Accommodating

October 7, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Photography, Reflections, Resources and links, Writing Tags: Beauty, Flexibility, Imperfection, Open mind, Photography, Steve McCurry, The Daily Post, Wabi-Sabi 6 Comments

Photo: Cuba, Inbar Asif

My immediate association to today’s word prompt of “Elastic ” was about the dire need for more flexibility. How important it is we be able to curl our mind around the bend of preconception so we can appreciate beyond “our idea of beautiful” or “our opinion of correctness.” It’s become fashionable to be rigidly unyielding, to confront instead of listen, to seek conformity instead of be accommodating.

As if acceptability lives by a single yardstick and Photoshop.

We cover over imperfections. We discard or deny any marring exists. We seek the shiny new. People get judged more by their circumstance of birth than by how pliable their hearts are or how truly resilient they have proven to be in holding on to kindness even in the face of oh-so-much that wasn’t.

As I wrote this a notification appeared for Steve McCurry’s post about the “Art of Imperfection” and the power of Wabi-Sabi — the Japanese practice of finding harmony and beauty in what is simple, natural, and modest, where transience and imperfection are part of the aesthetic. How perfectly apt.

Here’s to beauty in the marred.

For The Daily Post

World Genius

October 6, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Good stuff!, Life and love, Meditations, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Awe, Brilliant, Chameleon, Genius, Nature, Poetry, Reflections, The Daily Post, Universe Leave a comment

Photo: Amitai Asif

There’s a brilliance

To the cosmos

That shines brighter than

All stars.

An artistry

To nature’s glory

That far exceeds anything

I can actually

Understand.

For The Daily Post

Walkabout

October 5, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Desert, Geology, Hiking, History, Meditation, Photo Challenge, Photography, Ramon Crater, Walkabout 5 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

In the monotonous pace of desert hikes, there lies a meditative calm: as wispy trails rise and descend, as footpaths curl around a bend, as dirt turns palettes of light and shade, as layers pressed in rock clutch eras so long gone, they are quite literally written in stone.

For The Photo Challenge

Pedestrian

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Good stuff!, Life and love, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Childhood, delight, Fatherhood, Photo Challenge, Photography, Taking in the view, walking 8 Comments

Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein

This photo makes me smile.

The vistas and the light and play of shade and stream and sun, yes … But more than anything, the path and the story it tells: the measured step of the dad with the baby on his back, keeping one eye on the older one; the exuberant skip of the boy; the plastic bag tied to the father’s carrier, containing who knows what but probably some leftover drink and snack; the other people in the background, strolling, skipping, taking in the fresh air and the sights.

A timeless story. Set in any place, in every language. Humans walking from one place to another, the oldest mode of transport since we’d swung down from the trees to become bipedal and free up our hands.

For The Photo Challenge

Jungle Gym

October 2, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Photography, Quotes, Reflections, Writing Tags: Athletic, Fun Stuff, Jungle Gym, Life Lessons, Monkey Bars, Playground, Reflections, The Daily Post 1 Comment

Photo: Atara Katz

You are never too old

To grab hold

To get trim.

Give a hearty old

Swing

On an oddly

Abandoned

Neighborhood

Jungle gym.

For The Daily Post

Location, Location, Location

October 1, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Community, Ethiopia, Neighborhood, Nesting, Photography, Poetry, Popularity, Reflections, The Daily Post 2 Comments

Photo: Dvora Freedman

In spite of crowded quarters

There evidently is a draw

To hanging

One’s own nest

In environs of unquestioned

Popularity.

For The Daily Post

A Pun Discovery

September 29, 2017September 29, 2017Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Photography, Professional Development, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Funny, Language skills, Pun, Speech thrapy, speech-language-pathology, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say Leave a comment

Photo: Ofir Asif

The five-year-old bounded up the stairs. I could hear him giggling. He stopped two steps below the landing and tilted his head at me. A brown curl flopped over one eye and he blew at it.

“When does a duck duck?” he challenged.

I grinned at his giddiness. Language for this child had just began to turn more fun than frustration, and his emerging fascination was delicious. “When?”

He chortled. “When you throw something at it! Because …” he demonstrated, bobbing so deeply that I reached over to grab his shoulder to ensure he didn’t lose his balance on the steep stairs, “duck … like this … is same as … quack quack duck!”

For The Daily Post