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September 16, 2013 by Pat Bean

Weekly Photo Challenge

  “When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out — because that’s what’s inside. When your are squeezed what comes out is what is inside.” — Wayne Dyer  “

Who's looking at who? -- Photo by Pat Bean

Who’s looking at who? — Photo by Pat Bean

Inside an Aquarium

Yellow is the color of these school uniforms

Yellow is the color of these school uniforms, — Photo by Pat Bean

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx.

Just passing by. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Just passing by. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Death is not the greatest loss. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.” – Norman Cousins.

           Bean’s Pat: Summer Fun: http://tinyurl.com/mm3jckm The world as seen through the eyes of youth is always more fun. I liked this blog because it reminds us to stay young at heart.

Posted in Nature, Quote for the Day, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Words

September 12, 2013 by Pat Bean

 

“One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.” – Voltaire

Mr. Bearjanlgles: Now this is what I would call a play on words. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Mr. Bearjanlgles: Now this is what I would call a play on words. — Photo by Pat Bean

I’m a Writer – So Naturally I Love Words

The question was asked the other day about which word I would ban if I had the power. The F word came to mind first, perhaps because a grandson was in the habit of using it on Facebook.

I finally told him if he said it one more time, I was going to personally track him down and wash his mouth out with soap.

But then I was briefly married to a man who used that word often, and didn’t find it as offensive coming from him as I found it coming out of the mouth of an 18-year-old grandson.

Perhaps that’s because the man, who was my second husband for all of eight months – but we won’t go into that except to say we are still friends – was just about the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He used the F word for its shock value, not because he didn’t have other words to express his thoughts.

“Meanings are in people, not in words,” he would say.

Remembering this, I changed my mind about what word I would ban. And this time the word itself shouted a cacophony – now that’s a word I love — of congratulations to me for choosing the absolutely perfect word to ban.

The word, if I had the power to banish it from all dictionaries, would be:  “Can’t.”

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat:  Discovering America  http://blogs.americanprofile.com/author/patbean/ Since I’ve settled, at least for a while in Tucson, my blog has become more of a thrice-weekly  journal than a travel blog, like it mostly was when I was living on the road in my small RV. But I’m still writing a travel blog. It is called Discovering America and it’s for America Profile Magazine. I post three times a week. I thought I would point this out by giving myself a Bean’s Pat today;  just in case some of you miss traveling around the country with me.

Posted in Journeys, Travel | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Photo Challenge: An Unusual Point of View

September 9, 2013 by Pat Bean

 

    “Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” – Henry David Thoreau

Mother Nature used the rain to paint this canvas of wet and dry gravel pattrns. My apartment is at the top of the stairs yu see in the background. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Mother Nature used the rain to paint this canvas of wet and dry gravel pattrns. My apartment is at the top of the stairs you see in the background. — Photo by Pat Bean

Morning Walk with Pepper

It was lightly drizzling this morning when Pepper and I took a walk while dawn made her presence known. This is my favorite time of day, and as usual, Pepper and I  had the apartment complex courtyards to ourselves.

This is a close-up of the lavender blossoms on the bush next to the tree, which a gardener neatly trimmed. I can't help but wonder how many blossoms were lost to the trimming tool. -- Photo by Pat Bean

This is a close-up of the lavender blossoms on the bush next to the tree, which a gardener neatly trimmed. I can’t help but wonder how many blossoms were lost to the trimming tool. — Photo by Pat Bean

Some mornings we leave the manicured grounds and take the short trail beyond the parking lot ,so as to glimpse a view of the unfettered desert in  its many moods. But not this morning.

Today, we simply walked the path we walk several times a day, keeping our eyes open to the world around us. Well, I keep my eyes open and Pepper keeps her nose open. Like most dogs, she sees more through smell than I see through my eyes.

Her nose lets her know there is a lizard hiding beneath that rock over yonder, and that Ellie, a favorite German shepherd playmate, peed beside this tree. Of course she pees on top of the spot to let Ellie know she’s been here, too.

My eyes, meanwhile, take in a canvas painted by the rain. It’s the pattern of wet and dry gravel beneath a tree just outside my apartment. I don’t have my camera with me, but after our walk I retrieve it and go back down from my third-floor apartment to capture Mother Nature’s whimsical drawing – well that’s how I see it.

And then I realize that it can serve as my point of view for the week’s photo challenge.

Bean’s Pat: Hoof Beats and Foot Prints http://tinyurl.com/nz6fu4o This is a blogger who also takes time to capture the simple things that can be found in a day, when you take the time to look.

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Journeys, Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

You Gotta Love Rejection

September 7, 2013 by Pat Bean

I think all great innovations are built on rejections.” – Louis Ferdinand Celine

            “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get me going, rather than retreat.” – Sylvester Stallone

I wonder if bears care about rejection, or if they are always all about being themselves -- even if they are blue. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I wonder if bears care about rejection, or if they are always all about being themselves — even if they are blue. — Photo by Pat Bean

Life Lessons from an Old Broad

            These days I take rejection slips that result from someone not buying one of my writing submissions with great pride. They are evidence that I put myself out there.

And would a giraffe feel rejected if it looked different from the rest of its kind? OK, so I'm being silly. Reject me. See if I care. == Photo by Pat Bean

And would a giraffe feel rejected if it looked different from the rest of its kind? OK, so I’m being silly. Reject me. See if I care. == Photo by Pat Bean

But that kind of thinking wasn’t always a part of my psyche.

Looking back on my life, as I sometimes find myself doing, I suddenly remembered all the times when I didn’t put myself out there, whether it was not applying for a promotion, or not taking the risk of revealing my true self because I was afraid of being rejected.

It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of rejection, but that I was afraid for others to know, on any level, that I had been rejected.

Now I realize how foolish I was. Not only is it true that nothing ventured means nothing gained, but the only person who can truly reject me is me.

Does that make sense? This wondering-wanderer  says: “Yes.”  Now I just wonder why it took me so long to come up with the right answer.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Lightning Dropets http://tinyurl.com/kdkr6bn This blog about writing rejections is what got me thinking about rejections on other levels

Posted in Art, Journeys, Writing | Tagged , | 12 Comments »

Take Time to Smell the Flowers

September 5, 2013 by Pat Bean

“I will be the gladdest thing. Under the sun!  I will touch a hundred flowers.  And not pick one.”  — Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Afternoon on a Hill.”

I took time to smell the flowers by sitting down to do art with a grandson, and this is what I drew while he drew the Batmobile.

I took time to smell the flowers by sitting down to do art with a grandson, and this is what I drew while he drew the Batmobile.

Mottos to Live By

When I woke up from my unthoughtful, unlived life at nearly 40, my motto for the next few years became “Grab all the gusto you can get.” It was plagiarism of a Schlitz beer commercial: “You only go through life once, so you have to grab all the gusto you can get.”

With nearly half my life blown away, I realized that the only regrets I had were for the things I hadn’t done … well mostly anyway.

My grandson Patrick's Batmobile.

My grandson Patrick’s Batmobile.

During the next three plus decades, I did many things – and have regrets for none of what at times may have been an “excessive life.”  Perhaps that’s because I did nothing I would have been ashamed to tell the world, which, along with the mottos “do no harm” and the Golden Rule form my spiritual center.

But these days, which now number more behind me than ahead of me, my passion has become one of “taking time to smell the flowers.”

Doing so interferes with more ambitious goals, such as finishing my book, “Travels with Maggie” – which is still moving slowly along. But then I can’t imagine giving up the flowers to make the writing go faster.

Of course smelling the flowers is more than just blossoms.

This morning, it was simply taking time to sit on my bedroom balcony, drinking my cream-laced coffee, and to stare up at the Catalina Mountains while the sun made its entrance for the day.

I suddenly realized it was as close to meditation – meaning emptying the mind – as I have ever reached in my life.  I have been too busy grabbing all that gusto, when the flowers needed more quiet smelling.

But then I smiled, thinking about all that gusto. I wouldn’t change a thing.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: September writing resolutions http://tinyurl.com/mfkmqxf  Fine words to live by for the month, except that I already keep a timer by my computer and set it for 15 minutes. Old broads need to move often so they can keep moving.

Posted in Art, Journeys | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

Time for a Soapbox Rant

September 3, 2013 by Pat Bean

            “We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Pogo, aka Walt Kelly

The sun is setting on journalism being anything more than paparazzi to celebrities, especially those who are not good examples to anyone. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The sun is setting on journalism being anything more than paparazzi to celebrities, especially those who are not good examples for anyone. — Photo by Pat Bean

It’s All Our Own Fault

            How many of us have read more about Miley Cyrus than about the real possibility of going to war against Syria?

Millions more, according to CNN Managing Editor Meredith Artley, who supported her words with facts that were her excuse for making Miley Cyrus’ disgraceful behavior the top CNN story last week.

The truth pains me.

I started my journalism career back when hard-working reporters kept a bottle of Black Velvet (they couldn’t afford the good stuff) stuck in the back of a desk drawer, and when demanding city editors chomped on a cigar as they chewed me, or other reporters out, for not digging deep enough for our stories.

It was the era when journalists were trying to bring the truth about the Vietnam War to the public, the days of Watergate reporting. I, personally, wrote stories about the pain of a mother who had lost her son in Vietnam, of tough environmental issues that may have made a difference, and stories about an Idaho congressman who was kiting checks – and felt victorious when he was not re-elected.

Newsrooms, during my 37-year career, got politically correct. The booze and the cigars were banished, which was probably a good thing. But what pains me is that celebrities have escaped from the back entertainment pages to dominate Page One headlines. It was already starting when I retired almost 10 years ago. And it gets more blatant every day that passes.

That it is happening is “Bullshit,” said the CNN managing editor. “We know it and you know it. We also know that you are probably dumb enough … to click on the stupid bullshit anyway, and that you will continue to do it … You want to know how many more page views the Miley Cyrus thing got than our article on the wildfires ravaging Yosemite? Like 6 gazillion more. That’s on you, not us.”

For CNN, those millions of page views add up to millions of dollars. And that’s the reason for the media now giving people what they want instead of what they need to know. I wish it were different. But it’s not.

Pogo said it perfectly. The enemy is us, and we have no one else to blame. Well, I, for one, am going to boycott all front-page entertainment news from this day forward – and make my hits count for more important news.

Who will join me?

Bean’s Pat:  Jesus and the $20 Bill http://tinyurl.com/k3o5mrj  Great memoir story by one of my favorite bloggers.

Posted in Journeys | Tagged , | 22 Comments »

Morning Adventure: A Trio of Coyotes

August 31, 2013 by Pat Bean

         “Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me – I am happy.” – Hamlin Garland.

Pepper, dripping wet, comes in at just under 20 pounds. She was smart enough this morning to call for her when she was surrounded by three coyotes twice her size. Thankfully she was unharmed. Photo by Pat Bean

Pepper, dripping wet, comes in at just under 20 pounds. She was smart enough this morning to call for help when she was surrounded by three coyotes twice her size. Thankfully she was unharmed. Photo by Pat Bean

Pepper in Danger

I heard the coyotes before light this dawn, and thrilled at the yipping. It was the sound of Mother Nature still making her presence known within city limits. I hear coyotes occasionally from my third-floor apartment in Tucson’s Catalina Mountain foothills, but I hear them almost every day when I’m visiting my daughter, who lives near the Tucson Mountains on the southwest side of the city.

This coyote, photographed beside an Arizona highway, probably weighs 35-40 pounds -- Wikipedia photo

This coyote, photographed beside an Arizona highway, probably weighs 35-40 pounds — Wikipedia photo

That’s where I was this morning – house-sitting and animal-sitting for my daughter who is camping with her three sons and husband this Labor Day weekend. The animals include one horse, two cats, three fish and three dogs. While my daughter’s dogs are all much larger than Pepper, the four of them play great together, especially her and the younger dog,  Zip, who always conduct a fast game of chase in the horse arena whenever I let them outside to do their business.

So it was this morning. The pair had already made several loops of the arena when I suddenly heard Pepper give a frightful yelp. From my position on the patio, which is attached to the back of my daughter’s home, I looked up to see Pepper surrounded in the arena by three coyotes. I almost peed my pants.

Immediately, I started yelling, waving my arms and running toward her. My speed, for an old broad, astonished even me. Thankfully the coyotes decided I was too big a threat to risk for a small-dog meal, and they casually ambled away.

It was the first time in my life that I hadn’t been delighted and awed to see the touch of wilderness that these canine cousins of Pepper’s add to the landscape.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: What I See is What I Shoot http://tinyurl.com/mdn99ee Red Grass. I love the two quotes that accompany this photo.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Favorite Places: Sabino Canyon

August 28, 2013 by Pat Bean

Looking down from the road at one of the water-filled pools in Sabino Canyon. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Looking down from the road at one of the water-filled pools in Sabino Canyon. — Photo by Pat Bean

            “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton.

Six Miles from Home

Seeing this country from coast to coast and border to border has always been more important to me than stepping on foreign shores. That’s not because I don’t want to visit other countries, but because I’ve always believed America, because of being my native country, should be explored first.

The desert's many varieties of cactus and their flowers fascinate me. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The desert’s many varieties of cactus and their flowers fascinate me. — Photo by Pat Bean

Of course there is also the fact of a limited budget, and the fact I can see more of this country within its bounds then I can any other place.

With the exception of Rhode Island, I have now been in every state, including Hawaii and Alaska – and am now saving up to go to Australia. My itch to see and visit new places, meanwhile, is being satisfied right here in Tucson.

I’ve never lived in the desert before, so just observing its beautiful landscape is a pleasurable experience. I didn’t know a desert had so much color – but then the upper Sonoran Desert here in Tucson is the lush desert. It gets more rain – actually right now we’re in its monsoon season – than other deserts.

It was just after one of our recent rumbling thunderstorms, complete with a lightning show, that I visited Sabino Canyon, which is just six miles up the road from where I live. Its pools were filled with water, and delightful to the eye.

 

I think this rock spire had a name, but I can't remember it. Maybe I will learn what it's called on my next visit to the canyon. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I think this rock spire had a name, but I can’t remember it. Maybe I will learn what it’s called on my next visit to the canyon. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

I was amazed in my travels that I have met so many people who failed to visit landmarks in their own backyards, ones that people traveled thousands of miles to see. I promised myself to never be one of them.

Travel doesn’t always have to mean an overseas airplane ride. It can simply mean going down the road a bit to see a new sight, like Sabino Canyon. It was a fun outing, which included a shuttle ride, since you can’t drive your vehicle through the canyon, and a short hike.

I plan to do it again, soon.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: North Sydney Birds http://tinyurl.com/ncdbchg If one can’t physically travel, one can still visit other places, and even bird watch, from an armchair. I do a lot of this.

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments »

What’s Most Important

August 26, 2013 by Pat Bean

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene

You may never find that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but that shouldn't keep you from looking. -- Photo by Pat Bean

You may never find that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but that shouldn’t keep you from looking. — Photo by Pat Bean

Stepping into the Unknown

            I’m not a person who likes to give advice. I’ve made too many bad decisions in my own life to think I can mentor anyone else, particularly someone whose end goals may be 180 degrees from my own.

This refrigerator magnet is how I want to be remembered.

This refrigerator magnet is how I want to be remembered.

But the ages have taught me that if you want something in life, you should go for it. And then, if you don’t get it, you should celebrate yourself for having the guts to have gone for it.

Some things we want, like my fulfilling my dream of travel by selling my home, buying an RV and driving that first mile, only depended on me having the guts to do it.

Other things, like my dream of finding an agent and a publisher for my book, “Travels with Maggie,” depend on others – and it may never happen.  So right now, I’m celebrating each rejection slip as a triumph. I’m taking that first step toward my goal – and even if I never achieve it, I’ll know it wasn’t because I didn’t try.  

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Not Yet There http://tinyurl.com/m8clwct My morning coffee and my journal and list of things to do for the day are the way I start my days.  And so this poem and photo spoke to me.

 

Posted in Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Some People Call it Lost

August 20, 2013 by Pat Bean

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. – Freya Stark  

I call it an incredible Adventure

Even when I have a view of Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater. I'm thinking about my next travel adventure. -- Photo by Kim Perrin

Even when I have a view of Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater. I’m thinking about my next travel adventure. — Photo by Kim Perrin

            A friend of mine was bemoaning the fact that she was leaving her long-time home to move to an apartment in a new state. I truly didn’t know how to console her.

Every move I’ve ever made, and there have been many, has been greeted with enthusiasm and excitement: The opportunity to experience the other side of the fence has always been with me. Even as a young child, I was always exploring the world around me with eagerness, often to destroying my mother’s peace of mind.

I have friends who still pal around with the same people they met in kindergarten. I think I would like that, but I know for certain that I wouldn’t be willing to give up the transient life I’ve had, although some times the moves were just from one home to another in the same city.

 

I'm currently exploring the desert landscape, which includes lots of yucca plants, in Tucson, where my itchy feet have agreed to rest for a bit. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I’m currently exploring the desert landscape, which includes lots of yucca plants, in Tucson, where my itchy feet have agreed to rest for a bit. — Photo by Pat Bean

This is probably why Freya Stark’s quote, which begins this blog, spoke to me. While my travels will never excel this woman’s adventures – who was born in Paris in 1893 and died in Italy in 1993 and wrote 25 travel books, mostly about the Middle East – I have traveled many nooks and crannies of this country with a few over-the-sea adventures as well.

As so often when someone fascinates me, like Freya did when I read her quote,  I made an online visit to Amazon to see what I could find. My bank balance is now lighter by a few dollars as I just bought Stark’s biography, “Passionate Nomad, by Jane Fletcher Geniesse,

It’s supposed to arrive by Friday. I can hardly wait.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Hell Storm http://tinyurl.com/n4v3psm Life goes on and I like how this blogger, one of my favorite with his great photos, mostly of abandoned Americana, doesn’t whine.  

Posted in Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments »

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