Bandaged and Still Blossoming

Bandaged and Still Blossoming

@Lynne Buchanan, All Rights Reserved

When I saw this plant’s flower, it immediately struck a chord with me.  It appeared as if it was all bandaged up with perfect miniature red blossoms peeking through the crevices.  I imagined that once it had been one big blossom, though I knew this was not the case, and that over the years events had scarred it requiring one bandage after another, until there were bandages on top of bandages.  I asked myself if I would have thought it was more beautiful before it needed patching up.

Did people find me more attractive when I was an innocent child, unaware of the dangers in the world?  When the thought of protecting my heart had not even occurred to me yet?  Or does blind innocence just appeal to us in a nostalgic way?

I thought about the spaces between the flowers’ bandages, the cracks in my heart that let mature love in and realistic love flow out.  The courage it takes to still blossom when you know you and the person you love are both fallible.  Those blood red flowers told me a story of being pierced to the core, breaking wide open, and letting something bigger help put the pieces back together so new blossoms could form that are simultaneously independent and connected.

Glass Orchid

Glass Orchid © Lynne Buchanan

All Rights Reserved, Watermarked by Digimarc

Sometimes it is amazing how delicate, and precious, and exotic life can be.  We are invited to share and be touched by wonder, and it is our choice if we accept the invitation or not. From the moment I saw this orchid, which my daughter's boyfriend gave her following her final dance performance at the performing arts school they both attend, I was captivated.  It was so appropriate too, given that her piece was entitled "Echoes from Within."  The lines, the colors, the movement all embodied repeated phrases, just like her dance.  I felt the flower simultaneously turn in on itself and unfurl, in a state of dynamic balance.  Both aspects are so essential for creative expression. We turn inward to connect with our deepest source in order to bloom and as we open up we draw in energy.  The inspiration we absorb is then integrated with our core beliefs and we bloom again, in a slightly different manifestation yet still reflecting our own unique inner light.

Normally, I only photograph flowers growing outside in natural conditions, but this flower was so unique.  I knew if I placed it on a light table with another warm light source near by, it would bring out more of what I experienced its full potential to be.  I was not disappointed.  When I looked through the lens, it reminded me of a Murano glass sculpture I own.  Suddenly I realized why I had been drawn to that sculpture and why I had been called to preserve the flower in this way.  Both the flower and the sculpture were comprised of soft, sensual shapes, yet they either were or appeared to be of glass which is stronger and more enduring than organic matter.  Still glass is fragile and can break, when it isn't handled with care.  This is how I strive to live my life these days–being strong but soft and still allowing myself to be vulnerable enough to break down old patterns and let in positive vibrations.

Giving and Receiving

Giving and Receiving ©Lynne Buchanan

All Rights Reserved

Rick Hanson wrote a wonderful blog yesterday on the theme of accepting dependence.  Dependence often gets a bad name because our society proclaims independence and being able to make it on our own as a state to strive for.  Yet, we are dependent on millions of things every day for our very survival, like the air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth we stand on, the food we eat–the list goes on and on.  We are also social beings and are dependent upon each other for happiness and a sense of purpose.  Lending a helping hand and acts of service often give us a sense of great personal worth and being in a loving relationship is something most people strive for.  As Rick Hanson wrote, "We are frail, soft, vulnerable, hurt by little things and hungry for love." When we understand this, he says, we can be more understanding towards others and accepting of ourselves.

Sometimes we become hurt by others.  I know when this happens to me, I want to shut down and close myself off so I won't feel pain again.  Yet, I know deep in my heart that this will never make me happy.  I have to risk opening up again, peeling back the petals that protect the core of my being, so I can give and receive love, and if I can't do it with another person then I do it with life.  This is why nature is so healing.  Drinking in the sunlight or feeling the rain on my skin, receiving these gifts of life,  makes me grateful and I try to shine this gratitude back out into the world by doing whatever small random acts of kindness I can, even if it is just thanking the flowers for sharing their beauty by making a photograph.

Life is always a balance between accepting and giving help, receiving the gifts of nature and offering back.  Now, more than ever, we need to be cognizant of how our behavior impacts the health of our planet.  We are dependent on the earth's elements for life and the survival of our planet depends on us.  Just as it is wrong to close our hearts when we have suffered in love, it is wrong to close our eyes to what is happening in the world.  Please join me in accepting dependence and recognizing we are all in this world together, so giving back becomes a priority in our lives.

Mystery Flower, Kalani's Garden

All Rights Reserved, ©Lynne Buchanan

In honor of Mother's Day, I would like to share this beautiful flower Kalani's wife showed me in his garden in Molokai.  They raise the most incredible exotic plants in the Halawa Valley and allow visitors to wander their grounds and explore all the varieties of tropical flowers that they ship around the world. She told me this particular one had never appeared before.  The rich color and smooth, velvety texture really spoke to me, along with the sensual lines of the petals as they folded in on themselves.  Their existence was a secret and observing them it almost felt as if they were protecting a secret deep inside, something very precious.  I hope you enjoy this little miracle of nature as much as I did.  Thank you mother earth for giving us such beauty to appreciate–it is what keeps me going.  

Nothing in Life is Insignificant

The Significance of Three Small Rocks © Lynne Buchanan

Watermarked by Digimarc, All Rights Reserved

When I came upon this scene in the Alabama Hills, I immediately fell in love with the three small rocks in the distance.  They were so delicate among all the mammoth forms and yet so important.  It is these rocks that make the photograph work by arresting the eye instead of letting the viewer wander out of the scene.  They were so perfectly situated that it looked as if someone had intentionally placed them there, but I knew that was not likely.  Another happy accident of nature that was also a wonderful metaphor for life.  It is easy to feel inconsequential when we consider the vastness of the ocean, the magnitude of mountains, or the roaring power of rapids or hurricanes.  That's one side of the story.  And then there are the delicate plants and tiny insects that we regularly trample over without a second thought, yet they too have their equal importance in the web of life.  Bigger does not make better, being too outspoken is not always a virtue.  Listening, being attentive to the interrelations of things and what lies beneath the surface, this is what I am opening to understanding...

Great Egret in Breeding Plumage © Lynne Buchanan

All Rights Reserved

The talk I describe below was given in conjunction with my exhibition, On the Rivers of Florida: Lynne Buchanan's Photographic Meditations, which has been extended through the month...

I would like to thank Justin Bloom for joining me last night at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton for our talk: "Keeping Florida Beautiful–Pictures and Practice."  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to present beautiful images from around the state, both of our rivers and the wildlife that inhabits the banks.  I spoke of what rivers mean to us and why we should preserve them, rivers as interdependent ecosystems, and ethical wildlife photography practices.  Justin, concluded the talk with a discussion of  the Waterkeeper Alliance consisting of water and lake keepers across the country and the Suncoast Waterkeeper, an organization that he recently started and is Executive Director  of.  Contact Justin at  https://www.facebook.com/Suncoastkeeper to find out how you can help.  As the population and visitors in our state have increased and as the digital age has made photography something everyone can do, it has had an adverse affect on nature.  In the recent issue of Tampa Bay Soundings, Florida Audubon writers Ann Paul and Mark Rachal claim wildlife photographers are the greatest threat to birds in our state today.  Much of this is due to ignorance on the part of the public.  Visit http://www.nanpa.org/docs/NANPA-Ethical-Practices.pdf to download a pdf with best practices for wildlife photography from NANPA, so that you can increase your awareness of how to behave in nature.  I believe we can all coexist together, if we remember we are one being in an interdependent web of life and that we are ultimately guests on this planet.

I am very excited to have been asked to present my program to environmental science programs in some Manatee County schools next year, and would be delighted to present my talk to any other schools in the state.  Introducing these concepts to young people is the hope of the future for wildlife in this state, not to mention the planet.  After my talk concluded, I received this email which touched me deeply and made me feel all the work I put into this exhibition and talk were so worthwhile: "Your talk tonight was so beautiful.  It personally touched and reminded me of why I am an educator, for those small moments that bind you to another person, another vision of the world and that which connects us all."  This is the whole point of my work and it makes me so happy when people understand.  I am a quiet person, a photographer and writer, and was unsure how this public presentation would come off.  Before I got up to talk, I said to myself that I may not be a person who loves the spotlight and though I may be afraid of public speaking, the rivers, plants, and creatures for whom I speak have no voice except when the water dries up or the trees and wildlife show signs of stress and even die.  When I spoke from my heart, it was not difficult to tell their story.  They need me, they need us, to all work together to ensure their continued existence.