
MONET TODAY. Trees in Washington Township Park near Avon, Indiana reflect in a pond. I snapped this shot a week ago; imagine how striking the image would be today.
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AIRPORT RIDE. I took my camera along for my daily ride around Indianapolis International Airport. The sky was clear as the sun set. These three trees stand on the far west end of the airport. I assume they will be felled soon as road preparations and construction on the new midfield terminal progress. I do not know how much longer my 14-mile circuit around the perimeter of the airport will remain intact. Over the course of the week, I plan to post a few more of the photos I took this evening. In the distance, behind the trees, the new air traffic control tower is visible.
"In the Great Economy all transactions count and the account is never closed. We cannot afford maximum profit or power with minimum responsibility because, in the Great Economy, the loser’s losses finally afflict the winner. The ideal must be ‘the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption,’ which both defines and requires neighborly love. Competitiveness cannot be the ruling principle, for the Great Economy is not a ‘side’ that we can join nor are there such ‘sides’ within it. Thus, it is not the ‘sum of its parts’ but a membership of parts inextricably joined to each other, indebted to each other, receiving significance and worth from each other and from the whole.”
-- Wendell Berry
"Gratitude and humility form the solid ground we can stand on when everything around us is shaking, when our personal life seems to be collapsing like a house of cards, or when we are exhausted from trying to be someone we are not and never have been, when we are no longer the ruler of our universe, when we are no longer able to pretend that it doesn't hurt/we can overcome/we never give up."
"Gratitude can anchor us so that we don't rise like the hot air balloon that can't stay up forever."
"Gratitude can give us the relieving sense of un-importance that we don't have to be perfect or always in control."
"Such gratitude comes to all who will notice the things that make our lives possible and that enriches us. The sun always rises. Food tastes good. Sleep refreshes. People smile. Children laugh. Seasons change. Spring returns. Good is more common than evil."
"An ancient prayer ends with these words: 'One thing more I ask: give to me a grateful heart.'"