. I am not particularly thrilled 😥. The air conditioning in my apartment building isn't working and its sweltering inside my apartment. For the first time in nearly 73 days of #sociallydistancing ... staying home isn't the comfortable, safe haven it has been thus far and that makes me anxious. . Working from home is becoming increasingly difficult with a 40C humidex predicted for tomorrow ... and its not possible to work in a coffee shop or public library ... like we used to be able to 😔 ... . But there is a silver lining ... I have been loving my twilight walks ... when the air cools down enough that it's comfort to go outside for fresh air. Walking is an important part of my #covidcoping routine ... and in the twilight hour, light becomes precious and magical. My late evening neighborhood rounds make this #covidpandemic less suffocating ... and it feeds my starving soul with much needed beauty ... #ThisIsHard ____ “If you see a dandelion as a weed, you’ll spray it. If you see it as a flower, you’ll draw it close, turn it this way and that, and become lost in the colossal burst of slender golden petals that spew sunshine into the darkest of souls. And so, how many things have we sprayed that could have illuminated our souls if we would have let them be more than what we let them be?” — Craig D. Lounsbrough . . . . . #dandelion #sunset #ottawasunset #exploreottawa #ottawaweather #ottawa #twilight #dandelions #naturephotography #naturelovers #OutWalking #comewalkwithme #heatwave (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAodewHBDEz/?igshid=10ufsyk9u1h36

🐇 #hellospringcbc #ottcity #myottawa . It is really quite remarkable how different the landscape is here compared to the prairie/mountains that were home for 17-years. Here strolling along the Ottawa River, you are surrounded by an emense cacophony of birdsong - so much louder and robust than in Calgary ... . The spring buds tend to echo what I assume will be their autumn brilliance by turning a coppery-gold before they turn green. And an abundance of garter snakes on the path that slither away as you walk along the river's edge where black turtles bask in the sun on logs and the geese - in pairs - navigate through the ripples. . But perhaps the most remarkable of all are these tiny bunnies ... skittish, lilliputian creatures that somehow survive the deep snow only to emerge each spring ... tentatively ... moving through the forest floor ... and the bright landscape that still feels so strange to me ... and so unfamiliar in its extremes and its exuberance ... in all it's varied seasons ... ______ "I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you're constantly focused on scoring hits against each one another. Yes, we need a robust democracy, but you can be strong, and you can be kind." — Jacinda Ardern . . . #bunnies #rabbit #ottawa #exploreottawa #spring #springinottawa #cuteoverload #ottawaparks #yowparks #wildlifeinthecity #outwalking #comewalkwithme #petrieisland #covidcoping (at Petrie Island) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAlQAAiBJAs/?igshid=1162714yr3yku