This Sunday's (and beyond) Sermon to Self: "Let all the voodoos of ambition sleep."

OTHER BEES ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

OTHER BEES ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

OTHER BEES ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

OTHER BEES ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

I came across these images atop this entry (that I took this past April) of a bee taking refreshment from crocus flowers in Central Park. Upon viewing them, I thought of a few lines from a poem ("Today") by Mary Oliver. Here they are:

"...The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little..."

In my case, the bees were not rumbling in my rooftop garden,* rather, they were "rumbling" (as I just said) in Central Park. I had gone to the park that day in an effort to take the day off from my busy mind, which at times (many times) is hard to silence.

This "confession" brings me to the entire poem that included the lines which I just shared. Here it is:

"Today I’m flying low and I’m

not saying a word.

I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I’m traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors

into the temple."

It's been a tumultuous time (medically causing extreme financial concerns) to say the least, but today I need to heed the wisdom of this poem and let "all voodoos of ambition sleep" and travel that great distance of stillness, for that certainly is a path into my temple door.
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* Although the bees featured in the photographs included in this entry were not in my garden, bees have visited my place on occasion and I produced a mini-movie documenting their antics. It's titled, Here's the Buzz! 

FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

Hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold.

MY BOOK SERIES

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books. Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:

When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak. 

The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.

This was followed by an ePub version...

... that is available on Amazon and was also published in 2015.

Subsequently, Words In Our Beak's digital versions were published as a soft-cover book (with slight variations) by MagCloud in 2017.

Its press release can be read by clicking here.  

Now with the release of BIRD TALES....

... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one.

As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.