{"id":775,"date":"2014-04-17T05:17:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T05:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=775"},"modified":"2014-04-17T05:17:20","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T05:17:20","slug":"april-week-2-the-snail-is-an-excellent-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=775","title":{"rendered":"April Week 2 – The snail is an excellent model"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"April<\/a>What do these images have to do with my comments?\u00c2\u00a0 That may still be your question at the end of these paragraphs.<\/p>\n

Today silence and absolute calm converged on Boston as a time of remembrance was observed at the marathon finish line on Boylston Street.\u00c2\u00a0 One year ago today (April 15) two pressure cooker bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring an estimated 264 others.\u00c2\u00a0 As a tribute to the recovery from last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terror attack, next Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Boston Marathon will host the second largest number of runners in its history.<\/p>\n

At the very moment this news was breaking last year I was riding in a funeral procession with my brothers and their families to bury our father.\u00c2\u00a0 None of us asked why the funeral director suggested we not turn the radio on until after the interment.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously, in his wisdom, we were spared the grief and agony of others so that we could have our moment of family mourning.<\/p>\n

\"April<\/a>Sometimes it is important to stay focused on one’s personal experience and attend to the greater picture, the needs of the world, later.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps we can actually be more compassionate and open to other situations having cared for our own first.\u00c2\u00a0 Self-care and self-reflection are anything but selfish.\u00c2\u00a0 Watching a snail slowly creating its slimy pathway across a well-traveled sidewalk re-taught me this lesson.<\/p>\n

My favorite images from last week are my attempts to capture the kind of single-focused stillness that reveals a deeper purpose.\u00c2\u00a0 The Great Blue Heron stands statuesque, and, in its movement, is graceful.\u00c2\u00a0 It is one of North America’s most familiar wading birds and very adaptable to different environments.\u00c2\u00a0 At four feet tall, with a six-foot wingspan, it is also the continent’s largest heron species.\u00c2\u00a0 While vocal in flight, Great Blue Herons are frequently observed standing silent and motionless along shorelines.<\/p>\n

Standing silent and motionless is an applicable spiritual posture for this week we call holy, a time of focusing on the life-work and words of Jesus that led him to the cross.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Incarnate, you have redeemed me; dying, you have awakened me.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you have brought all your works to fullness \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in virgin nature you found pasture, in virgin nature you assumed flesh.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Hildegard of Bingen.<\/i><\/p>\n

What do these images have to do with my comments?\u00c2\u00a0 That may still be your question!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do these images have to do with my comments?\u00c2\u00a0 That may still be your question at the end of these paragraphs. Today silence and absolute calm converged on Boston as a time of remembrance was observed at the marathon … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[205,202,203,204,201,63],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-2","tag-boston-marathon","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-holy-week","tag-nature-photography","tag-snail","tag-stacy-boorn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hkEw-cv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}