" We are not mad, we are human, we want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths that we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey"--Leonard Cohen

Party Hats and Garden Wisdom

 'everything is funny if you can laugh at it...'

 'fall in love, stay in love...'

'there are always flowers...' 

'work is the cure...' 

'nothing is ever too small...'

'things are always better in the morning...'

'it's no use going back to yesterday...'

 'fantasy love is much better...'

 'just go blindly to it...'

 'everyone remembers something...'

 'begin at the beginning...'

 'suffer each other...'

'your heart is the map...'

(I created this series with cabinet portraits I found in different antique shops around Chicago and used different plants and flowers from my garden to create their "hats".  I hope you enjoy the wisdom they impart along with their wonderfully somber expressions which I found so unusual compared to the relentlessly "happy" photos people post of themselves today... :))

searching for the old me

When I was younger I believed, that I could win.

Now I wonder.

There was a time when you and I, walked hand & hand.

Now I wonder.

 i keep on searching for the old me, I keep on thinking I can change

I keep on hoping for a new day, will I ever feel the same?

Now I wonder.

Oh I wonder.

Now I wonder.

--cris isaak

some beauty

ruinous loss

questionable rainbows

ruthless nature

things to know

hope is the hardest love we carry-- Jane Hirshfield

in difficult times, carry something beautiful in your heart--Blaise Pascal

misery is wasted on the miserable--Louis C. K.

ways of rebelling

 who needs to be at peace with the world? It helps to be between wars to

 die a few times each day to understand your father's sky, as you take it apart

 piece by piece and can't feel anything, can't feel the tree growing under

 your feet, the eyes poking night only to find another night to compare it to.

 Whoever heard of turning pain into hummingbirds or redbirds--

 haven't we grown? What does it mean to be older? Maybe a house with-

 out doors can still survive a storm. Maybe I can't find the proper way to

 rebel or dammit, I can't leave. I want to but you grow inside of me. And

 as I watch you, before I know it, I'm too full, too heavy with you to move.

 Maybe that's what they meant when they said you shouldn't love a country

too much.--Ways Of Rebelling by Nathalie Handal, photos: Nasugbu, Philippines

what survives

 who says that all must vanish

 who knows, perhaps the flight

 of the bird you wound remains

 and perhaps flowers survive caresses in the ground

 it isn't the gesture that lasts

 but it dresses you again in gold

 armor--from breast to knees--

 and the battle was so pure

 an Angel wears it after you...

-What Survives by Rainer Maria Rilke; photos: scenes from US Route 20

twist in my sobriety

Stan on Randolph St.

I've been re-editing all my old favorites to compile them into a photo book. I was hesitant to take on this project because my files are somewhat messy, and I can only work a few photos at a time (because there's so much Netflix that needs watching. :)) Anyway, I took this photo of Stan in 2008. I was standing near the entrance of the train tunnel where my friend Roark, who used to sell Streetwise News, introduced us. Roark said to Stan, "She wants to take your picture." I wasn't yet used to being a person with a camera on the street and I was very shy. Well, today, I'm still very shy, and clumsy, and awkward, but so many other things have changed: sadly, my friend Roark isn't with us anymore-- he passed away in 2012 and I miss him still, I never saw Stan again but since then, I've taken hundreds more photos--thousands, in fact.. anyway, I'll end here with this lovely and enigmatic Tanita Tikaram song, pls enjoy....

living the dream

frederiksted, st.croix