It was another hot and steamy day here in Florida. While some folks were doing barbeques and getting ready for fireworks, I was just following my daily routine of gathering dishes, washing them and refilling them for the wildlife that comes to my back yard.
While possums and squirrels are the main beneficiaries of my efforts, I also cut up several slices of bread and throw them across the yard for whatever birds might be hungry or just interested in a fly-thru fast food place.
As always, there was an assortment of colorful characters stopping by to help themselves and the two that took the cake for me were the Cardinal and the Blue Jay. All birds are beautiful, in my opinion, but these two stand out in this environment because their coloring stops them from fitting in.
It is difficult to hide from predators in a green environment when you are red or blue.
There was also the non-feathered bread-eaters like squirrels but they tended to blend in just fine, only given away by their movement. And all of this was under the watchful eye of Lincoln. She always looks so serious in my pics.
Anyway, despite the fading light and the wet late-afternoon conditions, I managed to get a few nice pics and they are at the end of the blog if you care to check them out. I hope you enjoy!
The blog thought very much revolved around the location for these pictures being my own back yard.
There was no trail involved (other than the trail of breadcrumbs), no drive to an exotic location, no stepping over alligators. And sometimes, that is exactly what we need to understand.
Sometimes the greener grass is on our side.
There is something about our psyche that makes us imagine that everywhere else is better than where we are. We chase distant clouds and listen carefully to foreign accents, and crave whatever they tell us is Europe’s Favorite.
Funny thing is in Europe they advertise the same shit telling them it is America’s Favorite.
It would be easy to blame marketing or advertising. But the truth goes deeper than that. It goes to our own level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with wherever we are in life.
If a person is inherently happy, they don’t need to wish they were somewhere else.
We are taught early in life to want more or better and while that can be a key ingredient in people driving themselves forward in pursuit of life goals, we have to be very careful not to undervalue where we are now in life.
“I can’t get no satisfaction” is more than just a Rolling Stones song. It can be a very rsad reality for many people that just don’t appreciate where they are, who they are with, what they are doing … right now.
“Live the moment” is a philosophy that is very important.
The pursuit of happiness is a nice idea but very often, we don’t need to pursue anything. We just need to appreciate it.
… just a thought!
