Thursday, November 12, 2009

the golden portal

on a recent bike ride,
i was flying along
the trail.

the wind in my tail.

i saw
a golden glow
up ahead.


is this it?
is this the portal?


riding closer
i saw that in fact
it was a carpet of golden needles


and i knew
that it was a portal
~
to beauty

38 comments:

Kathleen said...

I love portals to beauty! Thank you for sharing your find today. BTW: Gave you a little shout-out in my post today. No work involved...just wanted to you to know how much I enjoy your blog! Be well!

Acornmoon said...

A case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

ellen abbott said...

It does look like a glow of light up ahead. What a wonderful picture.

Jinksy said...

Lovely!

Tess Kincaid said...

A golden portal of beauty! There are a few days in October when the huge pines at WM drop their needles. It's spectacular. The grass is covered in an autumnal amber blanket.

Delwyn said...

and you rode through the portal...
and into a world of splendour...
Happy days

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

What a magical discovery Steven! The shot from the furthest distance simply glows . . . Did you fall in?

Barry said...

Wonderful post Steven. Nice imagery. It certainly was a portal to beauty.

Golden West said...

Isn't it nice that we don't have to wait for eternity to spend time with God, but can do it right here on Earth?

steven said...

hi kathleen, thankyou for the generous mnetion and i'm glad you enjoyed your visit. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hello acornmoon, there's very little i can't find a degree of beauty in!!! have a lovely day. steven

steven said...

hi ellen, the day was overcast and chilly but a beautiful ride all the same. i saw this scene going both ways - out and back - and i was taken by the detail of colour inside the mat of golden needles. click on the pics and they'll fill your screen so you can see what i saw. steven

steven said...

thankyou very much jinksy!!!! i agree. steven

steven said...

hi willow, i love the drop and i love the time in summer forests when the ground is littered with old warm smelling needles that are actually soft under bare feet. have a lovely day at the manor. steven

steven said...

ha willow - you read my mind!!! have a lovely day by the river. steven

steven said...

hello bonnie - i feel when i'm biking along paths or in the countryside - as if i am inside the landscape. really truly, as if i am looking around at the big and the small. it's a good thing that i am able to leave my body alone to do the biking. have a lovely day. steven

steven said...

hi barry - i'm really glad you got to enjoy what i saw and shared. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

golden west - those are really beautiful words. thankyou for framing all of this so nicely. steven

Dan Gurney said...

...and instead of riding our bicycles as you do, so many of us blithely hop into our cars, adding to global warming, and thinking ourselves to be fortunate not to have to walk or ride our bikes, blissfully unaware of the poverty of our choices.

steven said...

hi dan . . . i make no judgements about people who drive cars. we're on a bridge between what has worked, what we recognize doesn't work and what we need to make this work. the bike is a lovely machine but difficult for many in terms of the physical requirements, comfort, seasonal challenges and so on.
so it will need work, as will cars, infrastructure and so on. i'm eternally optimistic!!!! thanks for this dan. steven

Verily I go. said...

Magical.

Dervish said...

that is spectacularly beautiful. i like the first image best, where it seems surreal and unexplainable.

Reya Mellicker said...

Wow! This is exquisite, Steven. I believe it IS a portal, not only to beauty but who knows what?

Every time I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, when i lived in San Francisco, I felt I was traveling past a big ole portal, whoa! I completely understand why people jump off that bridge. It feels like you could be in the next universe in a flat second. Not that I ever wanted to jump off, but I could feel the proximity of the portal.

So sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. May she fly high.

Friko said...

you have a wonderful journey to work and it is even more wonderful, that you have eyes to see the beauty.
Thank you for sharing these beauties with us.

Kay said...

hi steven...where do you want your portal to take you??...we have lots of larch trees about us that make a golden carpet too...have a lovely day..kay

The Weaver of Grass said...

What a lovely way of putting it Steven.

Stacey J. Warner said...

so amazing what nature offers us...it was a portal.

much love

hope said...

What type of tree drops such interesting needles? The only golden glow like that here are the Ginkgo Trees, which turn a beautiful yellow,then all the leaves drop off simultaneously, almost overnight.

Margaret Pangert said...

The golden portal is beautiful, Steven! I would love to step through it.

steven said...

hi veruly, thankyou very much. it really felt that way for me. steven

steven said...

hey reya, thanks for that! she was a small, strong woman. i really liked her a lot. steven

steven said...

hi friko - as much as possible i try to ride with my eyes wide open. i'm always looking and watching at the same time. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

kay that's a very cool question - there are many places it could take me. it took me to one - appreciating the ever presence of beauty around me. otherwise, a warm, quiet cabin by a lake for a year hiatus of writing, painting, reading and being would be nice!!!!
thanks for asking. steven

steven said...

thankyou very much weaver. steven

steven said...

stacey j. there are portals of this nature all over aren't there?!!! have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hello hope. i believe it's a larch. the effect at a distance of that tree was amazing - especially through the mist on my way "out" on this ride. have a lovely day. steven

steven said...

margaret - i bet there are portals of beauty all over where you live. just spend a moment truly immersed in it and - off you go!! have a lovely day. steven

Crafty Green Poet said...

this is a lovely portal!