… the Red Wing Blackbirds are back in force at the ponds and their songs fill the air near sunset as they prepare for the long nights of fall and winter. It seemed to me like this little guy had assumed the role of leader of the band and was encouraging the music that filled the pond where hundreds of Red Wing Blackbirds were filling the reeds in the ponds. I have memories of corn fields in western Minnesota and South Dakota filled with them and towards sunset the air was blackened by them as they moved into the trees to shelter for the night.
Below is a shot of a Loggerhead Shrike … it looks like he could be part of the audience listening to the concert … or intent on scoring an insect, lizard or whatever for a meal. A beautiful bird that we found at Lake Pleasant last year.
I’m going to leave On a May Morning up through Wednesday so that you can copy it if you want. I type all of these excerpts for every email as I look through his body of work looking for excerpts to use in the emails and one this long takes quite a while. This is one of my favorites of his work.
Into a new day and week … choose to have each day be filled with joy and beauty!
Cheers,
Ted
I am the dawn, the whisper of winds, the perfume
of morning.
The passing night fondled me, hovering close to me,
softly, silently.
The breaking day builds the spirit temple of my joy.
I abandon myself!
It seems to me that never before have I walked with
the spirit as now, nor overcome space, time, and the
elements as I overcome them now.
I would liquefy myself to mingle my substance with
the clouds and creep into the crannies of the
good-tasting earth.
I caress the good-tasting earth—lie upon it for hours,
my body at full length. I converse with it; and the
language is more articulate than the language of men.
It is my mother, and the mother of my sisters and
brothers, the grass and the trees, and all breathing and
breathless living things—the great mother ever pregnant!
I would comb her hair with my fingers, and dry my
lips upon her cheek, and beat her with gentle blows
of affection, and press my naked limbs against her.
Insane, egotistical rapture! mirth inspiring!
For a few hours here in the still morning I wash myself
clean of civilization, and purge myself of things and
the accumulated rubbish of time.
I push back history, dismiss interpreters, and stand
erect before the dawn, looking the universe in the face,
and asking my own questions.
To-morrow I shall return to the human wheels; but
now I defy the world of customs and laws, of sophistry
and serfdom; and I yield myself childlike to the light
and the air and the sweet scented dew.
A bird flies through the sky, and I fly with it. I am in
each pearl of moisture sparkling in the sun. I lie lazy
on the clouds. And I acknowledge my kinship with
each winged thing.
I see all as one, and nothing repels me, as this new
day climbs noiselessly out of the valley of night.
Peace lies over the world and over the world of my soul.
On a May Morning by Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
More about Ted Grussing …