Esperanza

Golden stars and yellow bells glisten in the sunlight. Canary jewels twinkle and sway in the coastal breeze. Butterflies perch  and cling to delicate petals while bumble bees attack the centers packed with pollen. Above tiny heads the azure sky blankets this buzzing community in summer light. 

Fame is a bee.

It has a song

It has a sting

Ah, too, it has a wing.

~Emily Dickinson

Seafood Buffet

It is always an extreme social gathering with these guys. A little talk, a loud squawk, and plenty of attitude... Cacophony rumbling between the waves. Shrill whistles from this end collide with elaborate trills at the other. Ah, the symphony of the sea... An ocean of life is spread out before us, and a tiny community of onlookers awaits. "Dinner, anyone?" They cackle.

"I find myself at the extremity of a long beach. How gladly does the spirit leap forth, and suddenly enlarge its sense of being to the full extent of the broad, blue, sunny deep! A greeting and a homage to the Sea! I descend over its margin, and dip my hand into the wave that meets me, and bathe my brow. That far-resounding roar is the Ocean's voice of welcome. His salt breath brings a blessing along with it."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Water Lily Rainbow

Finally, I found some more colors that just begged to be photographed this week. A virtual rainbow of shades and hues. I visit these special spots often in search of new life emerging from the water. Each flower is unique...special.

"I think that the best kind of change is the change 

that comes from the inside and begins it's way out until 

it emerges on the  outside; 

a change that is born underneath 

then continues and spreads 

until it has reached the surface. 

That's a true change. A powerful change. 

And I have found that while we are emerging, 

changing into something glorious; 

it is actually us becoming who we really are. 

A water lily is born underneath the water, 

inside the soil at the bottom of the river or lake. 

And the water lily has always been a water lily 

for that whole time that it was 

sprouting out of the wet soil, 

reaching up through the dark water towards the sunlight, 

stretching and grasping for the surface; 

where it then buds and blooms on the 

outside in the sunshine. 

It doesn't bud and bloom on the surface 

and the try to reach down below into the soil."

~C. JoyBell C.

Devil's Darning Needles

They dart across the sky effortlessly skimming across the surface of the water. For an instant they come in for a hover landing, and just as quickly they take off in flight.

"Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,

For I would ride with you upon the wind,

Run on the top of the disheveled tide,

And dance upon the mountains like a flame."

~William Butler Yeats

Lotus Blossom

Hundreds of them line the shores...row after row their stalks rise above the green floating islands. Soft yellow petals flutter in the summer breeze. An entire community bustles beneath their shadows.

"As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises 

out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, 

live unsoiled by the world."

~Buddha

Little Fuzzy Blooms

A very tiny little white bloom in the grass. Most people would just step on it and walk on by. Of course I have to try and photograph the small thing. I love the tiny hair like fringe running along each petal.

"Earth laughs in flowers."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hibiscus Blooms

Hibiscus blooms in red and orange. Delicate fingers reaching out as the sunlight brushes across their petals. Sometimes they shine and sometimes they glow. 

"Flowers whisper "Beauty!' to the world, 

even as they fade, wilt, and fall."

~Dr. Sun Wolf