We had a moment, this kitten and I. I had been trying to capture him, but he was surprisingly camera shy. It was like chasing the afternoon sun with whiskers and fur. I would have picked him up if he had let me, but you can’t hold the sun, even with whiskers and fur. He paused to glare at me, and then disappeared under the cut wood, hiding in the shadows. We went our separate ways, me with a digital memory, and he with his dignity intact. But we had that one moment, like a solar flare.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, unless I wait for the afternoon sun.

King David really knew how to pray.

Hear my cry, O God;
attend to my prayer. Psalm 61:1

Have you ever cried out to God? There is great need behind those words: hear my cry. This isn’t your average prayer for travel mercies. Something deep, something urgent is going on. And he isn’t wasting time on flowery preliminaries either. Nor is he crafting his words with polite restraint. “Attend to my prayer” sounds an awful lot like “LISTEN TO ME!!!”

From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:2

No matter where David was, his cry would go forth, from the anguish of an overwhelmed heart. Ah, most of us can relate to that, even if our hearts are not overwhelmed by the same issues that overwhelmed David. And don’t we always look higher than ourselves for deliverance? Don’t we always seek a firm foundation on which to stand, something that is solid when our legs are shaky and our steps uncertain?

Next time our hearts are overwhelmed, let us cry out.

No matter where we are, let us cry out and ask Him to listen.

Trust in Him at all times, O people.
Pour out your heart before Him:
God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8

Let us look for the rock that is higher than we are.

I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress and my deliverer. Psalm 18:1

And then finish strong, like David did:

So, I will sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may daily perform my vows. Psalm 61:8

That’s how it’s done, boys and girls!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning…

“Oh!” she said, blushing,
“Don’t take a picture of me –
My clothes are falling!”

On that note, I’ll bid you adieu for the weekend.

I’ll pry d’lete ths i’ th’ morn (my letters are falling!)

I played a fun game of hide and seek with a squirrel last week. It’s like playing with a child who thinks that if they stay still, you won’t see him (or her). It got off to a sporting start with my rodent friend attempting camouflage on a tree.

We ignored each other for some moments, my strategy being to give him a false sense of security. But when I moved closer, the game was afoot. He skittered over to the side outside of my vision and by the time I got there, he’d given me the slip. …Or had he?

GOTCHA! To be honest, I don’t think he knew that he’d been discovered. I didn’t want to ruin the experience for him, so I sauntered off, but first I overheard him chittering, “There will be a day when I will lose this crafty game, but IT IS NOT THIS DAY!”

Even squirrels must have their heroes.

Squirrel Nonet
Is it a game or is this danger?
She with her magic box, and me
Pretending to be the tree.
I hear the “click, click, click…”
and know I must run.
I see some leaves,
I sit still –
I wait.
Click.

I just discovered this form of poetry, the nonet: nine lines, nine syllables in the first line and subtracting one syllable per line. Kinda fun.

I will almost certainly delete,
Or at least probably delete,
I don’t know…should I delete?
Delete…or not delete?
That is the question.
I can’t decide.
So I think,
Maybe…
Not.

GOTCHA!

Have you heard of Inktober? I think it first crossed my path a couple years ago as I began seeing a few Inktober posts on Instagram. The idea, which was started in 2009 by an artist named “Jake Parker,” is pretty simple:

1. Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).

2. Post it online.

3. Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2020 (or the current year)

4. Repeat every day for the entire month.

I looked up the history of Inktober for this post and was curious as to why the name “Jake Parker” is in quotes.

Anyway, somehow this became a Thing and in 2016, the Inktober people began making a list of prompts for people to use if they should so desire. I don’t think you have to, but it’s nice for people like me who will just stare at a blank piece of paper waiting for inspiration to strike and then have to wander off to find something else to do when it doesn’t.

I decided to give it a try this year, using the prompts and also my own challenge was to find a way to include the word for the prompt in each drawing. I missed the first four days so on the fifth day, I did five illustrations and now I hope to stay caught up.

Inktober has a HUGE following on Instagram. There are 1.2 million posts for the hashtag #inktober2020 already and it’s just the beginning of the month. I made the mistake of going to the page to look at other entries and have to admit to being a little intimidated by the incredible artwork that people are doing for this. But I’m firmly in the amateur category and have to remind myself that it’s a challenge to myself, not a competition.

So, after loads of “ado,” here are my first few entries:

It’s been surprisingly fun to figure out what to do each day.

I’ll be too busy to delete this post in the morning – gotta keep up with the Inktober Challenge!

Some months ago I wrote about a tree in our neighborhood that has the rising sun behind it in the morning. I expressed a desire to photograph the tree once per season at sunrise. This desire did not in any way transform into action (sunrise comes awfully early, you know). Until this morning. I came downstairs, looked out the window and it seemed like it was just the right time – not quite sunrise, but you could see it coming in the lightened skies. I had a spontaneous moment, which in itself was a surprise. Spontaneity and I are not usually friendly with each other. I raced upstairs, got dressed, grabbed the camera, got in the car and went off to accomplish my quest.

The first photo I took was terrible – the camera wanted to do something different than I wanted, so I realized I’d have to change some settings in order to win that battle. I had some time, however – it wasn’t quite sunrise and I didn’t like the angle I’d shot from anyway.

And then someone came out of the house next to the tree. In an instant I went from having a nice solitary artsy moment to looking like a deranged stalker with a camera. I fled the scene like Joseph fleeing from Potiphar’s wife. As I drove away, I hoped the homeowner didn’t take down my license number. Thus ends the Saga of the Sunrise Tree.

Here’s the same photo hopped up on filters:

The guy probably just came out to get his newspaper and didn’t even notice me.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning out of sheer embarrassment!

What’s it like to be upside down
In a right-side up kind of world?
Does water reflect the heart of a man?
Will the clouds become uncurled?

The lake imitates all manner of things
With a strange and mirror-like lie.
If you stare at the water long enough,
You’ll forget that you need the sky.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Which is more than I had last Friday – I missed a day! Maybe I’ll do a make-up post sometime to keep my record intact.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning! Really!

We saw this mushroom at one of the state parks along the North Shore and it made me realize how underrated mushrooms are for having any sort of beauty potential. I wanted to know what kind it was, so of course I did a search on the internet for: “orange ball mushroom with white spots.” This would make a scientist cringe, but the internet isn’t that picky and gave me what I wanted without so much as an arrogant sneer. If I’m correct, it’s an American Eastern Yellow Fly Agaric mushroom. The cap flattens out as it gets older, so I think this one is a baby, which heightens its appeal. Anything in the baby category automatically blows the fuse of the cute circuit. Just look what happened when they took crusty old Yoda and made him into a baby? I rest my case.

I read some scholarly articles about this mushroom, or perhaps I should say that I skimmed them judiciously…or even more to the point, I skipped most of the boring stuff. Here’s all you need to know:

• It’s not poisonous to eat if you know how to prepare it (seems like a big “if”).
• Something about this mushroom when mixed with milk, kills flies. Maybe.
• Some species of this mushroom may have hallucinogenic properties.

If you see this mushroom in the wild, don’t eat it hoping for an unusual tripping experience based on what I just told you. By the way, guess what pops up when I type the word mushroom? This: 🍄 Yes, this is such an iconic mushroom that even the computer knows what it is.

And just to balance out the life cycle of our charming friend, I took a photo of another one that I think must be in the grandfather age category.

Or, if you want to stick to the Star Wars theme, if the other mushroom was Baby Yoda, this one is Jabba the Hut.

I think I’ve fed you enough pseudo-science for today. You can always look these things up if you want accuracy and thoroughness. I offer only fanciful speculations and disclaimers.

Brought to you by lynniebeemuseoday.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning after consulting with my lawyer about whether or not I’m going to be held responsible for actions taken by people with mushrooms after reading this post.