The Mississippi

Anytime you fly out of Jackson, Mississippi (JAN) on American Eagle Airlines, you go to Dallas, Texas (DFW). In order to do this you fly over one of the greatest, if not the greatest river in North America… the Mississippi River. I remember seeing it when flying to DFW the first time, I was a little crest fallen… I expected something a little grander. And then I realised that you see the Mississippi River, and you do not see many other rivers from that height, so that gave me a clue to its size. Now I look forward to seeing it when I fly, almost like saying hello to an old friend.

Looking to the Sky

One of the greatest thrills is air travel. No matter how many times you do it, when you look out that window and see the Earth below you, the beauty is astonishing. All types of air machines fascinate me; no matter if it is a plane or a helicopter and everything in between, to be up in the air with the birds is something I love to do. Granted in this photo the plane is definitely on the ground, but the sky is calling.

Magickal Moon

The moon is one of the gifts that the people of the earth are blessed with. One of the best things to do is to ponder the moon and stars on a clear night… and just look. However tonight the sky is not clear and the moon is shining her beautiful light through a thin blanket of clouds. I love nights like this just as well, the clouds offer something new to ponder, something just as magickal and all too wonderful. Even better is on a dark night when the moon is a waxing or waning crescent and the stars shine through the holes in the clouds… Absolutely peaceful.

We Are One

My state and country has a sad history of ignorance and racism. I am not proud of this portion of history, it is a sad fact that many of us still deal with in many ways. I have seen the racism of my own race, and I have experienced racism of other races. I will never understand the hatred that people can have for each other, and how one can think of other humans as inferior… this kind of thought escapes me. I once read that scientists believe that every human on the planet is at least 50th cousins to each other human on the planet. I like this, it means that if we all want to be or not, we are one family… we need to start acting like it. We need to learn to put differences aside, and past history into the past, and we need to move forward together.

Medgar Evers understood the complete stupidity of racism. Men like Medgar Evers stood against the United States and the specific states that supported legal racism. He lost his life, but he did not die in vain, he achieved true acceptance for his people… and an honoured place among the great men in History.

However his fight lives on; just as the fight of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King, Jr, will never die as long as racism and hate lives on in the world.

"When you hate, the only one that
suffers is you because most of
the people you hate don't know
it and the rest don't care."

~Medgar Evers

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

(The photos are from the Medgar Evers Pavilion at the Jackson-Evers International Airport.)

Constant Companion

Over a year ago, I decided to do something that I never thought I would do… Get a tattoo. I spent time looking at many designs and variations before I decided on what I wanted. At the time I knew I wanted a tribal design, but I was not sure from there what exactly I wanted. The frog is my favourite animal, I knew this, it is also my Native American totem, which is when it became obvious… I wanted a tribal frog. I then searched many places for a design I liked, and doing a random online Google Image search (Tribal Frog) I found the one below. I immediately fell in love with it, and saved it with a few other designs I had found. For six months I looked at it, trying to decide if I really wanted to go through with the process. During that time I looked at more designs, and I would delete ones in the folder that I no longer liked, soon just one remained.

I talked with a few friends about where to put it, and after much deliberation on my two requirements, (I wanted to be able to see it and I needed to be able to cover it if necessary) I decided on the top of my foot. Then on 1 May, 2009 I was riding around with my friend Jessica, and I mentioned to her my plans, and since I was present for her first tattoo, she and I decided to go get it… and we did.

Since then I have looked at the Tattoo as a visual representation of my Native American Spirit Totem, and it has become sort of a companion to me. I am really pleased with the design and I am very happy to show it off. The only thing I regret is that when I saved the image the first time, I did not think to mark the site or see who the artist I was… and I have never been able to find it again.

Froggie

My world is filled with frogs, and I am not kidding. I have frog everything, including a pet Golden Tree Frog named Georgia… and a tribal frog tattoo on the top of my foot. This particular frog or toad, depending on your point of view, came from my great grandmother when I was really young. She had it for many years, so it means a lot to me. It has a space on the inside where it once held a light; the light would illuminate the marbles imbedded in the frog itself. I have never seen another one in my life, and I feel blessed to have this one.

For looks into the world of others please visit: My World: Tuesday

Mississippi Kudzu

Kudzu was brought to the United States, from Japan, in the twentieth century, as a public solution to erosion. It soon grew into a nuisance that swallows entire fields, and anything that happens to lie in its path. This is the view looking down from a hillside in Meridian Mississippi, the kudzu is enveloping everything… while it is rather pretty to look at, we must remember the danger this vine poses to our natural ecology.

Shadows of the Past

Most people see cemeteries is a place to avoid, it is a place of death and sadness; the final resting place of those before us. Back in October a few friends and I took a trip to Rocky Springs, Mississippi. Rocky Springs was at one time a thriving community outside of Port Gibson, Mississippi. Through the years the toll of disease and war eventually left the city abandoned, with only safes and cisterns in a grove of trees marking where buildings once stood. The Rocky Springs Church with it’s lonely cemetery is all that remains from this town, the cemetery holding the last, and only inhabitants of a bygone past. I find solace in places like this, it is a place of quiet and beauty… a place to be respected.