The Power of...

“A word is dead when it is said. Some say. I say it just begins to live that day.”

— Emily Dickinson

Sometimes you look for catchy phrases, but often they find you when you're unaware. Sometimes you try to find a meaningful picture and forget that everything is meaningful for someone.

I almost walked past this simple shrine. My eye caught the more ornate and colourful personal religious shrines. This hand painted rock rested quietly, unadorned with beads or crosses. I stopped to read the words because the blue paint caught my eye. A family asked for a blessing—to keep their son safe while he was away in the army. How many are in harm's way? No matter where they are, no matter under whose banner they march, no matter the rhetoric—keep them all safe. Gabe, I hope you return to your family.

I walked past a store window in a small plaza and the words Homeland Security caught my eye. I know the history and often out here I feel the weight of wrongs done.

The government sign, which appears to be defaced, appears along the road leading to the Los Alamos labs. I find it eerie to drive past the barbed wire, warnings of dangerous areas, and these signs. Several years ago I attended a writer's conference near Seneca Falls and went to visit what was left of the The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice which opened on July 4, 1983, as a place for women to gather to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons. "In November 1984 a series of newspaper articles entitled 'Witches of Seneca' appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard written by a reporter who... described the women as vegetarians and lesbians, and detailed the practice of witchcraft and feminist spirituality." By the time I visited it was a commune with only a few people in residence.

The Bear alert information was handed out by a friendly Park Ranger who collected our fee when we entered Bandelier. Once, when hiking in the Tetons, we met a ranger who said that there were bears near by. "Just walk backwards," she said , "And say shoo bear, shoo bear." I actually liked the info that was handed out at Capital Reef National Park when there was a cougar alert. "Try and stand tall with your arms raised above your head," said the ranger,"and don't look the cougar in the eye." "If," he continued,"the cougar attacks get into a ball and pray." We didn't see a bear either time.

I'd never seen a moving coffee van before; however, a little research and I found out that "Coffee Guy, Inc. has turn-key mobile espresso vans, box vans, trucks, coffee huts, drive thru, carts and trailer conversions ...All espresso units have new equipment and are self-contained and ready to use when they are shipped to the customer." I'm a coffee house aficionado and these vans are a bit too sterile.

People use their cars as moving graffiti —in this case someone was into capturing souls.

The last photo may seem out of place and I guess it is—but I was excited. Some of my family lives in Thailand and Phuntsho , who comes from Bhutan, has just been adopted by Peg and David. She lost both parents and was living in an orphanage.

Now she's a member of a very loving international family—Elijah is Afro-American, Zara is Plains Indian and Mexican, and Jordan and Noah are Caucasian. Phuntsho doesn't speak English, but I have no doubt that everyone will understand one another. This photo was taken before the adoption. I hope that the next photo shows her smiling