Superpowers

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

      - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

 Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.     - Richard Buckminster Fuller

It's happening more and more often.  There's nothing I can do to prevent it.  Sometimes it happens as I am standing in line at the bank or paying for groceries.  (It almost always happens at public events or in public spaces.)  At first I thought it was my imagination - just a trick of the mind; a mistake, perhaps a misunderstanding ? After all, things like this don't happen to ordinary people. 

Wait a minute... who's ordinary???

Funny how we see our selves, isn't it ?  I, myself, am a mass of contradictions!  I am funny but very serious - and not to be taken lightly.  I have a few very rigid viewpoints, but I nearly always give one the benefit of the doubt.  I like socializing and I am interested in people and curious about how others think - yet I spend a great deal of time alone, by choice.  I think of myself as a "good" person who looks for the best in others, and yet has little faith in humanity...  Normal ? ...I suppose... Sane ? ...certainly... But I've never thought of myself as ordinary.  So why should it surprise me that I have developed superpowers...???

Yep.  It's true.  

I know how to become invisible.

Actually - I first became invisible and then I learned how to do it.  The first time, I was sitting in traffic, waiting to pull onto the main road.  Vehicles moved past, sometimes stopping right in front of me, but no one let me merge. No one smiled and waved me in as had always happened in the past. They didn't notice me... they couldn't see me...!  I had disappeared.   The next time it was a shopping trip to Quality Foods.  As I stood waiting to pay for my groceries. the cashier and bagger conversed and joked and rang up my order.  I smiled at one, and then the other; I held out my check - but neither even looked at me.  Without my presence being acknowledged in any way, I found myself back in the parking lot with my cart full of heavy grocery bags.  I was invisible.

The most recent time I disappeared was at my bank branch, located for my convenience in the grocery store lobby.  There were two tellers at their stations but one was on the phone, so a line had formed sort of halfway between the two as customers observed "next person waiting etiquette".  When the teller finished her phone conversation, she looked right through me to the store employee behind me and motioned for him to step up for service.  Wow.  Invisible again!! 

With all this evidence, I have to believe it's true.  And just like the "ordinary" people on that show: Heroes, I plan to step up to the challenge. I will continue to develop and hone my ability to disappear by wearing inauspicious clothing, no makeup and a blank expression  I shall continue to masquerade as just another bland,  unimportant, unassuming, and innocuous middle aged woman.  Those who never look will never see the pretty young woman inside me - the one who is well-read and hip and witty - the one who rescues ladybugs and horses and even tries to dodge butterflies.  They won't know how funny I am, or how kind I can be, or how much love I hold inside.   

They won't suspect that I am anything at all like them.

And little will they know, that I am developing another superpower...  telepathic X-ray vision.  Though they cannot see me, I can see right through them.  As I peer into their self-absorbed and indifferent minds, I plant little seeds... little thoughts... little bits of self'-doubt and self-realization.  I will them to see beyond their biases and assumptions.  I implore them to take stock of themselves and to question their perception of the world around them.  I champion the cause of fresh vision.  

I wish upon them the gifts of empathy and sympathy - for one day they too, will start to disappear.


     ( I posted this seven years ago.  I re-post it shamelessly to let everyone know that though you may catch a glimpse of me know and then, I continue to disappear.)

Detail of "A Singular Path"  mixed media piece by the author of this blog.

 

Old Writings.

Several years back I was on one of the online dating sites.  Yes - even us artists occasionally go even more insane and think we can find true love - or true like - online.  It never worked out for me, but I did enjoy writing on the blog site of this particular dating site.  I wasn't alone.  Somehow a core of really good writers happened to come together there, and though I didn't match up in person, I found many friends I would love to have known through their writings.

Here's a little poem I posted back then:

I Seek

... a peer, a mate, a match
the One...
who'll know the wonder I've become.
a friend to see the best
in me...
and overlook the rest of me... to kiss
my neck and touch my soul, to love not parts -
but all, the whole - 
the sum of me who yearns for bliss
but all I find are words like this:

a rhyme...

and solitary time.

- Patrice Lynne Young   - around 2007 I think..

Mr. Cheddars does not care for my poetry...

  

April? Already?

So much is going on that I have once again lost track of time.  I don't function well internally when overly busy with other people's tasks externally, though I love being busy with my own....  I suppose that makes me self-involved, but most artists are, by necessity.  So this blog visit has multiple themes...

I took a walk up the hill a few days ago and took some photos of the large Red Bud trees scattered there.  I'm hoping to flag a few small ones when they leaf out (small Red Buds don't bloom) to transplant nearer the house.  Red Buds in or near my yard have had hard luck.  Two were crushed under fallen pines, and the three I've planted have struggled and then died.  I think I'm trying too hard.  After all, they seem to thrive in the most infertile places.

Afterward, I followed a very obvious and well traveled deer trail through the scrub pines and over to open land again.  The red clay really pops against last year's leaves and the bright green of the pine needles.

Check out the phantom image in the tree below.  I was quite taken aback - and still am - but figured out the tree's bark had been peeled by my horses as a winter snack sometime in the past couple of years.  Apparently my equine have artistic aspirations.  But then again, it could be some kind of message for giant rabbits to interpret.

A tree that merged with a rabbit?  A frog?  A tale could be spun to explain...

They really should be called Hot Pink Buds.

Deer trail - looks well traveled!

Large and small deer tracks in the quartz littered clay.

March Roars On

After several beautiful 70-ish days, the wind is gusting to 30mph and the temperature is set to drop 40 degrees by morning.  Weather!

But it's the very unpredictability of the weather, with its power to distract or detract us from our placidity as it shapes our lives, that I love so much.  Humans have thus far not managed to affect it on purpose, and that very fact cheers me.  I want (need) there to be an aspect of existence that is its own master.  For some reason, this gives me security.

So roar on, winds of March - take a mundane day or week or season and turn it all sideways.  Sideways was the direction of the day as all sorts of things went flying through the air!  I just hope the temp doesn't nip the just-beginning peach, plum and pear buds.

Pear tree just beginning to bloom next to the new Pergola.  Can't wait to be able to stain the treated lumber gray to match the house.

And here come the violets.  I've places that are carpeted with these, my favorites.

One of my two peach trees.  Also just beginning to bloom today.

And this little Spring beauty is Sinead - a recent adoptee.  Apparently she couldn't decide whether to be a red tabby or an agouti tabby, so she is both.  She won't hold still for pics and I so want one that will show the odd tabby "spot" on her left front leg.  I thought it was dirt for quite a while..

And it's official: Spring Blooms in Northeast Georgia

The lilies bloomed the day after I searched for signs.  It's been a few days now and the lilies (daffodils) are opening all over the yard.  Even the double daffodils are budding - though they rarely open all the way.  As I walked about in that too warm too soon kind of stupor (75 degrees!) I found a few more signs that Spring has arrived.

Daffodils are so dang cheerful!

  You can tell the doubles by their larger rounder shaped buds.  The long thin buds are jonquils.  I'll post more photos when these guys open up.

The Spring Peepers have been peeping up a storm for a couple of weeks, but yesterday and today the chorus cranked it up to a constant thrum.  With all that snow melted, my little pond is still running out the overflow pipe.  And though I wasn't able to get a photo, I heard a frog give a little croak and splash into the pond.  Just that one frog. I really wanted to get a look; I mean - what sort of tough snow-bird type of amphibian would jump into that cold, cold water?  Perhaps he's like those folks who jump into icy waters to see if they can get their hearts to stop. (Mine would.) Ummm... yeah, I know - they have some other reason for doing this but I cannot fathom what.

I found new growth on the old timely climbing roses and little buds on the Yellow Jasmine, too. Then I spent most of the day chopping back privet, honeysuckle and wild roses where they had completely overrun my azaleas and were working toward smothering the iris.  I felt rather guilty; being so happy to see new leaves and buds and all, and then hacking away at that same progress in the less welcome plants.  Here in the South - the jungle will out unless tamed from time to time.

Jasmine buds...  I love the splotches of red on the leaves and the pink/purplish stems.

Hope everyone gets an early Spring!

Searching for Signs

Just four days ago...  Snow!  Got to get that barn finished!

It was a beautiful day today in NE Georgia.  After a chilly start, the temperature rose into the 50's, and the sun was warm on my face as I puttered about the yard looking for signs of Spring.  Not much goin' on.  Mud in the sun and ice in that shady spots, but I knew there was at least one spot that was keeping my dream of Spring alive, so I headed for the edge of the woods down by the shop and there...

Today - Lillies!  Should be opening in the next day or two.  Amazing how fast things can change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found the faithful Lilllies shooting up and full of buds.  Last years leaves make a lovely contrast with the bright, bright green - almost blue-green of the leaves and stalks.  Or perhaps they are still a bit blue from being buried in snow!  A few more days like today, and buds will be forming everywhere.

Another Smaller Encounter

This must be my week for up-close and personal with members of other species.  This little episode began over a week ago, before the most recent winter storm and cold.  We'd been having unseasonably cold temps for about a week, when we got a one-day reprieve with temperatures in the high 50's.  I had to drive up into the mountains that day to work on a faux finish/mural project.

As I'm heading up the 4 mile climb, I hear an intermittent rustling that seems to be behind me.  One thing I cannot stand are rattles, mysterious sounds and "funny" noises in or from my vehicle/s.  Both my car and my van are at least ten years old, but there are no unidentifiable noises.  This was new.  After a bit, it ceased and by the time I made a stop for gas, I'd forgotten about it.

Several miles later, I pulled into the client's driveway, unloaded my materials and went to work.  When I came out to stow my gear for the ride home, I was surprised to see a butterfly fluttering in my window.  And then I knew what that sound had been.  Apparently the butterfly had somehow gotten into my car and been dormant due to the cold.  The warmth of that particular day had aroused it, and I guess it figured Spring was here.  Not so, little one.  In fact that night the temperature was set to drop dramatically.  I planned to find my little friend a place to shelter until the real Spring came along.

But when I arrived home, I couldn't find the little fellow.  I wasn't sure if it had escaped or just crawled into a hiding place of its own, but after searching for some time, I gave it up.

After nearly a week of bitter cold and paralyzing (ha ha) 2 inches of snow. I happened to open the rear door of my car and, sadly, my little butterfly friend fell out onto the ground.  Thinking it was dead, I placed it gently back in the car so as to examine it later at home.

That was two days ago while it was cold.  Yesterday it warmed up a bit, and today it was in the glorious 60's.  I opened my car door and what do you think?  The magical little butterfly was sunning itself on the car seat, fanning its wings.  Not dead. Hibernating.

Here's my little friend. I thought it was a Swallowtail, but no - according to my beautifully illustrated Walter Linsenmaier Insects of the World, it is a rare Javanese brush-footed butterfly.  How cool is that? My good friend Roy identified this fellow as a Mourning Cloak, and he is correct.  Seems my book had applied two species names to the same butterfly.  Pretty fellow, nonetheless.  He seemed to like the warmth of my hand. 

It's going to be warm for the next couple of days, and thinking that perhaps my car is not the best long term shelter, I placed him just inside my garden shed.  He can hide again or take off from there as he pleases.  The lesson is that if you find a butterfly and think it's dead, treat it gently.  You could be mistaken!