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Hmmm, was there hidden significance in that flowering tree on the spit where nine different bird species flitted in and out in an otherwise slow bird-watching day?

Migration bird-watching is a hit and miss game. Weather conditions dictate what the day will hold. Bad weather often results in a ‘fallout’ of birds – meaning the birds are grounded by bad weather and therefore stacked up in the woods. A string of good weather days often translates into dreary birding where there is little to see.

Today was my first fall migration outing of the year. The weather was made to order… for everything but birding. It was a sun-bleached, cloudless, vintage August day with only a smattering of migrants on the spit.

But mid morning I came upon a flowering tree that was literally a sunburst of activity. Half a dozen sputtering Eastern Kingbirds, a hyperactive Ruby-crowned Kinglet, several inquisitive Willow Flycatchers, a female Oriole stopping in for a quick look-about, a whistling Fox Sparrow and a quarter of warblers – the mandatory Yellow, a still gaudy Magnolia, a flash-of-orange-and-black Redstart and a classy Nashville.

That tree was the highlight in an otherwise underwhelming day. But isn’t life a bit like that? From time to time the fates align and smile on you. Everything goes your way. There’s a bounce in your stride and a silly grin on your face.

In between these ‘fallout’ days are a string of ordinary days – not bad but not great either. I’m trying to learn not to live just for the ‘fallout’ days. They’re great when they come and they definitely recharge my battery. But I ought to be able to enjoy the ordinary days nearly as much. It seems to me that may just be the secret to happiness.

A flowering tree buzzing with a sunburst of birds in a slow migration birding day – a random act of metaphor to remind me that there’s more to life than the ‘fallout’ days.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   bird-watching · birding · fallout · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · migrationNo Comments.

Hmmm, am I just having trouble keeping pace as I get older or does an hour really pass more quickly than it used to?

It has been another frenzied work week. Chasing deadlines that seem to run a circle around me until they are actually pursuing me nipping at my heels. We are in the throes of change as our organization – now merged with two others – rebrands and reinvents itself. Staying relevant, it seems, is a constantly shifting target these days.

I am attempting to unwind so I can enjoy the weekend. It takes considerable effort now – much more than it used to – to uncoil my anxious muscles and gear down my multi-tasking brain. Relaxation is stressful – the defining oxymoron for our high octane society.

It helps to gaze out my apartment window at the pond down below and the trees that surround it. Tomorrow I’ll retreat to the whispering woodland, the murmuring marsh and the untamed fields to quiet my breathing and refresh my soul.

But wait. Is that a slight wash of colour I see in the maple trees? It is after all only mid August. Surely that can’t be the first faint hues of autumn I see. But alas, it is. Summer has passed her zenith and is starting her slow, graceful slide toward the change.

Where has the summer gone? I’m not ready to let her go. I want to languish in her splendour awhile yet. But somehow she got loose from me and raced on ahead. I should have paid more attention. I should have spent less time watching the clock and more time watching the curling waves roll onto the beach.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the border seasons – spring and autumn – even more than the grand lady summer herself. I’m just not ready to make the transition yet. There were more places I wanted to go to see nature in full bloom.

But ready or not the turn of the seasons is coming. I would like to believe that time itself has sharpened its pace and is therefore to blame. But I know that time is a constant. It is the velocity of our lives that keeps accelerating.

All too often I become aware that I am hurrying for no good reason. I tell myself it is because I want to get all the “stuff” done and out of the way so I can enjoy the simpler things. But the “stuff” keeps accumulating faster than I can sweep it aside.

The speckling of colour in the August leaves is a metaphor for the precious moments that we let slip by because we are too busy. Too busy trying to get unbusy. Too busy chasing the shifting target of stasis.

The pure and simple truth is this: All we have is the moment which we exist in right now. We can’t win the race with time. We can’t get all the “stuff” done. We have to surrender and find joy in the moment. That’s as good a definition of happiness as I can think of.

I resolve to stop running. To stop being chased. To just breathe. And to smile at those pre-autumn colours in the leaves. It’s a start. Where will you begin?

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   happiness · live in the moment · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · surrenderNo Comments.

Hmmm, of all the myriad creatures with which we share this world of infinite diversity, is there any as mystical and prehistoric as the Dragonfly?

I became enamoured with these winged dragons a few years back somewhat by accident. My fascination grows the more time I spend in their presence. I have begun to feel an affinity with them.

It may surprise you to learn – it certainly surprised me – that dragonflies have existed on planet earth for 300 million years. Scientists tell us they look today much the same as they did way back in those ancient days – except that they have gotten much smaller.

Imagine these Shadow Darners with three foot wing spans buzzing by your head.

Shadow Darners Mating

Dragonflies earn their wings quite late in life. They live from one to three years in the larva stage and have only a few, short weeks to enjoy life as dragons of the sky. Seems a shame, doesn’t it, that something as striking as this Black Saddlebags is only a snapshot in time.

Black Saddlebags

Dragonflies are quite the acrobatic fliers. They can move sideways, backwards and hover in place on their four wings. And they can be speed demons – some can fly upwards of 30 miles an hour. Picture this Four-spotted Skimmer rocketing past you in a colourful blur.

Four-spotted Skimmer

These impressive insects are in fact fearsome predators. They have been known to take down a hummingbird. Makes you think twice about disturbing this Lance-tipped Darner, doesn’t it?

Lance-tipped Darner

Metaphors abound when one ponders these winged dragons of the wetlands. My metaphor of choice is “living in the moment”. Three years in larva stage. A few short weeks to soar and revel in the summer skies.

When you’re a dragonfly, living in the moment is the very definition of life.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. 

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

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Hmmm, I wonder how many people passed by that pair of sunglasses lying on the sidewalk and simply didn’t see them. An even more telling question: How many people saw them and choose to simply walk on by without picking them up?

It was a Friday evening around 6:00. I was on my way into a movie theatre when I saw the sunglasses lying on the sidewalk just below the steps leading to the entrance. They looked to be designer sunglasses and therefore rather expensive.

Normally, in this situation, I would pick up the item, take it inside and give it a to a staff person for the lost and found. On this particular day, I am somewhat chagrined to admit, I did not do so. The imp of the perverse nudged me and said: Leave them and see if they’re still there when you come out.

A couple of hours later I emerged from the theatre having forgotten about that moment. But the sunglasses were still there and now they were broken in half.

This particular theatre complex has 15 separate theatres. I quickly did the math. A conservative estimate of the people coming and going in that time span is 750. I have to think that at least one quarter of them saw the sunglasses. Yet no one picked them up. At least one person was so wrapped up in themselves that he or she stepped on the sunglasses, broke them and kept right on going.

It is disconcerting, to say the least, that so many people could not be bothered to perform such a simple act of kindness for an unseen stranger. It required the minimal effort of bending down, scooping up the item and taking it with you to the place you were going to anyway. Yet no one did.

It seems we (the collective “we”) have become so wrapped up in our selves that we have don’t see beyond the narrow field of vision that immediately concerns our own welfare.

Yes, in the grand scheme of things, one pair of lost sunglasses is insignificant. But through the lens of metaphor, this incident speaks all too clearly of the way we can become immune to the many needs of those around us.

In retrospect, I wish I had shaken off the imp of the perverse and picked up those sunglasses. I’m trying to repay the debt by this gentle reminder that a simple act of kindness can be the ripple in the pond that starts a wave of compassion.

Take a moment. Be that ripple. I’m pretty sure it will come back to you at a time when you’re the one in need.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

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Hmmm, just exactly how fine is the margin of error between the survival and extinction of a species in our natural world?

The tipping point may well be so fine that we don’t even notice when it happens. Yes, I know that sounds like hyperbole. But hear me out.

The discernable difference between a Canada Darner dragonfly and a Lance-tipped Darner dragonfly comes down to two, hair-splitting judgment calls. 1. An ever so slim difference in the notch in one of two thorax stripes. 2. A slight difference in the shade of colour in that stripe which is mostly unreliable given that their colour changes with age.

There are, in fact, 14 different blue or “mosaic” dragonflies that inhabit the north woods. All of them require close, magnified observation to tell one from another.

That’s just one example of the infinitely meticulous diversity of nature. It’s not a far leap from that observation to the conclusion that throwing off the balance of nature by even a fraction of a fraction could mean that one species falls off the map.

The Mosaic Darner conundrum – a random act of metaphor for the fragility of nature and how easily we can tip the balance toward extinction.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   balance of nature · Canada Darner · dragonfly · extinction · Lance-tipped Darner · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

Hmmm, does that spider on the wall move around during the day and return to the exact same spot? Or is that one hunting spot so productive it simply never moves?

I’m not a big fan of spiders. Quite frankly, they creep me out and I keep my distance from them. But this particular spider has captured my interest. Each morning this week, when I descend to the parking garage in my morning routine, I see it poised on the wall beside the door.

It intrigues me that it’s always in the same place. Assuming that it doesn’t move, it displays remarkable patience. I don’t think I could stand glued to the same spot for more than a few minutes before my patience caved in.

But it occurs to me that my frame of reference is a bit skewed. Human beings have comparatively long life spans. We measure our lives in years and decades. Not so for insects. Some butterflies, for instance, live only a few weeks.

I googled “spider life span” and learned that spiders generally live a year or so. A relatively long life span in the insect world but still very short by comparison with us. When you measure your life in weeks rather than decades, there is probably not much payback in become a world explorer.

There is also the question of size. That spider is about the size of my thumb print. So let’s assume that spider in fact crawls down the wall to the floor and back to his prize hunting spot a few times during the day. That’s at least the equivalent of me driving to work and back. The spider, of course, has to provide his own horsepower.

The spider is also dependant on his web to survive. It’s how he hunts and captures food. Back to the “web” I went for spider facts. Spider webs take up to an hour to weave. They often have to be repaired or re-spun every day. Once prey is caught in the web, it can take a half hour for the spider to wrap the prey in silk and subdue it.

Under those circumstances, packing his tiny suitcase and going for a vacation probably isn’t terribly practical for a spider.

I’m beginning to see a pattern here. The spider doesn’t have as many choices as I do. In fact, he has little choice at all. Most of his short life is spent focused on the basic requirements of survival – which would include avoiding getting squashed by my size nines as I grimace at the sight of him.

So maybe that spider hanging out by the door is a metaphor for the luxury of choice. I’m fortunate to have many choices and the freedom to pursue them. There are many people, some quite possibly in this very building, who are caught in the spider web of circumstance. It is all they can manage just to get by from day to day.

The morale: Let’s count our blessings for the choices we have and stop taking them for granted. For there but for the grace of God go we.

Closing thought. I find myself wondering if that spider recognizes me each morning and thinks: “I wonder how big a web it would take to catch that one. I could feed on him for weeks!”

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

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Hmmm, is the American White Pelican, who is currently hanging about at Second Marsh in Oshawa, a refugee from the April 20 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

The pelican is creating quite a stir among local birdwatchers who are going out of their way to see it. Pelicans, you see, are not normally found in this area. They winter in the gulf states and breed in parts of central U.S. and western Canada.

It’s not unheard of for birds to wander out of their normal territory. It happens occasionally to the delight of those of us fascinated with our feathered friends. No one seems to know quite why it happens. Perhaps something in the bird’s inborn radar has gone wrong.

But what if this pelican made the trip up here to symbolize for us the far-reaching effects of the BP oil spill?

Yes, we’re all very much aware of the situation. We’ve seen the video clips of the oil plumes billowing out of the well 5,000 feet below the surface. We’ve seen the heart wrenching photos of sea birds coated in oil. And we’ve heard about the devastating impact on the local economies which depend on fishing or tourism.

But all of this is taking place 1,300 miles away. We know it as the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Thankfully, we think, it doesn’t affect us directly. Or does it?

What if the “butterfly effect” metaphor is really accurate? I won’t pretend to understand the intricacies of chaos theory from which this metaphor arises. But the basic idea is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can create enough of a disturbance to cause large scale atmospheric motion with ripple effects around the world.

Sounds farfetched? Think back a few years to the great northeast blackout of 2003. A 3,500 MW power surge in the New York State power grid set off a chain reaction that left 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states without electricity. A pretty convincing argument for the “butterfly effect”.

So if a 3,500 MW power surge could cause that amount of trouble over such a wide area, the same chaos math applied to hundreds of millions of litres of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico is a frightening prospect indeed.

1,300 miles is not much more than one flap of a butterfly’s wing in that scheme of things.

So let’s consider that American White Pelican hanging out in Oshawa to be a metaphor for the long term – and long distance – effect of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. It affects us all from one end of the planet to the other.

And let us not forget that 11 lives were lost when the explosion happened. 11 human beings whose bodies were never found. Think of the families of those workers… and the friends of those workers… and the disruption in the cosmic flow caused by 11 lives snuffed out for no good reason.

I don’t think the pelican just got lost. I think he made the trip for a very good reason. We’d better start paying attention.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   BP Oil Spill · Butterfly Effect · Deepwater Horizon · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Oshawa · pelican · Second MarshNo Comments.

Hmmm, what unnamable hurt welled up in the tears that rolled down that young boy’s face as he rode down in the elevator with his mother?

It was random chance that I happened to be in the elevator when they got on. My presence didn’t seem to make a difference. I might as well have been invisible.

He was perhaps 10 – dressed in a soccer uniform complete with shin pads and soccer shoes. But soccer was the last thing on his mind. He tried hard to hold back the tears but the heart ran too deep to be denied.

There was pain and anger in his mother’s expression. A pain much too sharp edged to have been caused by anything he did. But he was the unfortunate victim she chose to channel her anger towards.

My heart went out to him as he took upon his small shoulders far too great a weight. The weight of being hurt by someone you love. I believe it was not the first time he had done so.

No child should have to walk that road. No child should have to shed that kind of tears. No child should have to suffer that kind of damage to his fragile psyche.

That unfortunate boy was a metaphor for injustice in so many ways and on so many levels. There is no injustice greater than a child forced to endure an adult’s pain. Childhood flies by all too fast in our high pressure, fast-paced society. It’s a crying shame when even that short time is stolen away.

I will pray for that boy. I hope you will as well because he surely needs it.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   child · injustice · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · tearsNo Comments.

Emerald

Hmmm, did that mystery Emerald pose so obligingly for my camera just to frustrate the daylights out of me? Or, could it be, it was placed in that precise spot to bestow upon me gems of wisdom I needed to acquire?

No, I wasn’t mining for precious gems. The Emerald in question (pictured above) is a dragonfly in the Emerald family. Emeralds get their name from their green jewel-like eyes which make them particularly photogenic.

This particular jewel of nature frustrates me because I haven’t been able to figure out which of the 49 species of Emeralds in North America, 19 of which occur in Ontario, it is. But in the process I’ve been gifted with several gems of wisdom that apply in the bigger scheme of things.

I made a snap identification when I first saw this Emerald. “Another American Emerald. No need to look further.” I was eager to move on to the other dragonflies awaiting me further down the trail.

Later, when I downloaded the day’s photos to my computer, I realized that snap identification was wrong. I hadn’t paid enough attention at the time to identify other field marks that would allow me to correct that mistake.

Emerald of Wisdom: Give to each moment the time and attention it deserves. If you rush on ahead, the wisdom embodied in the moment may be lost.

Several times I’ve lamented: “If only I’d taken the time to get a side view!” The pattern of spots and stripes on an Emerald’s thorax can be diagnostic.

Emerald of Wisdom: Always view things in their full perspective. Decisions made without seeing the whole picture are often a fool’s folly.

The differences between this particular Emerald, and the American Emerald I rashly assumed it to be, are quite subtle. Looking at the photo now, I realize that those subtleties are what make this particular Emerald elegant in its own right.

Emerald of Wisdom: Go slowly through life. Take the time to indulge in the minutia for it is there that some of life’s most exquisite moments are to be found.

This mystery Emerald has become for me a metaphor for patience, for living in the moment and for treasuring the little subtleties of our wonderfully diverse world.

Somewhere down the line I will probably see another specimen of this particular Emerald. Hopefully, when that happens, I’ll take the time to properly appreciate it. One thing is certain. The emeralds of wisdom, which this mystery Emerald has taught me, make it the most precious of the many dragonflies I saw that day.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   dragonfly · emerald · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · patience · wisdom1 Comment

Hmmm, should I or should I not explore the metaphors lurking within the violent protests and the subsequent lockdown in Toronto in the area of the G20 Summit? I really do not want to because…

By the time the Summit got under way, I was already weary of the endless news reports about the preparations and what we all should and should not do.

The draconian security measures made me wonder what was becoming of “the truth north strong and FREE”.

The cost of staging the G20 Summit makes me feel ill when I think of all the needy social programs on which that money could have been much better spent.

I don’t even know who the G20 countries are. I went out of my way not to know.

I gave up believing some time ago (measured in years) that a large group of politicians gathered together could accomplish anything other than staged photo opps and agreements to disagree.

I cringe at the thought of any Canadian city being turned into a war zone.

I am a proud Canadian and would rather that my country be known for democracy, open arms and wide open spaces rather than a fenced-in convention centre, burning cars and looted storefronts.

Canada Day is only 5 days away and will now be tainted by what will probably come to be called Black Saturday.

Violence is the inevitable outcome of a clash of ideologies where both sides are all too quick to lose sight of what they were arguing about to begin with.

No, I really don’t want to delve into the metaphors lurking within the violent protests and the subsequent lockdown in Toronto in area of the G20 Summit. Instead I will point my car out of the city to meander through the fields indulging in the metaphors that abound when butterflies soar, dragonflies dance and bullfrogs croak in the marshes.

Not all metaphors are inspiring. Some just make you want to shake your head and wonder at the stupidity of mankind. It doesn’t have to be this way – and yet so often it is.

Let’s please turn the page on the G20 Summit as quickly as possible. No post-mortems. No in-depth news reports. No special commissions investigating what went wrong. The sooner we put the whole fiasco behind us the better.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Subscribe to “Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the “Subscribe to this Blog: How To” instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Canada · G20 Summit · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · protests · violenceNo Comments.