09 March 2020
Lens:
Walking on Cracked Ice; All Rights Reserved 2020 Sally W. Donatello
Click onto image to enlarge. Let me know your response to this photomontage. Prints are available upon request.
Pens:
“Walking on Cracked Ice” is my latest image that envisions my deeply felt concern for the planet and the global environmental crisis. As cracks reveal a cascade of predictions a figure carefully stands on warming ice. It casts the net of today and tomorrow with a quiet beauty of nature even in its labyrinth is destruction. And now the pandemic is added to the global mix.
An apt descriptor, which exemplifies the malaise and tension of the here-and-now in the human (and non-human) journey, is fragility. No matter where we are located, our spirits have been deflated and infiltrated—infiltrated by outside forces that are beyond much of our control. We can respond with informed action, and the notion of complete safety emotionally and physically continues to be out of reach.
When will these multiple lessons striking humanity jolt the response needed? Whether it’s climate crisis, political crisis or health crisis, a trio of fragility hangs over me, over us. So I turn more and more to distractions, any way to keep my mind free of the onslaught.
I’m working at a balance between informed and retreat. Distance is a double-sided answer to our current world order, especially in America. Distance to get perspective about how to cope with so much knocking against our well-being.
And so I welcome spring’s early arrival with greenery and blossoming flowers and rain and blues skies and ground hogs running through my gardens and foxes awakening me in the middle of nighttime and bluebirds flitting around the bird feeders and hellobores with delicate flower heads nodding in the breeze. These visual treats of Mother Nature comfort with their reality and symbolism of renewal and rejuvenation.
I accept her gifts with praise and wonder. I accept their exhilaration even with questions about what tomorrow will harvest through my spirit.
Lens and Pens by Sally 
you have described it perfectly Sally. thank you!
Cybele, I do appreciate your response. Be healthy and well.
Hi, Sally. I’ve haven’t seen you in the blogosphere since March, so I wanted to check to see whether you’re OK. Someone else also asked me if I’d “seen” you recently, so consider them concerned as well.
Somehow I missed this post, probably when I was in Arizona looking for a house. Lovely montage as always and so apt for these days.
I certainly hope you’re well. Please let me know.
janet
Janet, your message brought warmth to my day. I have not been on my blog since early March. I’m on Day 41 of sheltering at home. The days are packed and they disappear without notice. I am working on some new images and will eventually show them (maybe in May; I am posting today). It’s seems everyday is scheduled with family and friends and projects and on and on. It’s remarkable how time has become even more illusionary, disappearing and reappearing. Hope that you are managing to discover new ways to be. Let me know how you are coping. Be well and safe, and thanks again for your thoughtfulness.
Glad to hear that you’re doing well, Sally, and you’re obviously busy and not bored. 🙂 We’re doing well. We squeezed in our move to Arizona before things got too tightened down, by moving it up almost three weeks. That gave me a LOT to do and now at this end I still have things to unpack and find places for. But there’s no rush about that. I do look forward to when I’ll be able to get out more and explore the area and state, but I get out for morning walks and we have a lovely desert yard, where cacti and other things are blooming like crazy.
Take care and I look forward to seeing you online again.
Janet, what an adventure, happy that you are settling into the inspiration of the Southwestern landscape.
It is an adventure, Sally, and will be even more fun once we’re able to get out and explore more. It’s certainly a weather change! 🙂
I hope that you come to fall in love with it as your home.
I find thriving impossible without returning again and again to nature’s wisdom. Your title feels especially applicable in these days. Hoping this finds you safe and well. Take care.
Thank you so much, I am meandering through this journey with as much hope as possible. Its Day 42 of my stay at home. My state continues to have numbers rising daily. It’s a new world order today and tomorrow. Stay well and safe.
it’s a strong image. And even if a little menacing has its beauty. Never has now we experienced how fragile our system is. Many have not yet in spite of the tragic epidemic hitting us. I write from north Italy and the news are terryfying. It’s difficult, the virus is dangerous but people behaviour makes it even more dangerous. We have been requested to stay home, when going out to buy food or medecine to stay at least one meter from other people (better two) and we need the army in the streets (since today) otherwise people do not realize how important these actions are to fight this battle, to survive.
I hope after this the world can be different, but I’m not sure. Human beings cab be vwery irrational.
As I wrote in my blog each of us has to make his part, even the hummingbird !
Thanks for your beautiful image!
Robert, I just viewed my blog for the first time since my shelter at home: Day 41. I hope that you have gotten through this horrific time with your health in tact. It is frightening and yet I hope that the light will bring new ways for the world to exist with equality and justice. Hope that you are well and safe.
Grazie! I am ok at the moment, learning to live in house. I just finished my daily walk up and down on the terrace…
Great to hear that you were out walking. A friend of over forty years is from Southern Italy. I understand that they are being hit hard. Isolation seems to get tougher as the days disappear, even for me as an introvert (do love to socialize in short bursts). Give yourself small treats to boost your spirits.
That’s lovely.
“Walking on Cracked Ice” is a strong and poignant comment to the present situation. Hopefully the ice will not break. Stay safe, Sally.
Otto, indeed, thanks.
I love this image which beautifully shows the fragility of nature, this earth. Stay well, Sally.
Patti, thanks, happy Earth Day and hope that you are well and safe.
This one is so appropriate for the current times. I feel that our world is cracked in many ways now.
Hope that you are healthy and safe, thanks.
Beautiful 💜
Thank you for your comment and visit.
💖
Thank you, and stay well and safe.
Thanks.
That is really beautiful. I love the texturey look.
Luanne, thanks so much.
Your image is perfect for the fragile environment of the day Sally. Let us hope cooler heads prevail and that the frenzied media find something different to harp on soon. Common sense and well-known prevention measures are our best available options.
Tina, thanks, stay safe and well.
Cracked ice is a great analogy to our lives right now. All the pressure, and now the pandemic, brings out the worst in some people. No doubt stories about fights over toilet paper in Australia have reached your news.
I have not heard about the tp incidences, but I’m not surprised. One would hope that the best of humanity would emerge, helping each other in a crisis.
Thanks for your response, hope that you are well and safe.