ENJOYING THE SWEET LIFE

"Enjoying the Sweet Life" (Ganesh, 004v2; title by me) is the photo I mentioned yesterday I'd taken of a print of a painting I've had on my wall for many years. As I just now thought back on it, a co-worker gave me this print a little over 20 years ago. So He's been enjoying the sweet life somewhere within eyeshot all that time. I've also always considered Him one of the more handsome Ganesh's in my ever growing collection of figurines, pix, etc. of Ganesh. Last night was the ending night of the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. (For me at least, as for some reason when I googled for the dates this year I could only find the starting date of September 5, so I went with five days.) But since I began posting here a day late, I'll post at least one more pic: of my altar as it now looks with all its Ganeshas and my five little gifts to Him. I'll also probably post the poem that those gifts gave me, line by line, as I put them -- one each night -- on the altar. Not knowing ahead of time what gift I'd chose for the following night. I even decorated His altar that way this year. Instead of decorating it completely ahead of time, I brought one figurine or pendant or flower to it each night, and placed it with thought and care. Then offered my gift for that night after a brief "meditation." I liked the feeling of not knowing how the altar would wind up looking and what I would give Him, of just letting it all evolve.

As mentioned in my first post about Ganesh's birthday festival, I should note that I see Ganesh as just one of the many, many faces and aspects of the great unknowable we call God, or better, the Great Spirit. Or my favorite term: the Great Mystery. For I do not believe that my little all too human mind can comprehend that which everything comes out of and to which it returns. That I can only handle the tiniest portion of its vastness, and even then in rare moments of mysticism. But I do have a few favorite aspects/faces (i.e. Deities) that give my human need to comprehend some bit of comfort with their presence. Ganesh being "First Among Equals."

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

GANESH TO THE RESCUE

This is not a photo of a pic I have on a wall, but one I snatched off the internet years ago (Ganesh, "Ganesh-L"). I have a photo I took yesterday of print of a painting of Ganesh that was given to me many years ago and that I've had on a wall of mine, somewhere, ever since. I'll probably post that tomorrow. But when I came across "Ganesh to the Rescue" (my name for it, BTW) yesterday, I nearly fell off my computer chair. I was aware that sometimes Ganesh is portrayed as having only two arms (the usual being four) but 10!?! So I googled and learned that He's been known to display as many as 16 arms. Wow. He can remove quite a load of obstacles with that many arms! (His most well-known title being "Remover of Obstacles.") I also enjoy the sort of sci-fi feel to this pic. To my eye, it resembles the better sorts of art I've seen in years past in sci-fi magazines.

As mentioned in a previous post, I should note that I see Ganesh as just one of the many, many faces and aspects of the great unknowable we call God, or better, the Great Spirit. Or my favorite term: the Great Mystery. For I do not believe that my little all too human mind can comprehend that which everything comes out of and to which it returns. That I can only handle the tiniest portion of its vastness, and even then in rare moments of mysticism. But I do have a few favorite aspects/faces (i.e. Deities) that give my human need to comprehend some bit of comfort with their presence. Ganesh being "First Among Equals."

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

GANESH FLOATING

Third night of Ganesh Chaturthi (His birthday celebration): I took "Ganesh Floating" (Ganesh, 008v2) yesterday, after making my post here. And after this post I'll probably find another Ganesh image around my rooms to try to get a decent pic of. This one is of a photo on a catalog cover that I cut out and taped to my bedroom wall quite some time ago. I had a bit of trouble finding the right camera setting as the paper of the pic is semi-glossy and glares under a flash setting. But my room lighting isn't really good enough -- even in the day time -- for non-flash shots. I forget what I finally found worked, but cheered when I saw a pic that didn't have a big patch of white glare, or wasn't too blurry to work with at all. Those dark shadows on the left side are in the catalog cover pic. (I tried lightening them a bit, but it messed with the rest of the pic's contrasts.) I fussed with sharpness and a tiny bit with color. For instance, the wall is just a plain egg shell white in reality. But it needed a touch of color since Ganesh is pale, also. I felt a bit like Ganesh might feel, throughout the entire process: "removing" each obstacle. Smile. This year a new thing has entered my nightly offering and brief meditation before His altar: each little gift (stone, figurine, shell, etc.) is generating one line in what is becoming a poem. (For my thoughts on Ganesh, and all Deities, see yesterday's post, third paragraph.)

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

GANESH GALORE IN IRELAND

I've been remiss! Ganesh Chaturthi started yesterday and although I've been observing it each evening as always, I'd forgotten about my usual posting of Ganesh pix here. Just in case you don't know, this is the birthday festival of Ganesh (the elephant headed Hindu deity). Statues and figurines are clustered on altars in homes and in temples everywhere, and gifts offered. I'll post some pix of my own little crowded altar here, around the end of the festival.

This pic I'm posting today (copied off the internet) is of a few of the many Ganesh's in a park in Wicklow Ireland. Given my (somewhat) Irish heritage I think that's a good way to begin posting for Ganesh Chaturthi.

BTW, I should note that I see Ganesh as just one of the many, many faces and aspects of the great unknowable we call God, or better, the Great Spirit. Or my favorite term: the Great Mystery. For I do not believe that my little all too human mind can comprehend that which everything comes out of and to which it returns. That I can only handle the tiniest portion of its vastness, and even then in rare moments of mysticism. But I do have a few favorite aspects/faces (i.e. Deities) that give my human need to comprehend some bit of comfort with their presence. Ganesh being "First Among Equals."

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

STONED ROSE

"Stoned Rose" (4-7-12 11594v3a) was just fudged out of an old photo yesterday. I have a minor issue with its visual balance. However, I really like the contrast between a real rose's softness and the stone texture of this pic. At least that's how I see the upshot of the editing that I did. The title also is sort of fun, with that idiomatic meaning of being high.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

FANNING OUT

"Fanning Out" (4-3-12 11551v3) is an old photo that I just finished fussing at: cropping, color adjustment and saturation, and a wee bit of sharpening and painting out of distracting tiny spots. Yes, I know, ferns aren't actually this bright a green. But I can't help it, they look so much more like they feel to me live when I intensify their greens. Warning: I just came across this old folder of pix and there are lots of "unfinished" fern pix in it. So there's likely to be more fern photos comin' down the pike. :-)

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

GASPING FOR BREATH

"Gasping for Breath" (5-25-09 172613d) was just now morphed from one of my oldest pix. As often, I also made other versions, and I like one other as much as this one. I decided to post this because the colors are more varied. Honestly, (also as often happens) I now like all of them less than I did on first look. But I'm not up to any further picking and fixing, especially as I did a lot of that sort of thing already developing a pic for my dreams&poetry blog post today. I should mention that a lot of the "fixing" today was due to the low pixel count of these oldest pix. They go wonky readily and require extra work, or giving up on them or going off in some entirely new direction with them. Yeah, I have other pix already worked on that I could post in cases like this. But when I become attached to something I see in a pic as I work on it, I also can get stubborn and determined to share it.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

* * * *

‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** Patricia’s dreams & poetry blog; and if you wish to copy or use any of her writing or photos, please email her for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****