The Beautiful, Beckoning Wood

The Beautiful, Beckoning Wood - Lynda Lehmann c 2010

The arbor gleams. Trees gesture, dance and sway, playing with the showering gold of sunlight. Vines crawl and meander, yet always ascending. Textures pop and reflect the underlying vitality, setting the precedent for "Form." Wood wet with past rain glistens orange and lush vines play a rich green counterpoint. Shadows vignette the drama, and my heart leaps joyously into the cauldron where Creation plays out its evolving domain.

Note to My Readers: I want the above paragraph to stand alone, hence this note. My husband and I walked on the Long Island shoreline the other day, enjoying the sunshine and the January thaw. I was serendipitously graced with this image on the way out, at which point I was resolved to my day's photo-taking being over. It was getting late and the light was fading from the part of the shore we had been walking on. But we emerged into the sunlight and there it was: one of the most beautiful forest scenes I have witnessed: the bright side-lighting, the moisture on the trunks that brought out the rich colors of the bark, and the complements of orange and green. I hope this image brings to mind for you, some of your favorite moments of encounter with nature. I'd like to hear about them!

Image and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Thoughts on The Tree of Life

Tree of Life - Image c Lynda Lehmann

Witness the great tree: the overarching Tree of Life.

It spreads and reaches....
soaking in light from above
to nurture the growth
of all its branches.

We are like the twigs,
works-in-progress growing,
turning, striving, streaming
and
bifurcating from branches
larger than we.

We are each rooted in
humanity, as each branch
springs from the tree.

But on a tree,
divergent branches although separate,
do not turn on themselves,
nor on others.
Nor do they ridicule those
weaker tentacles whose growth
does not rival their own.

Because they remember
being tender shoots
themselves,
barely differentiated from the flesh
of the great trunk,

they know their origin,
respect it,
and are humbled.

Mindful, they know their attachment
to something greater:
a force that nurtures them while still
enlisting them to provide.

There are no outcasts among branches.

Nor scorn for angling off
in a different direction.
For each twig and branch
sees its own way
towards the light.

****

The branch reaches far
yet gives thanks for its base,
its connection to
the larger tree.

No branch stands
on a pinnacle
to proclaim its sovereignty.
Lording not, over others.

Nor does it claim
more than its share
of root's nourishment
or succor of light.

A single branch
is gangly, awkward, lost...
unrelated...
yet a tree brims

with the hope
of all levels of life
reaching
for more of itself.

A branch splintered
from The Whole,
loses stability, sustenance, meaning.

Embedded in its cells,
the code,
calling for contribution
but not conformity...

to evolve in concert with The Whole.

We have much to learn
from mingled branches
that together stand proud, as
the Tree of Life.

A World of Their Own - Image c Lynda Lehmann

MY BLOGGING FRIENDS: Just a note to tell you that this will most likely be my last post for a week or two, because of other projects I have to attend to. Everything is fine; I'm just busy.

I WILL however, visit your sites and comment, and respond to your comments here. Any constructive criticism on the poem is most welcome! And I'll be back to post as soon as I can. Love and peace to you....

Journey - Image c Lynda Lehmann

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Gateway to Mystery

Gateway to Mystery - c Lynda Lehmann


With its musk and mystery the forest beckons, and holds me in its warm embrace. I'm taken by the glow, the lush, rich and intricate tapestry of living things. As the canopy closes around me, I'm forced to silence; the arbor seems more real than real, amazing and transforming me. And I know from the exhilaration I feel, that I exist.

Text and image c Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind .

Bark in the Park

No reference in this post to barking dogs intended, although yes, I've encountered many vocal pets in local parks. It's about "barkscapes." I love to enjoy the natural beauty of both the macrocosm and the microcosm. I think I've learned to take in both simultaneously, through the lens of my camera. And having a "real" microscope that I received for my 12th birthday, also opened my eyes to the amazing and often gorgeous detail below the threshold of our everyday vision.

I think that texture is the most universal underpinning of form--it's everywhere and part of every object, either natural or man made. (Now, f only I could hold my SONY D-SLR more steady! I'm looking for a lightweight monopod that will do the job, so if anyone has recommendations, I'm open to them. My tripod is just too heavy to tote around.)

Here are two photos of the same tree. A sycamore, perhaps? One is at "regular" focal distance and the other is a close up, though not quite a macro shot. In the second shot, I tweaked the colors just slightly and adjusted the brightness and contrast, to bring out the beautiful pattern. I think it makes a good abstract, don't' you?

One of Robert Genn's newsletters at his Painter's Keys site http://www.painterskeys.com/ was about Miksang, the art of seeing detail in everyday things. I tried to find the link to the article to post it here, but my computer started opening multiple windows and I had to close down, because my task manager wouldn't cooperate. You can search for it at his site if you want to read it.

After I read it, I realized I'd been practicing Miksang practically all my life!

My photographs and paintings are available for purchase at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/ and some of my other sites, which are linked there. Images and text c 2007 Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

Light Makes All Things Real

Pine Bark, Echo Lake

Barkscape VIII

The Nature of Pine Bark

Illlumined



Light makes all things real.





Images and text c Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved. You can view more of my work or purchase my photos at www.lyndalehmann.com

The Winds of Autumn...

chattering people

hear their own voices,

ignoring the wind.

-lynda lehmann

I was looking for serenity and found it in the waving, wind-blown branches of stately oaks and maples. I was carrying only my tiny point and shoot, as I so often do when I walk in my neighborhood. So the quality could be better. But the wind will speak to you, just the same.

If you listen closely you will hear a dog barking and birds singing. But mostly, you will hear the sound of the wind rushing through the boughs. Thanks for stopping by and sharing autumn with me!

Text, images, and video c 2007 Lynda Lehmann.

Life of a Tree

The life of a tree is revealed not just by its height or its growth rings, but by the marks and scars its days have wrought upon its bark. The bark reveals the character of a tree in the same way the lines on a person's face show his or her age. The bark speaks of hardships endured, as well as of life-force and survival.


Text and image c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to see more of my work, please visit www.lyndalehmann.com . Thanks for visiting!

Inconceivable Unfolding of a Palm

The title says it all. The name of this palm escapes me because I was too busy taking photos to write it down. Regardless of its name and and species, it was clearly designed and engineered by an unseen intelligence of a higher order. The structure of this tree, viewed at a local arboretum, is unbelievable!


I remember some course work in industrial design in college, when we talked about angles creating structural integrity and strength, a principal applied in architecture, packaging, and other forms of design. The most common example is probably corrugated cardboard, with which we're all familiar. But no human endeavor can ever rival the design and structural adaptations in nature!


Image and text c Lynda Lehmann. Please visit www.lyndalehmann.com if you would like to see more of my work.

The Solace of Sunlit Spaces

Every once in awhile, I come upon a cozy natural space that makes my heart sing. It could be shaded or sunlit, overgrown, or open and windswept. It could be leafy or pebble-strewn. It could be low-lying as in a marsh, or elevated like a granite outcrop where I can sit and feel the sunlight on my shoulders while taking in an awesome and inspiring view.

Such places give me solace, fill my soul with joy, mystery, and renewed hope for the world.

This past summer while canoeing, I came upon some half rotted tree trunks burgeoning out of the muck of the overgrown lake shore. I thought that even in their decay, they have their own beauty. After all, they speak of the infinite and continuously unfolding life cycles that play out all over our gorgeous planet.

I want to share a few of these views with you. I'll post more when I find them. I thank God for the sunlight, for the pristine peace of the lake, and for these quiet outposts of life and life that has passed. They all speak to me of Eternity.

Image and text c Lynda Lehmann.

A World of Their Own

A woman and three children ensconced by the spread of a magnificent tree, totally absorbed in the private world they are sharing. What would our world be like without the drama and beauty of such magnificent trees?

Trees give us not only beauty and add dimension to our world, they give us shade, provide animal habitat, wood for all our human "creature comfort" needs, and hold the soil in place. They grow everywhere in amazing diversity, until we raze and burn the forests.

We can all help the Earth and help to insure human survival by planting an extra tree or two in our yards, or by sending in Action Alerts that address issues such as clear-cutting for industry and rainforest preservation. Join the World Wildlife Fund or the Nature Conservancy or the Rainforest Action Network, to put in YOUR two cents! (See links to other environmental organizations in the sidebar of this blog.)

The way I look at it, the "Tree of Life" is at the heart of life.

Text and image c Lynda Lehmann. You can purchase this print at www.lyndalehmann.com.