Sunday, November 16, 2014

Release...

  I've been driving by a field of milkweed for weeks.  I watched them grow and the pods ripen and mature.   Then one day they burst open.  The beautiful white fluff, each one carrying just a single seed, was released to its fate...carried far and wide by the wind.

   Most of these seeds will blow around and never find the right spot to land and generate a new milkweed plant but that fact doesn't seem to dampen their enthusiasm.  As a child, my friends and I delighted in shaking the pods and setting the fluff flying in the breeze...a small act of liberation on our part.

   Hard to believe something so lovely and gentle could come out of those homely, withered pods but therein lies the message.  The beauty in each of us means nothing until it is released and sent flying out into the world.  We do it in a myriad of ways, not the least of which is through the photographs we let loose in the world...tiny acts of beauty lovingly created but then set free. 

    Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.
- Ansel Adams

   

2 comments:

Kim Stevens said...

Oh my goodness, I have a great fondness for these pods, they are like gold. My milkweed has a narrower pod and is smooth and green and then turns slightly greyish. I have been raising monarch butterflies for two summers now, having released over 1000 butterflies and these pods for me represent life. I'm smiling right now, with hope that they will find a place to call home...the monarch depends on it! (what a grand sight)

Patricia Turner said...

These begin green as well. I encourage them to grow along the roads here and tell people to not cut them down or try to get rid of this "weed". You are doing a wonderful thing helping to raise monarchs...they need all the help they can get. Thank you!