Spotting the odd ball

An avid four leaf clover hunter am I. In fact, I'm a very LuckiGirl because I can hardly pass a patch and one not call out to me. I don't really hunt for them, instead my eyes gravitate to these little beauties and I've been finding them easily since childhood.

This has always delighted me and I usually save my finds, pressing them between the pages of any book I might have handy. Books are my friends and one usually accompanies me to any park or green space. My books are loaded up with these gems and you could open pages randomly of any of my books and find the dried keepsakes looking back at you in full surprise.

Luck? Well, maybe. As an adult (shucks), a learning specialist and PhotoReading Instructor, I've learned that my reticular activating system or RAS has created a strategy to identify the four pattern quickly because the brain is a pattern recognition device. I've also gotten good because I make it a game and because I like it so much my eyes and brain reward me easily and quickly.

There is much truth in the statement that what we see depends on what we are looking for and when I turn my attention to any green patch, I inevitably find one, or more depending on the richness of that patch. I can also tell when there are none there and quickly move on to fertile ground.

I have so many of these little sweethearts that I've begun turning them into pieces of art. In fact, poems even pop into my head while hunting, without any effort on my part. Hunting for the clovers is much like a walking meditation. In that sacred time, nothing exists except me and all of God's greenery and I play at spotting the odd ball.

Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner identified and named our multiple intelligences. They are: linguistic; logical/mathematical; visual/spatial; bodily/kinesthetic; musical; inter-personal; intra-personal; existentialist (a vast spiritual awareness), and naturalist.

Like the clover, we are a composite of many amazing pieces and to the degree that we develop our faculties and gifts, this determine how much of our genius potential we get access to. And like the four leaf clover, we can distinguish ourselves. Clover hunters utilize and harmonize visual-spatial, bodily/kinesthetic and naturalist intelligences.

Let us not forget how the simple act of noticing the beauty in all of creation, even the patterns and differences in something as small as blades of grass, petals and patches of clover expands our existentialist intelligence which means that we are all part of an infinite, spiritually intelligent universe that continues to become more self aware and powerful with each new discovery.

Ever been lucky enough to find any four leaf clovers? Or patient enough? Talk to me...

Just like the flowers...

Our lives unfold, just like flowers. We start as tiny baby buds and then slowly unfold into full bloom to share our essence and beauty with the world; then we get pollinated; proliferate; mature; leave a few seeds in our wake; and then cycle back again in an eternal dance.

I enjoy photographing flora because they whisper to me and they're very effective because I both hear and see them, and will stop on a whim while walking or driving to capture their essence, joyfully honoring the request to stop, listen and inhale. Their beauty impacts me in countless ways and connects me to Source Energy and appreciating their aliveness is akin to prayer.

These beauties called out and caught my eye while in St. Augustine, Florida on a recent weekend jaunt. A barely noticeable fragrance, but oh so artistic! Art by God.

This second beauty was at the base of a public sculpture. The contrast of hard and soft was striking, and that something so delicate could thrive at the base of a rock is remarkable. So soft and yet so resilient!

It was intensely hot on this day, and the sun baked down on us as we strolled through the streets of downtown St. Augustine. I sauntered about, eyes intoxicated by beauty, with an ever grateful heart for a spouse who acts as my protective angel while I drink in the scenes, often rapt and oblivious to other happenings. The ecstasy of letting go of cares is unspeakable.

I marvel at the radiance and strength of these fragile ones, and how they thrive under weather extremes including the blazing heat of the summer sun.

The thing that I love the most? Beauty and vulnerability. We tend to think of vulnerability as a weakness, but in fact, I've come to understand that its really a strength, in nature, and in myself.

That the sun illuminates and activates all life, and life reaches back out, turning towards the sun in the continuous heliotropic dance of life -- is pleasure itself. I bask daily in the knowingness that I too, am a budding flower, also Art by God, beautiful, both weak and strong, continually unfolding and turning ever towards the Light.