Summer photos and inspiration from nature

I haven’t updated this website in many months, so I thought it was time to post something. I know there’s no minimum requirement on blog posting, but I find that posting a few times a year helps me keep track of what I’ve been up to, what I’ve been focusing on, and where I’m heading.

Lately I’ve been taking a lot of nature photos, below are a few favorites from this summer. (See more in my Flickr album.) I’ve been especially interested in pictures of small subjects, quiet moments, the things you might not notice if you walked past. Particularly the smallest creatures who hop or crawl or fly, and basically keep our ecosystem running.

Do they all realize they are each helping the earth in their own small way? Every cricket, every spider, every toad, as they go about their business, is also part of a giant interconnected web of living organisms, all delicately balanced, and if any one of them decided to stop doing their job, the entire system could come crashing down.

That’s a lot of responsibility for one small being. Does the ant realize this, or the cricket? I don’t think so, they only realize that they desperately need to survive, that their species needs to survive. Humans are part of this web too, and even as we go about our business, dealing with our own singular lives, we are still part of a larger world.

And sometimes when I feel like a task is too big, that my novel will never be finished, that my lofty ambitions will never be achieved, I think of the smallest insect as it climbs a daisy stalk or scampers across a field, every step a brave assault on the unknown, each moment fraught with peril and also with possibility. If this tiny, vulnerable creature can face the world with conviction each day, so can I.

And now, I’m off to write. Enjoy these last images of summer!