Library Variations

“Real luxury is time and opportunity to read for pleasure”
                                --Jane Brody

A Long Road

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

—Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”

Photographs of roads leading into the horizon capture the imagination. One can contemplate and stare at the road that stretches before them and wonder where they lead. The physical destination is not as important as the mental journey – it makes all the difference.

 

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

– Lewis Carroll Alice, “Adventures in Wonderland”

Photographs by RJW

Life’s Cadence

“Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.”

                                                                                        –Henry David Thoreau

Once a strong and healthy tree cut down in its prime by Mother Nature. A strong wind, fierce waves finally broke it into submission. Now sitting in the ocean repeatedly enduring the pulse of the waves absorbing the water’s cadence.

Enjoy your Monday

Photograph by RJW

When Words Flow

 

“I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.” 

                                                                               –Oscar Wilde

 

On a good day the words just flow. On a bad day each word is akin to passing a kidney stone.

The Last Book Store

Photograph by RJW

Sit and Think

“My eyes are an ocean in which my dreams are reflected.” 
                                           --Unknown

Sitting and pondering the future or revisiting the past, either topic is best approached from such a location that provides blue skies and pillowy clouds. Rare is undisturbed contemplation to determine whether introspection or simple vacuity is called for.

Maybe it’s neither. Just appreciate the spectacular view.

Photograph by RJW

Read Your Eyes Out

"I read my eyes out and can't read half enough...the more one reads the more one sees we have to read."                           ―John Adams letter to Abigail Adams, Dec. 28, 1794

The Last Book Store

The Last Book Store

Vincent van Gogh, Piles of French Novels and Roses in a Glass ("Romans Parisiens"), c. 1887

Photographs by RJW (painting by van Gogh)

Winter is Gone, Spring is Here

“The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the batteries in the smoke alarms [oil in the crankcase].” 
            ― with apologies to E.B. White (1899-1985), essayist, "One Man's Meat"

Water lily at Hearst Castle

Photograph by RJW

The Mind on Books

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” 
                                                                   - Confucius

Serenity on a Monday

"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” 
                                   ― William Shakespeare

Oh the serenity, such a distant memory on Monday morning.

Around Napa, California 2012

Photograph by RJW

The Flower of Separated Lovers

 

“And one by one the nights between our separated cities are joined to the night that unites us.”                        ― Pablo Neruda

Our honeymoon gift from an ATV guide as we cruised the Kipu Ranch on Kauai made our day even more special. We took a three-hour tour of the 3,000-acre property that extended from the Huleia River to the top of the Haupu Mountains. This was a property owned by Hawaiian royalty, then given to a priest, whose family went on to become sugar-cane millionaires and land owners, all the while thanking God.

Our tour included a stop where Harrison Ford, in the first Indiana Jones movie, escaped to the awaiting seaplane from the inhospitable natives protecting their treasures. We had the opportunity to swing out over the river just as Ford did, so we did.

The highlight of the trip was the breathtaking beauty that awaited us at the top of Haupu Ridge. This isolated area is on the privately owned ranch that provides an awe-inspiring view of Kipu Kai beach that is only accessible by boat to the public.  However, there is a road now accessible only to the caretakers of this isolated beach. The makers of the movie paved a road down to the beach for the caretaker that was the payment instead of cash to film there.

We soaked in the beauty of the place and prepared to leave, we mentioned to our guide that this was our honeymoon. He said, that he had a story to tell us. He pointed out a half flower called Naupaka. Its blossoms appear incomplete; they are only half a flower because all the petals are on one side. In reality, the flower is complete.

The flowers are white or cream colored, often with purple streaks. They have an irregular shape with all five petals on one side of the flower making them appear to have been torn in half.

One of the myths surrounding the flower is that a princess was forbidden to marry her true love, a fisherman, because he was a commoner. As they parted ways forever, she tore a flower in half, giving one half to him and keeping the other half for herself. She then returned to the mountains where her family lived. Brokenhearted, they both cried and planted their halves of the flower. Each half grew and became the two forms of naupaka – the beach naupaka (naupaka kahakai) and the mountain naupaka (naupaka kuahiwi).

It is said that if the mountain Naupaka and beach Naupaka flowers are reunited, the two young lovers will be together again.

Here is the secret of the flowers: when the two are jointed they create a heart. This was our guide’s honeymoon gift to us.

Photographs by RJW

Sunset in Kauai

"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time."                                                    --H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), Writer

Low tide at sunset, watching the clouds go by in Hanalei Bay, Kauai. 

Photograph by RJW

Watching the World Go By

"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?"
                                                       --Leonardo da Vinci

A couple who clearly see what is going on.

Photograph by RJW

On The Road

"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” 
                              ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

 On the road in San Francisco            

photography by RJW

The Sorcerer's Books

"When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind."
                                       — Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592), essayist.


I snapped this picture at The Last Book store in downtown Los Angeles. The store occupies an old bank building.