Love Gloves

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(Edited)

Love Gloves
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Fresh after the holiday, snow dusted down powdery white, an infrequent flyer where I live. It melts into grey slush mush mess within a day, salted rivulets drain unrestrained into sewers. Grab camera and go while it’s fresh, see what I can capture before it’s a mess. I’m off in chilly wind to my favourite haunting ground, this two hundred year old cemetery.

Living in the city really cuts off access to nature, so I take advantage of what I have available, like everyone else that lives here. Cemeteries in the city have a double unspoken function of being a park. This was unusual to me, since where I’m from, that just doesn’t happen, not ever.
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HEART I

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Walking through the gates, I cut a diagonal path through the snow to this one particular spot with an umbrella branched shrubby tree. Typically, when I shoot in the cemetery, I go in whatever direction my intuition pulls me in. This tree almost always has ornamentation of some kind on it. The headstone for the grave is directly under the branches on one side of the tree.

Arriving at the spot, I had such a shock. The entire tree was decorated in a way I’d never seen before over the years. I didn’t touch the camera. I walked around the entire tree studying the decorations, how they were made, how they were hung, and most of all, what did those gloves spell out? Forget shooting photos. I studied all of it for twenty minutes before I thought of engaging the lens focus, click button action.
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HEART II

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Love is something we all need, something very lacking in this world, especially these days. All too often, people are fast to get their hate train on for anyone, any reason, any time. Let’s go! Let’s fight because you’re not right. You’re not on the same page as me. How dare you be different from the herd in your thoughts, your choices, your way of seeing and being! You see, when you do that, you challenge me, you are a threat to me, my view of the world, and all that I cling to as being “me”.

Put that experience on repeat. I’ve lived it most of my life. I don’t fit the collective societal mind mold well at all and there are enough who get downright hateful and attack me for it. Anyone who does not fit that mold at whatever turns in the road, is targeted by a million or more slices of the knife to force one into the mold.

Yesterday, I was reading @aagabriel’s beautiful post, [I Know It's Over...yet I Think I'm Going Back Nostalgia to Fuel Future Fights, where I came face-to-face with these lyrics from a Morrissey song I’ve listened to hundreds of times:

“It’s so easy to laugh.
It’s so easy to hate.
It takes strength
To be gentle and kind.”

Those four lines capture what’s in my mind. Hate is the easy path. It’s easy to let one’s emotions rule one, rather than one ruling one’s emotions. It’s much more difficult to choose a path of love. As Morrissey expressed, “It takes strength to be gentle and kind”. The strength to walk that way in the world is inside each of us, but only if we choose to look inside to find the path.
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HEART III

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Love is bought and sold. Lies are told. Faked affection with misdirection to “love” assumed, costumed in film finery. Manipulative games are played. Lies to self are told and believed. Shiny surfaces reflecting back your projections until the reel vision you hold is worn thin. Your projector fails on that prospect.

You move on and begin the cycle anew. The search for love, to be loved, searching everywhere outside, surely real love is with this person, place, or thing. It’s just a matter of finding the right one, the right place, the right thing. Right? Let me know when you find that person, place, or thing that lasts forever. Do let me know.

What does real love look like?
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HEART IV

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MAPLE LEAF

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“LOVE IS EVERYTHING”

Spelled out in gloves, with mitten heart pauses in a circle. After the last heart space pause, a fingerless glove rested directly over the headstone in such a way that it brushed back and forth across the top in the wind.

Several additional ornaments hung all over the tree, many were hand made. I reflected on the people who created this. The planning. The time. The work. All made for someone long departed from this world. I’ve often wondered who this person was and what they meant to those who remember and celebrate them on all holidays, every year. Such effort for someone who cannot reciprocate, cannot answer, and is no longer among the living.

No other gravesite in the cemetery is adorned in this elaborate manner. I marveled at the expanse of love expressed with these rituals. Love given freely, minus expectations, minus demands of any kind. A deceased human being isn’t going respond to that. If love can be given unconditionally to the dead, why can’t we do that with each other while we are alive? Real love does not come with strings attached demanding that one must be a certain way in order to receive that love, regardless of the type of relationship.

What stops us from loving others freely without conditions?

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GOLDEN REFLECTION

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All photos taken by Nine with a Pentax digital 35mm camera and 90mm Tamron macro lens.
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37 comments
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It's really cool how you focused your content on the same tree. Those types of inspirations are the best, or maybe it's just me, just me has been an issue lately.

Squirrel!

And the last one. I had to look twice, cool reflection. At first glance I thought it was a trumpet, went right along with the Christmas theme.

You see @coloneljethro's new one? Bofaya did some recent cemetery exploring and bofaya know how to work a camera.

💖

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It grabbed my attention to quite a degree. I've never seen anything like it.

just me has been an issue lately.

I think I touched on how that works in this post, lol, should have tagged you in it.

Squirrel!

MOURNING CLOAK BUTTERFLY!

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Hahaha! Thanks for noting the last photo. Trumpet, cool, didn't see that until you said it. I thought I'd wave bye at the end of the post.

You see @coloneljethro's new one? Bofaya did some recent cemetery exploring and bofaya know how to work a camera.

I have not but will be checking that out asap! Thanks!

💖

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If love can be given unconditionally to the dead, why can’t we do that with each other while we are alive?

Well they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I think a lot of times people don't realize how much they love someone till that someone is absent for good. I hope it wasn't that way with whoever made all those mittens. That's a beautiful gesture.

P.S. something's wonky with your link to aagabriel's post

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Well they say absence makes the heart grow fonder

I think that's true for many. Good points. I don't know what the situation is with this person, seems like a large amount of family. I've never seen them while there but there's always a lot of love on display. Totally beautiful.

Thanks for the P.S., I'll correct the link!

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I wanna see this in person! 😢😍😢😍 (The emoji choices are seriously lacking. Please imagine these two combined.)
And yet you made me feel like I was there. Especially that bit about the fingerless glove. Nicely done.

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This is a weird looking cat, though.

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Thanks! I was attempting to bring the sense of being there into this post. It's all gone now though 😞, only in pictures. It was a sight to see.

This is a weird looking cat, though.

Totally weird cat, looks and all, always hiding fuzzed out behind the camera. 😂

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Where are you? Are you on my side of the coast? (I'm in Portland but you probably already knew that because you seem like the type to read a profile.)

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Haha, definitely way, way east of you, as the crow flies.

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I have to vote on anything that says crow.

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😂 I couldn't help throwing that little chuckle in there. I love crows, once met one that someone took in because it only had one leg, crazy smart birds, highly intuitive.

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They AARRRRRRE so wicked smart. I love the way they watch me when I show them how to do something, like open a pistachio or walnut. My dog, well, I love him and he's also very smart in his own way, but when I show him how to do something he has no idea that I'm showing him how to do something. He just wants to eat it.

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LOL, your dog, too funny in comparison to a crow. Yes, they watch everything. Very sharp birds. You should have seen the size of the ones way north of where I am. Just a bit bigger than a football.

Ravens are closely related, love those too. Then there's the hawks where I live. I don't have pictures, never had my camera at some awesome moments, but some good stories. I constantly watch them here. Oh, Canada geese are pretty ferocious, lots of those here and I don't get within biting range.

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We get some Canada geese down here, too. Once when I was on the waterfront waiting for the crows to come roost, a mother was letting her two wild children chase them. I yelled out to the kids that geese bite, but they were tourists from another land and didn't know wtf I was saying. The geese were merciful and ran away. Those kids were seriously lucky. There were sooooo many of them. Kids coulda been mobbed, easily.

I WANNA HEAR YOUR CROW STORIES!!! Make a post and I'll upvote reblog comment upvote comments.

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You get them there too, LOL! Oh yeah, no child needs to experience an attack from geese. I've often thought they'd be better guard dogs than a dog.

Hahaha! I don't have super interesting crow stories, just the one-legged crow I told you about. I have a couple wild ones about hawks. The rest are all mundane and wouldn't mean anything to anyone except me. I need photos if I do the hawk stories and I seem to radically fail when it comes to photographing birds. Others do that so much better than I could, imo.

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The rest are all mundane and wouldn't mean anything to anyone except me.

And me. Seriously. But no pressure.

And yeah, taking bird photos requires a certain amount of neurotic obsession patience.

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And me. Seriously. But no pressure.

Lol, I wouldn't take that as pressure coming from you, doesn't seem to be your style at all.

In all seriousness, I'm connected to raven, so ravens will often bring me messages (not light ones either). Crows also an affinity due to connection to raven. So it's those kind of stories.

The hawks, lots there, some okay for public consumption, some too private.

I think birds don't want me photographing them, for whatever reason, no matter what I do. I've been trying for many years and still haven't given up. Neurotic obsession? 😂

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Neurotic Obsession. 👍
Raven is a very strong symbol! I would be connected to raven if we had them here, but the closest I know of that are social are out by the mountain. Technically I signed my soul over to them on Thanksgiving weekend last year, but I haven't been back to see them since. Meanwhile, I hang out with the miniraven trashdigger champions of Portland that try and run all the hawks out of town.
Actually saw them run a raven out of town once, too. I don't remember if I already said in this thread and I'm too lazy to check.
ALSO, crows have very strong symbolism for me, too. They've kept me sane and connected me to two other witchy pagan crow people people that live far away om other parts of the planet.

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Ravens hang out where the mountains are. I'm not close to mountains now, so I don't see them unless I go where they are.

You signed your soul over to raven? I need to know that story. Miniraven, LOLOL! I've seen some big crows. I would love to see them running hawks out of town and especially a raven. That's something else. No, you didn't tell me before now.

You have quite a close connection with crows. Connecting you to tow other people that far away? Now I'm curious to know the stories. (admits to strong fascination with birds and connections with birds)

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Pardon me while I share my own content on your post...
Raven Cult
Hawk Hasslers
There's a crows-ambush-hawk video scheduled for Sunday on my youtube, and I'm not saying that to try and spam you, I actually do have it scheduled because I make tons of crow videos and I don't want to blow my load all at once. It's not the highest quality, but still super cool. I'll probably share it to feathered fiends on Sunday and no I'm no going to fix that typo.

At the dawn of my deep crow connection, about a year ago, I was in some crowlover facebook group and started chatting with someone in Hamburg who had been crowing for years. The group got deleted and I lost touch with her and was very sad. She found me months later on instagram and gave me some advice about supplements for some young crows with avian pox. We continued talking and found we had all sorts of things in common, including a fucked up childhood with narcissistic parents! Hooray! One of her crow people IG friends who lives in Mumbai was having a crisis with a very old crow who sought her out for a safe place to rest during his last days on earth. A day later one of those surprising/not surprising synchronistic spiritual witchy things happened that made us all realize there was something beyond our mortal awareness that was connecting the three of us:

Hamburg friend used to be a wildlife rehabber. She informed me out of the blue that she was talking to Mumbai friend about the above-mentioned old crow crisis. The crow was new to the Mumbai friend, but they decided to name him Al Green because they were pretty sure he was going to die and he couldn't go out being "that old crow." I can't remember why she told me about this, I think because she was apologetic about not having time to respond to my messages.

Next day I was hanging out with my buddy Bo, who eats from my hand and stands on my head. We were just spending some quiet time together when a man pulled over in his musical mini van and got out to see wtf this crazy crow lady was doing. He had a very non-threatening vibe, so I talked to him. Turns out his name was Crow. He said some stuff about me having "the magic" if I believed in that stuff. I said I did. He was just passing through, didn't live in Portland. Said he wished he could give me something as a thank you for the experience and the time I spent talking to him. It was a unique thing to say. I told him that his kind interest and curiosity was gift enough. He got in his van and drove away. It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized that the music that had been playing in his van was Al Green.

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🤣No pardon required! Those were wonderful posts. So glad you left me links for them.

There's a crows-ambush-hawk video scheduled for Sunday on my youtube

What is this on Sunday? I need to know what time, link, all the good stuff, or I can wait for the post...

I don't want to blow my load all at once.
feathered fiends

dies laughing🤣

Okay, that whole story gave me the shivers. Thank you for sharing all that. This is exactly the kind of thing I was speaking of. You have a deep connection to crows, so beautiful. There are none around me here, but I wish there were. Instead, cardinals (another story) and hawks. I really should write these out. I feel encouraged to do this seeing your stories and what you've shared here.

Thank you @corvidae, it's a real pleasure getting to know you.

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Likewise! I want to hear your shiver stories. Make sure you tag me or message me when you make a post about them.

The hawk video, even though it's set to private until I publish it Sunday, I may still be able to send the link.
See if this works. It's not the best quality because it was near sunset and underexposed. But still cool, in my totally unbiased opinion.

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Likewise! I want to hear your shiver stories. Make sure you tag me or message me when you make a post about them.

(insert happy bird dance) Okay, it's going to happen then, just added those story posts to my mental list. I'll make sure to let you know, thanks. I really appreciate this about Hive, so much inspiration from many people. I keep growing in directions I didn't think I could. 😂

If you want to read a "non-bird" real life shiver story, lol, there's this one that I did Smoking Bush.

I tried your link, thanks, but it wants me to sign in. I'm not on youtube, so I'll wait for your post. You do far better with birds than I've ever done. I'm looking forward to seeing.

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I keep growing in directions I didn't think I could.

Me too!! It's crazy what kind of blooming can happen when you get genuine encouragement from fellow creatives to be exactly you.

Going to read smoking bush tonight. That sounds like fortune telling. Like reading tea leaves.

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Me too!! It's crazy what kind of blooming can happen when you get genuine encouragement from fellow creatives to be exactly you.

Yes, that is more valuable than words can express!

Going to read smoking bush tonight. That sounds like fortune telling. Like reading tea leaves.

LOL, it was crazy!

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You have no legs..?

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looks down, sees two long things extending to ground, yup, both legs are still there

Hahaha, that's the crow I met that had one leg, but a heck of a lot smarter than me with two legs.

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I just shared this with my @pooky-jax

Nice water droplet selfie...

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Awww, that's so sweet, thanks! Hahaha, that's not a water droplet selfie, it's a gold coloured December holiday ornament on that same tree. I wish I could get one that good in a water droplet.

Thanks @krazzytrukker!

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