I hope you have a magical Friday today. To add to the magic, I thought I'd post some lovely photos by Polish photographer Magda Wasiczek. Even though I love nature in general, I'm not a big fan of spiders and other creepy crawlies (as my husband can well attest to) but there is something about the way that she captures the world of the small that is simply magical to me. I feel like it's something out of Alice in Wonderland.
You can see more beautiful examples of macro, animal, portrait and nature photography on Magda's official website.
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest” - Proverbs 6:6-8
I went to a lecture last night at Harvard by the famous biologist Edward O. Wilson. If you're not a biology geek like me you might not know that name, but if you work in any natural science or environmental field, you hopefully know how cool this is. Wilson has written at least 30 books on various topics, but most of his research is on ants.
In his book, The Ants, (also written with Bert Hölldobler), he begins with the line "Ants are everywhere, but only occasionally noticed". This is so true. Even though ants are tiny, the actual mass of all the ants on earth combined is Four Times the amount of all the earth's vertebrates combined. Think about that for a minute.
I'm also currently reading a book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. It's a very good book that I highly recommend, and it really has me thinking about what I often focus on. How often do we really take the time to consider or notice the small things in life? We're often so rapt up in the business of life that we don't often stop to 'smell the roses' or 'consider the ant'. Its often the little things that make life amazing. One of my favorite quotes from the movie Vanilla Sky is "Its the little things... there's nothing bigger".
I also just picked up The Happiness Project yesterday when I was in a bookstore. I just read the first few chapters so far, but its great. In this as well, the author talks about doing little things daily that make a big difference in overall happiness.
Anyway, those are just my 'little' thoughts for the day.
Also, here are some great documentaries on ants. Awesome! The first is about Edward O. Wilson.
If you want to watch more of this documentary, go to Youtube or my science and nature video playlist here on the blog. Enjoy!
I've been thinking a lot about size lately, as my post about perspective, and yesterday's post about tiny and large sculpture probably show. Then when I went to Magic Wings on Saturday, it inspired me to find a documentary on insects. This one is incredible. Its called Microcosmos. There is no speaking... it just shows the insects in their amazing beauty. I'm not usually a big insect fan in person... but they are wonderful to see on screen.
You can watch the full thing on my science playlist.
One of the thing I love about looking at the world of the small is that it makes you think about things differently. A rain drop can be killer to an insect.. like a meteorite falling... and a drop of water appears to have a 'skin' that needs to be punctured like a balloon.
I loved 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' when I was young. Here's a clip from it. The special effects look SO outdated now. At the time, they looked so cool.
Another crazy thing to think about is how the human body is like its own ecosystem. 90% of the cells in our body don't actually contain human DNA, but instead belong to microbes. Another fun fact, is that there are more viruses in a cup of sea water than there are humans in the world.... and there's a lot of sea water out there! Ok.. I realize I'm a geek, but this just fascinates me.... I guess thats why I have a masters in the epidemiology of microbial diseases. FYI, there's a great documentary on viruses on my science playlist as well.
Anyway, thats my thoughts on the world of the small today. I'm off to drink a tonic. It's sitting here on the table and says 'drink me'. Hey, what could it hurt?
Happy Spring! It was a gorgeous, warm first day of spring yesterday. I went with my mom to a place called Magic Wings, which was AMAZING!!
I took quite a few photos, since it was hard not to. They are all in my March album, but here is a little slide show. There's no music or anything, but you can play the Yanni video, 'Butterfly dance' for some beautiful music and to see more butterflies :)
Butterflies have always been a symbol of new life, and so it was a perfect thing to do to celebrate the coming of spring. The amazing thing about butterflies is not only are they beautiful, but they are the ultimate symbol of transformation. When they change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, they do so by forming a chrysalis, which most people know. But what some people may not know is that in that chrysalis, they actually dissolve almost all their cells, and then the new adult is re-created from those intact cells. So, it really is like a death and re-birth.
Isn't life amazing?? Right now, I'm actually watching Life on the Discovery channel. Its an awesome documentary. It is currently talking about amphibians, a word which also means 'two lives'. They are also a creature that is re-created.
They also had a few poison dart frogs at Magic Wings... so beautiful (and deadly).
As I think about re-creation, I realize that this is where we got our word recreation. Yesterday was a wonderful day of recreation and re-creation for me. Being with the butterflies and in the warm weather was like a re-birth after the cold winter. This poem sums it up well:
"The air is like a butterfly With frail blue wings. The happy earth looks at the sky And sings." - Joyce Kilmer, Spring
.jpg)
