If you listen really hard, you will hear an owl hooting in the distance.
When I returned to lower Michigan after 5 weeks traveling through the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest, I was fearful. I thought I would be bored and disappointed when I took my camera out to photograph my dot on the map. Not so, folks.
Are they glowing just for me?
I went out one morning last week, and again one evening with my foto friend, Julie. I found more simple beauty than I’ll ever be able to capture. On our way home from visiting granddaughters last night I passed by hundreds of beautiful frames glowing in the evening sun. How could I ever get bored?
Can there be beauty in a utility right-of-way?
Do I see this beauty simply because I know it and love it? Maybe.
If there is beauty in the woods but no one to see it, does it not exist?
The greatest sorrow would come from not seeing what is there for me to behold. I think I can see the beauty with my lens because I know the heady scents, recognize the sweet sounds, and feel the sun and breeze against my bare skin. I know each season intimately.
I didn’t capture the choir of birds just beyond the cattails.
I hope I never grow tired of that which is so much a part of me. I will continue to travel to places of great beauty but always want to return to the dot on the map I call home.
You can find similar sentiment at “the hour of soft light“.
A New Day: Living Life Almost Gracefully 
A very nice post with some lovely pictures. It has been many years since I last heard an owl hoot, one of the many disadvantages of living in a town I guess.
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We have a lot of farmland around us and occasionally I hear them. Such a pretty sound.
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Such a tiny dot on the map but such a mighty dot in your heart , I know the feeling Pat .
Autumn comes with brightness . Always.
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amen to that … I love to get back to our beach, all the sounds, scents and familiar sights are so comforting and joyful, when we see beauty we can see it anywhere but nowhere more than ‘home’ 🙂
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Pat – where in lower Michigan do you live?
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Jackson.
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I’ve lived in Hudson, Hastings, Southfield, Mt. Pleasant, East Lansing, and Flint.
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Beautiful scenes, Pat. I’m sure you’ll never grow tired of walking there. 🙂
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Thanks – and I enjoyed being a part of your daughter’s birthday party. Thanks for inviting all of us. 🙂
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“My Dot on the Map” – will that be an upcoming Photo Challenge? I really loved that phrase, and the pictures too.
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I love the phrase, too. It is just the byline I use when I use photos taken close to home. I’d love to see some posts from your dot on the map. 🙂
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Oh, I have a bunch of ’em on my other blog, Lovin the Trip – which I’ve been seriously considering closing down (along with the “Don’t Carry the Donkey!” one). But my dot moved, so now I gotta start all over again. 😆
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There’s no place like home…click click.
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LOL Thanks for the giggle.
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I agree completely with your sentiments. I hope never to take for granted the beauty in which I’m constantly seeped.
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How sad not to. Thanks for the great comment, Heather.
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Great fall photos – love the one with the cattails
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Thanks, Nora. I like that one too.
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I did hear that owl.
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You’re good! Or is it my great photography that made the owl audible?
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