While most of the spring breakers descended on Miami’s South Beach to burn themselves to a crisp, drink themselves into oblivion, and dress up for hunting the opposite sex, we choose to visit a park that I had only once have a memory of.
That park is Oleta State Park. It is Oleta State Park just of the NE 163 Street right before you go over the bridge to get to North Miami Beach. This park was fist settled by indians as a fishing village. The urbanites head out here and rumble over the mountain bike paths.
We didn’t jump on bikes, we just wandered around the trails. My father even found a kite which we played with for a little while.
I am back in Tokyo, and now is the time to sort through all my images and let them tell their story. This is the first one
Typhoon #18 was heading our way the other day. The meteorologists were predicting that it would only barely touch the Tokyo area, as it was way out in the Pacific Ocean. I usually don’t put too much trust in what they say, but the wind was blowing a bit harder than usual, but other than that there wasn’t much sign that possible stormy weather was on its way. The clouds had woven themselves into a a patch worked sky.
I did something that I rarely do on my lunch break, I went outside. I just felt I needed to be alone and in the fresh air. All the air was drenched in ocean aroma, as I wandered outside and found a single tree in a park near. I just sat. I attempted to do nothing. I just listened to the breeze speak through the rustle of the the trees, and watch the clouds quickly unfurling across the the blue skies. I seemed to be the only one for 100s of meters. I know there were other people outside enjoying this wonderfully warm autumn day, but they had completely dropped out of my sphere of acknowledgment.
The colors were ultra vivid. The sounds crystal clear, I could even see the mushrooms as they sprouted up out of the soil. I hadn’t sat so still for a long time. Time folded in on itself as I observed the tree’s shadow ebb and fade with each passing cloud. My own personal natural cinema vérité flickering there at my feet.
It was a beautiful moment that wove itself directly into my soul. Tapping in to that higher power of the creator when you allow your heart to syncopate with the world. Each heartbeat flashed images as the natural celluloid natural cinema vérité continued.
A wonderful collection of moments that made up a fabulous day. I saw the heavens and the earth, and even a mushroomed Mt. Fuji.
From shadow we come into this world and all will return to the shadows. The way we choose to live in the sunshine defines us as the person we become. We have decisions to make along the way. At times we run towards the shadows and attempt to hide from our true nature, but that is only running away from ourselves.
Once we are in the light all can be revealed if we consciously search for the truth. We will never to be able to find truth if we look for it in darkness. It is only in the light that we can begin to comprehend what the word truth means.
What has been framed out of this image. What lies to the left side? What can one find if you were permitted to gaze over the edge and into the city?
My photographic frame is my frame of mind. It is my often feeble attempt to visual record my life’s stages. In my argument at least I am searching for answers, even if I may never find them.
This Friday was gorgeous. It all and all a perfect spring day. The sun shone so high in the sky that I had to roll up my long sleeves as I took an afternoon stroll. The dust and pollen filled my nostrils with every breath, but it didn’t matter. The day soothed my tired body.
Tokyo is on the other side of the cherry blossom peak. That is when the trees have reached past their full bloom and now are beginning to shed their pink petals like a snow flurries. The petals flutter down from the canopies above and dust the ground in their pinkness. It is a really magical time of year. A time that seems like it is snowing yet the weather is warm, and the flakes are neither moist or cold.
Wandering through a small neighborhood park I came across some mothers and their children enjoying the last days of the cherry blossoms. To be so thankful that the winter is over and that we all know the blazing heat of summer is not that far behind. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Let us pause. Take a moment to enjoy the sensation of the ever drifting pink petals. Fluttering in the wind and landing around our feet. We will have time enough to attempt to keep cool in the long humid days of summer.
Redlands Fruit and Spice Park in south western Dade County. is one of those places that I haven’t visited since I was a child. I remember wandering around this vast park quite well. The best thing about Redlands Fruit and Spice park is that visitors are allowed to eat all the fruit that has fallen from the trees.
It was great to wander around this park as an adult. Thinking back on the park I know that it had an influence on my own gardening tendencies. And those being that I like to grow plants that I can either smell or taste. I do believe that this interest in edible scented vegetation can be traced back to my youthful wandering around the many parks of Miami and Dade County.
The sun was blazing as I wandered around the acres of trees and grass. I opted to not take the tour and decided to just wander where ever the scents and fruit would take me.
I occasionally picked up some fruit off the ground to give them a taste. A tiny mango, or a sapote. There must have been more than 30 varieties of mangoes around the park.
I left the park satisfied having smelled scents from my youth even if I had gotten a bit too much sun.
It is sometimes hard to view myself as a survivor, but being part of life is a struggle. Being able to maintain, strive and hopefully thrive is surviving. I may have not have gone through some of what life’s more terrible dishing outs, but that doesn’t mean that our own personal troubles are any less real to us.
I think of this flower here on the edge of Tokyo bay. It has somehow manages to wiggle its roots between the cracks in the concrete. Not only was it able to get its roots in where there is no soil, but it has managed to be whipped by the winds, battered by the storms, and somehow bloomed in the middle of winter. Now that is what I call a survivor. If this weed can do it, so can we all.
I have been a bit in a deep funk. It is hard to describe it other than that producing work, and thinking clearly. It took talking to my childhood friend Jerry Kolber to snap me out of the funk, and to start the process of lifting that brain cloud that settled over my spirit. We do need people around us to tell us like it is. Sometimes they will tell us what we don’t want to hear, but things we need to hear. That is what Jerry did for me. He gave me the proverbial “kick in the ass.”
My mindset this morning was so different than the last couple of weeks. I was clearer in thought. I had some guidance in what I wanted to accomplish today. I sat down and wrote up some questions for an upcoming Lucid Thoughts post. Did some emails, caught up on some tasks that needed doing.
I knew that I needed to get outside and do some photography. Darkness comes so early these days, so I knew I wanted to head out to the bay at the time the sun would start to dip towards the horizon. I live only minutes away from Tokyo Bay. In fact I am in walking/biking distance from Kasai Rinkai Bayside Park.
Ever since growing up in Miami, I have always lived near the water. The water is calming for me. Therefore, today I walked down to the edge of Tokyo, and could look off out into the bay. I could see all the way to Tateyama in Chiba. I watched the airplanes far off in the distance taking off from Haneda. I also watched the sun hit the fishing boats as they headed back to Urayasu. Some of the boats even carry the same name as my wife’s family, Yoshino, no connection but shows my family’s long time roots in this area.
It was quiet. I was there just watching the sun go down, listening to the waves, hit the rocks. Peeping the lonely fisherman casting their lines out into the waters. It had been so long since I had gone out into my own neighborhood, sat down on the rocks and just soaked the ambience in.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of the cleaning out of my mental funk. I pray that things keep progressing from here, and that I may be able to help myself, and help others in the process. We all need that proverbial kick in the ass. Mine happened at 4 o’clock in the p.m. at the edge of Tokyo Bay.
I should rephrase that to read “trying to think about the bib picture in 2012.” It hasn’t been easy. I seem to be stuck in self created limbo. It has been hard to move out of this limbo. Sometimes I wish I could be apathetic and not care about the world, or myself. I think that it would be easier to live my own life. However, I know that this really would not create any change. To ignore my own feelings and connection to the world would be to relinquish the will to live. There are already to many people out there that have given up all hope. They no longer care about if they seek after truth.
Sometimes, seeking after the truth you will discover issues about yourself that you don’t like. You can find issues that you don’t want to be involved in. But, this is life. Life is how we choose to take these struggles and help ourselves, and communities to become better.
Even though I might be in a rut, I know that I will not be there for long. I will keep on attempting to find the solution until I do. What else am I going to do? Give up? Nah, I don’t think that would make anything better. That would only be adding petrol to a burning building.
I will continue to search out the big picture in 2012. I think that is one reason I have been attracted to landscape images for the past few weeks. I can’t see the details right now, I am searching for the whole shebang! Step back and trying to take it all in.
I was thinking about what to write in today’s post, when I realized I was not going to write what I had planed to do. I was going to go through my images and post up the 10 most important images for me over the past year. I kind of visual journey thought the ups and downs of 2011.
We, especially in Japan, have been though so much. Every disaster imaginable has happened to this country and we are still dealing with the after effects of the March 11 triple disasters. We are still dealing with the daily stress of not knowing what the future holds for our communities.
I thought deeply on this matter. I even had begun to map out which images I would use in the post. I have decided to change my focus from the past to the future. It is important to revaluate one’s life in order to create a better future. Those that are in tune with their spirit take the time to review their actions, and take steps to redirect our lives to be on the path that we want to travel. In some cases, the path that we need to travel on.
I have chosen on the end of the Gregorian calendar to look forward. To put the past behind us, and to forward to the year to come. To look upwards into the endless skies and see the possibilities for what the future can bring. To forge ahead down the roads that we need to travel. To find ourselves in the bluest blues of the universe.
As many revel in the end of the year, I choose to look froward to the next. Where will my artistic explorations take me? I do not know, but I am excited about the freedom that lies ahead.
After a cold and rainy Saturday, the weather warmed and I decided to stroll over to my local park to see the cherry blossoms and see if my fellow neighbors would too. I was astonished to see how my people were crowded into the park. Families had spread plastic sheets all over the park. Couple strolled hand in hand snapping pictures as they went.
There are some possible reasons why so many ventured out this year to our neighborhood park. Metropolitan Tokyo but a damper on the hanami (flower viewing) parties in their parks, but our park is run by Edogawa ward. There were no lanterns hung this year, but there were many more people. Maybe they came out to the local park rather than hopping on the train to a bigger Tokyo park. I also truly feel that with all the tragedy and stress people have been under today was a chance to escape it, and to welcome the beautiful little things that the Japanese take so much pleasure in.
It again gave me a lot of hope to see so many people out and enjoying the weather. There is still a long way to go, but we are going there together, and Japan will overcome.
Another in my series of images taken on my urban hike between Shinagawa and Ginza. This one was somewhere around Shimbashi. A great little Chinese greasy spoon joint. Don’t know if I would venture in for a bite, but time to pause for a snap was an absolute must.
After visiting the heart of Tokyo today, I am thankful for being close to Tokyo Bay. It might not be much of a difference, but being near the water does keep things a bit cooler. Surrounded by all that concrete and steel juts breeds hot air.
Wandering around some of the backstreets of Ueno is always an interesting for me and my lens. I am never quite sure what I am going to find. Walls that have been completely taken over by pipping and meters, A beautiful Lotus pond full of blooming flowers. All harmonizing in the summer heat.
The weather was gorgeous yesterday. The sun shone brightly in the sky and it seems like my entire neighborhood headed to the park to bask in the sun and soak up the cherry blossoms. As we walked arounf the park I couldn’t help but remember that the only reason we have this lovely park is because of the godzilla sized power lines that run the entire length of the park.
So there we are enjoying the “great outdoors” with fragments of the urban world invading our space. But like I have said to others before, it is better to have some open space in the city, rather than none at all. So if you can, get out there and enjoy the few urban natural spaces. Let them be a place where community can come together and pursue peaceful pleasures.
These most likely will be my last clicks before landing back in my home town of Miami. The weather has been warming a bit and strolling about on a monday afternoon was rather nice. So these are a few random fragments from that day.
