Rather than just one day, November 25th, I think the entire month of November should be set aside for giving thanks. After all, to my mind, there are countless things to be thankful for.

My sight, for one. Being able to see the daily wonders and changes as nature moves through her cycles is breathtaking to me. Here in the Texas hill country, the many crossings provide peeks down dozens of the  most beautiful natural passages.

I think as an artist, seeing is how I come to best understand life. And I am eternally grateful for that gift.

                             Because it’s not what you look at, it’s what you see.

Consider your heart a cocoon from which dreams emerge.

(detail of canvas collage, COCOON, by Catherine Massaro)

As an artist, it’s both frustrating and humbling to constantly be reminded how futile it is to try to beat nature at creating beautiful things. All efforts seem so futile when you look closely at the simplest of things … the patterns on a seashell, the colors of a bird’s feathers, the clouds overhead. I use nature as my teacher and every day is again a reminder there is simply no way to learn these wonders in such a short time. It’s like always being in kindergarten.

I remain always on my knees in appreciation of the wondrous beauty of it all.

If someone or something always gets the last word, let it be Mother Nature. What good and lovely hands to be in, from the beginning to the end.

(featured photo by Catherine Massaro)

keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come…

( featured photograph by Catherine Massaro)

(photography by Catherine Massaro)

it’s what you see.

GO GET YOUR OWN GLIMPSE OF GOD

Getting ready to go exploring another National Forest next week and do some camping. This time, it’s The Lassen National Forest in northern California. It lies at the heart of one of the most fascinating areas of California, called the Crossroads. It’s where the granite of the Sierra Nevada, the lava of the Cascades, the Modoc Plateau and the sagebrush of the Great Basin all blend.

It’s the land of Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahi Yani Native American tribe, but the park is best known for it’s volcanic features.

Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta are part of the Ring of Fire, a series of active, dormant and extinct volcanos that extends around the Pacific Ocean. Lassen is a natural window into the earth’s past – and also into her future,  for fire and ice may come again.

I’ll be doing the Mills Creek Falls hike – rolling terrain, forest , flowers and a waterfall. A moderate hike.

     I’ll be listening for rumblings though …

( photo GO!  , canvas collage by Catherine Massaro)