Slightly Off The Groove

Last Friday's roadtrip with Jan to the Olympic peninsula started just a little differently - returning books to the Lynnwood Library. I was delighted. The first picture of the trip was this round metal sculpture I have always loved. Fate with me, some sitting in the perfect pose to make the picture more interesting. Wait, no, the first slip off the groove was me starting to walk away from my car to get into Jan's leaving my car keys hanging in my door. So, it might have be me that confused the benevolent spirits that guide our vehicular journeys. Jan said one of the options for the day was a ride to Poulsbo. (Wait, Poulsbo isn't on the Olympic Peninsula - throwing more fodder of confusion to the poor guiding spirits)


Next, was breakfast at a new restaurant, well, I'd been there once for dinner, Barlee's at the tip of split on the road to the Edmond's Ferry right before Hwy 99.
No close parking, a little different for us (when we left all the close parking was available - this might have been the first audible "huh" will you look at that utterance made. Or, maybe, it was after taking take to efficiently and carefully explain the difference between to similar menu items, the waitress left out the defining food item - potatoes on the side. However, she was a very good waitress and took responsibly for the misunderstanding. 


Next, to ferry. More pictures and story later, as it is off to work I must go.

Tell Me I'm Excellent, Please . . .

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." - William James




This version of Maslow's Hierarchy was borrowed from CEO John Mackey's Wholefoods blog. I am hoping neither he nor Abraham Maslow mind..



So why is the chart popping up in my blog today. Well, because I am banging head lightly against the same proverbial wall. Why should the good work I do be intrinsically satisfying? Why should I need or want external praise? The only out that popped in my mind was to look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs.


Perhaps it is just because it is a part of being human, part of the process.And, it made me feel better to look at this chart.


So, I had an excellent, creative new money saving idea for our clients. I presented it. Even though it was a different way of thinking, I presented it in a way I thought would be easy to implement. And, it was implemented and appears to be working well.


i received kudos from peers yet not a word from management who I presented the idea to. I, actually, think it was an excellent idea and may lead to other similar changes. I presume management thought it at least good enough to implement. Oh, and it even generates new revenue. I am proud of my creative thinking. I give myself an A+.


So why do I care that I didn't receive a written "good job" and thank you? Oh, well, I'll probably asking myself this a few more thousand times. 


"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence." - Samuel Johnson

Afraid I Saw It Coming

Junket to No - where?

Haiga 48

"My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes." - Douglas Adams

Art At Work

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul." - John Muir

Haiga 47

"He lacks much who has no aptitude for idleness." - Louise B. Wilder

Such A Week

Haiga 46

I exist as I am, that is enough,
            If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
           And if each and all be aware I sit content.
           One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself,
           And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand
                        or ten million years,
            I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait.


- Walt Whitman

Marina Flowers

From the old camera

Silvery Moon

Haiga 45

And not related to Bud's

And I don't know what the name of this business was

Friday's Sunset IV

And I had no idea as I hurried down to Edmonds at the last minute last Friday night, with new camera in hand, that I would watching such a beautiful sunset. As I turned the corner to find a parking spot on the bluff above the ferry dock, the first thing I saw was someone with a camera on a tripod. The next thing I saw was every parking spot filled. Gratefully, I had enough time to find a parking spot down near the pier . . .there was, also, a great deal of activity there on the edge of the water while the skies softly went through their hue filled evening transformation.

Friday's Sunset III

Friday's Sunset II

Last Friday's Sunset

Ferry Fire II

Haiga 44

I found that these interesting "artifacts" occurred when I moved the camera while taking a picture of a lighted ferry boat at sunset in my new camera.

Ferry Fire

Haiga 43

oops the words were on a black background last time I saw it. Oh well for now,

Frog Van

"You do not need to leave your room.  Remain sitting at your table and listen.  
Do not even listen, simply wait.  Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary.   
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, 
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."-  Franz Kafka

Marina Benches

"I don't generally like running. I believe in training by rising gently up and down from the bench." - Saichel Page


Still from my "old" camera

Haiga 42

"I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree." - Georgia O'Keeffe

I do love a comfortable place to seat and watch the sea.

poem

I was touched by this poem found in John Fox's book Poetic Medicine:


The Spirit Of The Black Dog


She is the black sky that shows off all her stars at night
when morning comes she goes down with the moon.
She is the black spirit flying south with the wild black geese.
She hides from the weird four-wheeled creatures.
One day one of the four-wheeled creatures came.
There.
She the black dog in the weird gray path.
When the creature is gone, she lying, the black dog, dead.
But only the dog was dead.
Not the wild great powerful spirit.
Her spirit is still with us forever.
Every morning she still goes down with the moon.
Every night she still shines.


- Megan Schulz, eight years old


I aspire to write as well as Megan someday.

Grandmother Agnes

Marina Activity

He was supervising the movement of the boats