Hidden Secrets of the Ordinary

I drove a few miles to Cannon Beach where I spent 3 or 4 hours walking and looking. When I walk my goal is to let myself be captivated by those things that are outside of myself.

I came upon this small lump of barnacle encrusted basalt in a pool of tidal water.

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It doesn't look like much. Look a little closer.

The beauty is in the details.

It just keeps getting prettier and prettier.






A little further down the beach are several large sea stacks.

The brilliant daylight shining through the opening at the bottom of the monolith caught me by surprise. I had been taking photos of it and the other sea stacks while I approached from a distance. As I came in front I saw the light shining through from the other side. My mouth fell open, I was 'wowed' for quite a while watching the surf continuing to pound its way through and around the clustered sea stacks.

Bees And Blossoms On The Way To The Beach

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On the way to the beach on the N. east corner of S. Downing and Avenue 'U' I found this going on. The blue of the flowers is unlike any blue I recall seeing in New York. It is unlike chicory in that it tends to be a dulled blue. Chicory is more like the sky in 'blueness'. There are other blue flowers here of shades I have not made note of before. Apparently the bees like it. The camera and lighting did not emphasize the 'strange' blue I am speaking of but it hints at it. I have no idea what kind of flowers they are.






Down at the end of the street the tide and the surf are still at it. These buggers are still going at it too.

Keep on Truckin' guys. We need yah.

Reflections On A Walk To The Edge Of The Sea

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The waves are smaller
than they were this morning
when they rose and fell in a series of collapsing walls;
the residue of which dissipated in a froth
around my feet.

They’re smaller now
and inflections from the afternoon sunlight
make distinctions in the outline along the brow of Tillamook Head
which at sunrise appeared as soft curves covered by muslin.




At the end of the sand, gulls clustered on a small rise in the sea floor
between the ocean and beach
remain unperturbed by my approach:
their shapes replicate surreally on the film of watery sand under the sky.

Is it true nothing is as it seems?
Tillamook Head only a transient who moved here from Idaho
fifteen million years ago?

What am I that appeared
and will be gone in less than a century;
and the tide as well vibrating at my feet
on a string plucked at the heart of a universe
that will one day be gone like me?

A Country Yard on Avenue 'U'

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This is a very pretty and comfortable setting for anyone who would want to unwind. I know nothing of this property but could not help stopping to photograph it in the morning sun.

At first glance the yard appears overrun. There are several trees and untended garden spots where flowers are or will be later on in the season. But at second glance there is more. This is a place that says: "Everything can go to hell for a while. I need some time."

That's the 'vibe' I get from this parcel of land on Avenue 'U'. Other lawns in the community are impeccably manicured, some to an extreme. Just the visual information someone does not want to have reinforced when trying to escape a carefully detailed regimen.




Imagine having escaped from the rat race of 9 until whenever the day mercifully ended in a night which you would wake from to coffee, by yourself on this porch, to a new day without schedules. I can imagine doing it here, with coffee as the sun floods over the hills at the end of the street.



Just look.

This is the boundary of the universe for a couple weeks.



Unless you want to walk a few hundred yards to the Pacific Ocean







and forget everything there with the never ending surf: food for thought while hoping for supper.

What A Long Strange Trip Its Continuting To Be

Well I am settling in and keeping busy trying to do the things necessary for the purchase of the trailer. Apparently the DMV handles the titles on these things. This simplifies matters.

I bought a full sized air mattress after sleeping on the floor for the better part of 9 nights. The air mattress is very comfortable and it encourages me to lie there when I wake up. The floor was surprisingly comfortable too. My back felt invigorated after lying flat on it most of the night.

This is an interesting interlude in my life. I seem to be experiencing things as if they were happening to someone else and I was watching it. I suppose if I was up on social issues I might have cause for worry. Send me the social security and go away. I earned it. I realize there are people out there trying to remove the value from our lives, I could spend the rest of my life worrying about it. Or I could forget it and feel certain someone else is worrying about it. One worrier per problem is my motto. You worry about it.

Actually the trip has disorientated me in more than the physical realm. Imagine what it is like to be familiar with nothing and everyone is a stranger. I began to think about this on the drive. As I sensed a rootlessness in my experience it gave me the ability to consider things with greater attention. The reason is that there was no comfortable format or backdrop to interpret what I was seeing. So I just 'saw' it as it was. For a bit of it anyhow.

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At least that is how I have understood the experience. I went from my place on the hill where I had slept and woken up for almost 36 years...
















to living with horizons completely different.













Here I am literally at a place where the concept of 'no more' has no meaning.



The horizon is impenetrably vast communicating the idea of limitless potential. The ocean works like a 'Zen Master' explaining and redefining who I am. There's not much more to say in that regard.

Below is a poem I began 4 years ago. I revised it some today and will probably revise it more later. The photo associated with it is from Lincoln City Oregon. It is further south along the coast than Seaside is.

Everything here on the west coast is astonishing. From traffic to just setting my biological compass; nothing has anything which I can refer back to for validation of a current conception. Seeing things for what they are, then, becomes very important.


On the beach At Lincoln City 11/09/05


The constant rolling and heaving
mesmerizes me

before breaking over
my feet

making me leap toward shore
unexpectedly wet

while laughing at the recognition of a universe
that not only sings,
but wants to dance as well.

Time On The Beach

The beach is a lot like a damage return area. (click on highlighted text for additional information)







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A wide variety of items that are no longer functioning in their original capacity often end up on the beach together without any apparent organization. The Pacific is the great equalizer.







The Pacific Ocean functions like a department manager, doing what it does to keep the whole thing going on. By repeating one activity endlessly with amazing efficiency many things are accomplished. Verse 16 of the 'Tao Te Ching' This is from the first, and still my favorite, translation of the 'Tao' which I read by Raymond B. Blakney. :

"The Way and Immortality ...
Touch ultimate emptiness,
Hold steady and still.

All things work together:
I have watched them reverting,

And have seen how they flourish
And return again, each to his roots.

This, I say, is the stillness:
A retreat to one's roots;
Or better yet, return
To the will of God,
Which is, I say, to constancy.
The knowledge of constancy
I call enlightenment and say
That not to know it
Is blindness that works evil.

But when you know
What eternally is so,
You have stature
And stature means righteousness
And righteousness is kingly
And kingliness divine
And divinity is the Way
Which is final.

Then, though you die,
You shall not perish."




In the Pacific Northwest the geological features reveal huge amounts of time and events too violent to be adequately described with words. I'm pondering what it means to refer to a period, the Eocene, and reporting it to be in the time frame of 40 million years in the past. This is really just a drop in the bucket of geological time.




Less than 5 years ago I believed that all this took place in a period of time 6000 years ago within a specific beginning and creation period lasting six consecutive twenty four hour days. I certainly have changed.















Time...











... is one thing I'm thinking about.

Rainy Days In Seaside

There's a lot of rain during May in Seaside. I found a way to enjoy it. The windows and doors of the apartment provide some interesting shots.


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This is looking out the back door on a rainy afternoon.



The way it came out gives it a 'painting' like quality.

With the blinds out of the way the rain splattered window continues to contribute an interesting effect.



Like strings of crystals.

















Clothing hangs in the rain.






It was sunny when the laundry was hung out. Most of the wash got dried, this was left on the line. It takes a bit of faith to hang wash out to dry in Seaside.


On the other side of the apartment two windows meet in a corner with striking effect.











I had an interesting time doing this on a rainy day in Seaside.