In Praise of the Inner Crone::by Elizabeth Gilbert:: May 14

I loved this story so much that I wanted to place it somewhere others can learn from it, and I can find it from time to time when I need it most. Amazing!

IN PRAISE OF THE INNER CRONE!
written by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert fb page
also found at:

Elizabeth Gilbert blog


OK, we all know about the "inner child", right? The innocent being who still lives inside of us, who needs and deserves love and care, and whom we sometimes have to channel in order to learn self-compassion?

I'm a big fan of the notion of the inner child. It can be a really healing construct. Once, when I was going through a particularly dark season of self-loathing, I taped a sweet photo of myself (age 2) on my mirror, and taught myself that any harm I did to me, I also did to HER. It made me kinder and more tender to myself. Imagining other people's inner children makes me kinder and more tender to them.

So the Inner Child is a good thing.

These days, though, I spend less time thinking about my Inner Child lately, and more time focused on my INNER CRONE — the old lady who lives inside me, whom I hope to someday be.

Because she's a serious bad-ass.

The really old ladies always are bad-asses. I'm talking about the real survivors. The women who have been through everything already, so nothing scares them anymore. The ones who have already watched the world fight itself nearly to death a dozen times over. The ones who have buried their dreams and their loved ones and lived through it. The ones who have suffered pain and lived through it, and who have had their innocence challenged by ten thousand appalling assaults...and who lived through all of it.

The world is a frightening place. But you simply cannot frighten The True Crone.

Some might consider the word "crone" to be derogatory, but I don't in the least. I honor it. The crone is a classic character from myth and folklore, and she often the bearer of great wisdom and supernatural power. She is sometimes a guardian to the underworld. She has tremendous vision, even if she is blind. She has no fear of death, which means: NO FEAR.

I keep a wall of photos of some of my favorite crones, for inspiration. The photo below is of a Ukrainian Babushka who lives in (get this) Chernobyl. There are a group of such women — all tough elderly peasants — who have all recently moved back to the radioactive area around Chernobyl.

You know why they live there? Because they like it.

They like Chernobyl because that's where they came from. They are natural-born farmers. They hated being refugees.They resented being shunted off their land after the catastrophe. They hated living in the shabby and crime-infiltrated and stress-inducing government housing in the city, and they much prefer the independence of living off the land in the most contaminated nuclear site on earth. They have formed a stupendously resilient retirement community there, in what some would call the world's most terrifying landscape.

Is it safe? Of course not. Or, whatever. After 90 years of hard living, what does "safe" even mean? They drink the water. These women plant vegetables in that radioactive soil and eat them. They butcher the wild pigs that scavenge around the old nuclear power plant, and eat them, too. Their point is: "We are old. What do have to fear from radioactivity? At this age? Who cares?"

All they want is their freedom. So they take care of themselves and each other. They cut and haul their own wood. They make their own vodka. They get together and drink and laugh about the hardships of World War II and the evils of the Stalin years. They laugh about everything, then they go outside and butcher another radioactive boar and make sausage out of him.

I would put these women in a Bad-Ass Contest against any cocky young alleged Bad Ass you've got going, and I guarantee you — the Chernobyl crones would win, hands down.

We live in a society that romanticizes youth. We live in a culture where youth is considered a real accomplishment. You look at a seriously powerful classic crone like the woman in this photo and you see foolish we are — to imagine that the young offer much for us to aspire to, or learn from. No wisdom like the wisdom of survival. No equanimity like the equanimity of somebody who plants a garden right on top of a nuclear disaster and gets on with it.

So these days, when my Inner Child gets all fluttery with the panic of living, I just ask myself: " WWMICD?"

"What Would My Inner Crone Do?"

Ask yourself that same question. See what she tells you.

One thing I can promise you she will never say? She will never say: "WORRY.

She will more likely tell you this: "ENDURE."

Hang in there, all you future awesome crones!
LG

Zoo Workshop::The Birds::May 12

On Saturday, the photography club that I'm a part of had a special workshop shoot at the zoo. A few zookeepers brought out a few different animals for us to take pictures of. There were birds, reptiles, mammals, and a millipede.

After taking pics of all of the animals from the workshop, Steve & I wandered through the rest of the zoo and took more pictures, including some taken at the bird show.

I've got a bunch of pictures, so I've sorted the by type. This post will be about the birds.

Here are the birds from the workshop:

Okay, so this one wasn't one that the zookeeper brought out, but it was flying around an landed on a post. I thought it was pretty :)


I don't remember which specie of owl this was, but it is really a pretty bird.



I found out that these animals that the zookeepers brought out during the workshop are used for educational purposes. Each of these animals have something wrong that would prevent them from living in the wild. The owl is actually blind in one eye.

This is a peregrine falcon. It is a beautiful bird! I learned from the keeper that the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on earth. This one suffered a brain injury when it flew into something.



This is a Kookaburra. I don't know its backstory though.



The rest of the pics are of birds located throughout the zoo.

This owl was part of the bird show. I love how this first picture looks like he's bowing :)



And he got a treat:



These two were in the aviary part of the zoo:





This cute little guy was sitting on the fence next to the tiger cage:



A turkey vulture:



And the next one has an interesting story.

As I was adjusting the settings to take this peafowl's picture, a zoo worker came up and asked, "Do you notice anything about this bird?"

I had already been looking at it a little bit, and what I'd noticed is that it had duller colored tail feathers like a peahen, but it had the markings (I think they look like eyes) on the feathers that the peacocks have. He said that up until last year, this bird had been a peahen. Within the past year, it has gotten the markings on its tail and is becoming a peacock. It is a hermaphrodite, and it is not common for peafowl to change sexes like that, so this is a rare bird. Very cool!



That's it for the birds, but there are more pictures that I will post soon.

♥

Caitlin and Anthony::Prom 2014::May 8

Saturday was our local high school's prom, and Caitlin, my friend Tammey's daughter, asked me to take pictures of her and her date, Anthony, and of the couple they were doubling with, Tyson and Kaylee.

The day of the dance came, and Caitlin's mom, dad, and brother showed up with the corsages and boutineers and explained that Tyson had an accident and was in the burn unit of the hospital, and though they were encouraging Caitlin, Anthony, and Kaylee to still go to the dance, they weren't sure what was going to happen, so she asked if I could at least take pictures of the flowers.





They are beautiful, aren't they?

That evening, Caitlin and Anthony decided that they would still go to prom, but Kaylee wanted to stay at the hospital with Tyson, so I took pics for Caitlin and Anthony.

















Caitlin has always been one of my favorite neighborhood kids. She and my daughter Emily played together when they were younger, and Caitlin has always proved herself to be such a sweet, fun girl. It has been such a delight for me to take her dance pictures now that she's old enough to go to date dances :) Anthony is such a nice guy! He was so easy going and fun. It's so nice to work with such polite & nice young people! :)

Caitlin always looks up cute poses from other date dance pics, and we incorporate them in her shoot. They always turn out so cute! I can't wait for the next dance! :)

♥