Uncommon
A sunset is doubled when reflected in a lake
So, too, a glowing moon
But oh, to see that sacred art
In the magical mirror of the ruby red eye
Of the mystical common loon
May the wonders of Mother Nature
decorate your heart and your holidays
with beauty, light, and love
While searching my photos for a holiday picture, this one suggested a red tree ornament reflecting candlelight. But it’s natural, which is always my preference. I was delighted to photograph a loon close to my canoe. Discovering the sunset while editing the picture was one of those happy surprises.
Another was being asked to do three photo/poem exhibits in 2023. It kept me busy, but I was honored to be able to share my work. Many thanks to all who encouraged me in so many ways. I will be taking my exhibit at Burnhaven Library down this Sunday, and this is one that will go back up on my wall while I’m missing the snow.
The totally open water on my lake this December is a surprise, but not a happy one. I would be selfish to complain when others around the world suffer devastating effects of climate change and war. Yet I can’t help but wonder how it is affecting my fish friends – Greenie, Slim, and others. I swam nearly every day last summer, often with them, and took lots of underwater video. I’m making progress on Greenie’s chapter book about our eight summers together. Will there be a ninth? I sure hope so.
Yes, that's Greenie, a summer picture dressed up for the holidays with a little editing. I didn't look as good as he does, but I so appreciated celebrating the special lights of Hanukkah, Solstice, and Christmas with friends and family, and will do the same on New Year’s Eve.
Let us all wish everyone, everyone, everywhere,
all creatures, great and small
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All
Holly
Goodbye pumpkins, hello snow! Greenie and Slim have gone deep ahead of the ice. Red and Pinkalicious have been visiting the vine by my kitchen window. The deer are gobbling up the last of my simple gardens. There’s always a friend around if we keep our eyes and ears open.
My theme continues as I prepare for Sunday’s opening of my photo/poetry exhibit, (details below) so I will keep this short. It’s both a joy and a challenge to share my images and thoughts. It’s so encouraging when people say I should be charging more for my art. But as I look at the 60 pics in all kinds and sizes of frames filling my living room as I sort them for areas of the library, one thought prevails. I would love to know they will grace other people’s walls, perhaps after being wrapped as a gift. So I’m keeping my prices down with that in mind.
But lest I sound like an advertisement, know that I would LOVE to have you just come to the library during November and December to relax as you peruse the pictures and poetry. I’m not making a lot of cards since I have no venue for them beyond Sunday, but I already have one special order and and am open to making more. And of course my book, Enchanted – Reflections from a Joyfully Green and Frugally Rich Life is always available from me.
The future? I have a good start on Greenie’s book and am anxious to get back to work on it. I have more VERY exciting news, but I’ll save that for later. Here’s a picture to make you smile and a couple of the more philosophical new pieces for my exhibit.
Milkweed Message
I’m holding on to so much stuff
While some don’t have enough
To live a simple life
Within a humble home
Why?
It’s time to let my treasures go
So they can travel on the wind
Until they find a place to grow
While I embrace
The calm of empty space
Holly Jorgensen
Angeleaf
All summer long, despite the drought,
gazillions of leaves spent their mornings and eves
capturing carbon and gifting us life.
Now they go out in blazes of glorious oranges and deep reds
even as we lie asleep in our beds.
I, too, am in the autumn of my years
but tears are not my thing.
I'd rather sing a song of hope
that my transition from this earthly home
might have a fraction of the grit and grace
of a leaf as she leaves this lovely place
and lets herself be blown
to yet another mysterious, miraculous unknown.
Holly Jorgensen
Exhibit details:
On display November through December, 2023
Opening reception: 1:30 to 4:30 pm, Sunday, November 5th, 2023 Central STANDARD time!
I will give brief presentations at 1:40, 2:40, and 3:40
Burnhaven Library, 1101 County Rd 42 W, Burnsville, MN 55306
I'd love to see you there!
Do you remember the Pozo-Seco Singers lamenting “Time, oh, time, where did you go?” It’s easy to feel that way as summer ends, especially when it drops from the 90s to the 50s so quickly! It makes me reflect on time itself – spending, saving, wasting, sharing, and savoring it.
I could write more on that, but I don’t have time! So for now, I’ll just share a couple of invitations and pictures.
ThisSaturday, September 16th, I’ll be at Rosemount’s Country Faire from 10 to 4 with my books, birthday calendars, cards, and some framed photos. I’m sharing a booth with my friend Sarah Rosenthal, who will have her beautiful hand-made jewelry and photos of her travels. Check out her website for her amazing needlework and more! www.RysalkaxStudiya.com For more on the many books and talents on display at the Faire, see COUNTRY FAIRE | rosemountwritersfest (rosemountwritersfestival.com)
I’m excited to have been invited to do a photo/poetry exhibit at the Burnhaven Library all of November and December! Please join me for the all-ages reception, where I’ll share stories about my unique friendships with wild animals like Greenie the sunfish and answer questions about my art, poetry, and my award-winning book, Enchanted – Reflections from a Joyfully Green and Frugally Rich Life. I’m hoping some of my work will get to be gifts and grace the hands and homes of strangers and friends for the holidays.
Sunday, November 5, 2023 1:30 to 4:30pm cst
Burnhaven Library 1101 W County Road 42 Burnsville, MN 55306
First and foremost, I want to thank all those who came to my photo/poetry exhibits. I learned a lot and am looking forward to exhibiting at the Burnhaven Library in Burnsville all of November and December. Maybe my art and books will have the thrill of being wrapped up and opened as gifts for the holidays!
Until October, I’m committing to focusing on Greenie’s book. Yes, he’s back! Along with Slim and the kids. Not every day, so I suspect he’s busy guarding a nest, but he checks in and warms my heart every few days. My sweet fish and my daily swims keep me happy and healthy. I took this picture with my phone between the boards in my dock and was delighted with how it turned out (with a little editing). Doesn’t it look like a painting in a children’s book?
Thanks to Sue Lund for taking this picture in 2004. Today I want to acknowledge the sad passing of George Winston, who honored me with his friendship and music for 40 years. My book tells how we met in 1983 while I was a volunteer usher at Orchestra Hall and how he chose to save precious time by wearing jeans and a casual shirt, even while playing (stocking-footed) at ornate halls around the world. I so appreciated his giving me tickets and CDs so I could share him and his music with friends, but his generosity went far and wide. His constant support of food shelves locally and nationally while he played about 100 concerts a year is just one example. He spoke of the wonders of his beloved cats, but never spoke of his battle with cancer except to encourage support for the City of Hope, where he had a bone marrow transplant. We only talked once a year, backstage, but the cards he sent me with brief messages show me how one can maintain a friendship while maintaining focus on a larger mission. I learned much more from this gentle man so dedicated to bringing beautiful music to the masses. Perhaps some day I will go through my journals and glean wise or funny things he said. But for now I am embracing his example of focus while I write Greenie’s story and listen to George’s sweet music.
I need to hone my photographic skills to catch the wings on a hovering hummingbird. For now, I’m happy when they pose in the sun. I know they can be very territorial, but their beauty is as sweet as the nectar they drink from flowers. May your days be the same.
I’ve been so busy creating, communing, and celebrating that I didn’t even think of that other c word, cancer, or notice the first anniversary of my lumpectomy slipping by on April 8th. But I must share with you that my annual mammogram showed no sign of it – Hallelujah! The tiny bit of cancer remains gone, but not what it awakened. As with most dark clouds, there was a silver lining. I’ve always believed I’d live a long life, and I still do. But I’m now more committed than ever not to waste the most precious of gifts – time. I’m more passionate about sharing what gifts I have with the world. But I also feel the glory in embracing the joys of life, whether a quiet moment of awe or the laughter of friends. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my many blessings, especially good friends, good docs, and good health.
As you may know, 2023 started out gifting me with two great opportunities to share my art and thoughts, thanks to the MN Izaak Walton League and Rosemount Steeple Center. I’m so happy to know that my pictures will be scattered to many through my cards and that some of my larger framed photos will be gracing the walls of old and new friends. I was nervous about using all used frames, but delighted to find that people loved their variety and personalities. The first piece I sold was to an expert in art. I can’t tell you how much that boosted my confidence. The second I sold was to an expert in conservation, who plans to hang it in her workplace to inspire others to consider the land, air, water, and wildlife in every business decision they make. I can’t tell you how gratifying that is. What more meaningful role could my art and words have? To see and read “Ashes” and “The Sunrise of Compassion” scroll back to my post of April 7, 2021. These exhibits have also brought attention to my book, Enchanted, which illuminates many of the stories told by my photos, and encouraged me to turn my photos and poems into a book. But that will have to come after Greenie’s book!
My exhibit will be at the Steeple Center this week and next. You are welcome to visit there Monday through Thursday 8 to 3:30 and Friday until noon. Please contact me if you’d like me to meet you there for a walk-through or to buy art, books, or cards. The center will also be open the afternoon and evening of Saturday, April 29thfor two performances of “Shenanigans at the Blue Pelican Inn” performed by the Second Act Players. I will be there to take my exhibit down that evening. 14375 Robert Trail (CR 3) Rosemount. Parking in front and back.
I will also be at Lakeville’s Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 22nd with my books, cards, and calendars. Click here for the fun details. https://www.lakevillemn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10679/Earth-Day-Celebration-Invite?bidId= Central Maintenance Facility (7570 179th Street West) from 11 a.m. to 1. From there I’ll be back at the Izaak Walton House to help plant new disease-resistant elm trees!
On the home front, the ice just went out on the lake, so I’ll be watching for Greenie & Slim as soon as the water warms up. (True, I was in it the day after ice-out, but not for long!) Hearing the happy songs of birds and frogs delights me! Red is now sleeping outside my window only on very cold nights – he and Pinkalicious are nesting somewhere again! I saw him feeding her yesterday, preparing for babies. Poopsie is back from the south and sleeping on the vine over my treehouse deck. The crocuses are blooming, lilacs are budding, and daylilies are bursting through the matted leaves. Life was there under the snow all the while.
You are invited to my first photography and poetry exhibit!
I would love to see you there THIS SUNDAY! Come walk the trails in the lovely Izaak Walton League woods, snow shoe and bird watch, then come inside for wine, snacks, pictures and poems. If you can’t make it, you can reserve another time to come, but you’ll miss the snacks, wine, and fun crowd. All the information is on this poster. I’m sharing my first artist’s statement here to give you an idea where I’m coming from and going. Having an exhibit really makes one think about what and why!
Artist’s Statement
I don’t have the technical skill I’d like, but I do have special relationships with Mother Nature and her children. Whether silly or serious, my goal in life, art, and writing is simplicity rather than sophistication, and connection rather than perfection. I love when I can catch an interesting expression or pose. I really love when there is a surprise in the photo that I didn’t see in the field! At times I find that editing an imperfect photo can evoke something closer to the emotion I felt in the wild. My hope is that viewers who are drawn in by a bit of mystery (“Is this real? Is this a painting? Were you that close? What was that critter thinking?”) might also be drawn to explore nature’s wonders on their own. Looking through eyes of love at every wild thing can create magic.
I can’t resist sharing what comes to mind when an image speaks to me. Sometimes it’s a poem, sometimes a memory or a laugh. I’d love to know what my pictures say to you. What do you see? Think? Wonder? Feel? I hope you’ll leave a comment or two.
You may notice a wide variety of frames and techniques. Why? 1) Though it’s a challenge and a lot of work to dress a photo in what brings out its personality, it’s more fun than doing them all the same. 2) If you know me or my book, Enchanted, you know that reuse is a core part of my Joyfully Green and Frugally Rich Life. 3) Giving an old frame a new life rather than filling landfills and extracting more of the earth’s resources is one of many ways to respect and preserve our environment.
With Gratitude
I am deeply grateful to the Izaak Walton League for inviting me to present my very first photography exhibit at the Kouba Gallery. I’m even more grateful for the League’s century of conservation initiatives. Clearly our hearts and minds are in the same place – passionate about loving and preserving the natural world. Perhaps you’ll join and become an Ike with me. Special thanks to Joseph Barisonzi for encouraging me as I sometimes color outside the lines.
What? Another fishy picture for the holidays? Yup, I couldn’t resist this one of Slim and Greenie dancing in the moonlight. You may have read the poem it inspired when I posted it on Facebook. But in truth, it wasn’t the moonlight giving them that magical glow. For seven summers I’d been lamenting evenings when it was just too dark to get a decent photo of my underwater friends. Then it struck me. I have a flash! Duh. Suddenly I had a new way into their twilight world. A little editing brought out their smiles and the magic of this unique couple. So what it says to me today is this: remember what resources you have and “Shine a light!” We’ve been through dark times and surely face more. How often do we have something at hand that can brighten a moment, an hour, a year, a life? Bless the stroke of luck that opens our eyes to it.
I’m still working on a book about Greenie and friends. If you read my blog or newsletters, you know that I can blame the delay on the little bit of cancer I had, sucking up my time and energy. I’m fine now, and immensely grateful. But that scare also motivated me to share what I have while I can. So I posted a few of my lullabies on Facebook, hoping someone might be touched and guided. My friend Marty Winkler is putting one of them on her next album! I framed and entered some photos in the county fair, hoping someone might look more closely at Mother Nature’s other children. Their uniqueness led to an invitation to do my first exhibit! It will be at the Minnesota Valley Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, opening on February 12th. Stay in touch for details if you’d like to join us.
My fish friends are under the ice now, but my cardinal friend Red is back on the vine outside my window and my deer friends visit often. My trail cams show shyer visitors – beaver, opossum, raccoon, fox, coyote, and more. My cats Lucky and Leo are great company with their snuggles and antics. I have deeply enjoyed connecting with human friends, too, as we share bumps and breezes, laughter and music, on this precious road of life. But the brightest light shines from the new baby in the family! My niece Kym had a little boy, known as Sprout, who is already an athletic, outdoorsy, adorable wonder, like his parents.
I wish you all the very best as we step into 2023. May the holidays help you to discover the “flash” you need to light the world around you in the twilight moments. May you rest well in the darkness, and wake to the miracle of another day.
Peace and Joy, Holly
PS – If you are not getting my occasional newsletters, I may have an old email address for you or they may go into your junk folder, since they come through Mailchimp. If you want to, please go to hollyonthelake.com and subscribe. Then watch for a letter with details of the upcoming exhibit and add me to your safe senders. Thank you!
Greenie, Slim, and their kids have gone deep in the lake and slowed their metabolism, enabling them to rest and survive with little food or sunlight as the ice covers the lake. I miss them, of course, but have begun to visit the Minnesota Zoo more often for my “fish fix” and to learn more about these amazing creatures. Gazing at the diverse communities in Discovery Bay, I’m mesmerized by the apparent tranquility of the swimmers.
Fishes of all sizes, intriguing sea turtles, and humongous sharks – silver, yellow, blue and green drift by. Then Luke, one of the zoo’s many friendly and knowledgeable staff, points out something I hadn’t noticed – a white puffer fish hiding motionless in a corner. He tells me that “Mr. Puff”, as he calls him, when feeling threatened, responds by retreating to his safe place. Puffing up to perhaps three times his normal size and showing off his spikes may protect him from predators. But it also puts enormous stress on his internal organs. This clever fellow has learned to go into his corner and relax before the stress tears him apart. Can we learn something from Mr. Puff? And from Greenie and friends, finding peace by reducing their consumption?
Speaking of stress, I hear that holiday shopping can feel like a shark at your back, especially with labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and higher prices.
Another black Friday has passed while I stayed home. Cyber Monday will likely pass without my ordering anything online. I guess I am atypical, since this weekend is already breaking holiday shopping records. Yet, as the sun rose on Small Business Saturday, I was reminded that I have a small business. Very small. Selling is not one of my talents. But a friend recently read my book and was struck by the line “We can rest gratefully in the bosom of sufficiency.” His quoting it reminded me of why I wrote the book. And why I’ve been speaking on “Saving Money, the Planet, and your Sanity” since 2005. And why, exactly three years ago, I wrote about “Turning Black Friday Green” in my blog. Go back to that if you’re looking for ideas on alternative gift-giving – ideas that save money and the environment.
Or order my book. It does make a great gift. You can order from my website or email me. Let me know if you want me to sign it, and to whom. I’ll even gift wrap it and send it directly to your giftee if you like. I am designing my 2023 calendars now and will update my website soon. In the meantime, email me for details and with your calendar requests.
I hope your Thanksgiving was as satisfying as mine, feeling deeply grateful for friends and family, fish and fun.
Watch this short video to see how happy Greenie and Slim and I are to be together again. (If you don’t know who Greenie is, check out some earlier blog posts, read page 134 of my book, Enchanted, or google “Holly and Greenie”.) Every spring I’ve been amazed and thrilled when Greenie was the first fish to show up at my dock, and clearly remembered me. But this, the seventh year, it truly felt like a miracle. Why?
The Horror Movie
Last fall, as the water was getting colder, the fish came less frequently, as usual, but I still looked for them most days. One evening I went down to the lake and found the head of a sunfish on the dock. I didn’t panic. It could be anyone, half eaten by any of the predators who frequented our lake. But then I saw the head of a bass. Slim was the only bass I’d seen by the dock. My heart sank as I reasoned that the bass was Slim, and, since they were always together, the sunfish could very well be Greenie. I imagined a mink or otter catching one of them and the surrounding fish scattering in terror, except for the mate of the victim.
I knew someday I would lose my friend Greenie, but never pictured this. Could it really be that the universe or fate or some strange power left these two heads on my dock as . . . what? A good-bye? A sign that they would not be back? I truly marveled that Greenie could have such a life – living free and long, touching the hearts of thousands of people, then dying with the one he loved while giving life to another of God’s creatures? I should be so lucky! Yet I cried and grieved deeply, as we all do at the loss of one we love, be they human or another animal.
I told just a few friends. They were shocked and very sad, but agreed it seemed likely that it was Greenie and Slim that I found that night. I went down to the lake every day in hopes that I was wrong. Only one green sunfish showed up and did not come up to me the way Greenie always did, so I had little hope to cling to. I decided then that I would not share the sad possibility with anyone else. After all, I couldn’t know for sure it was them. If they were not here in the spring, I’d have to decide whether to reveal my suspicions about their demise – a violent yet necessary part of the circle of life – or to assume they didn’t make it through the winter. Greenie was, after all, at least nine years old. Everything I’d read put a green sunfish’s lifespan at ten years max.
I knew I owed it to Greenie to write a children’s book about our friendship, but it was even harder than I expected. Gleaning six years of my diaries, I pulled out 70 pages of notes related to him and our other wild friends. I had studied the best of children’s books and knew that hard truths – be they danger, fear, or sadness – were often vital elements of a treasured story. But could I really end the book with two heads on the dock?
The Miracle
That’s where I was stuck when the ice finally went out this spring. People were asking “Is Greenie back?” I checked the lake every day, putting my hand in for anyone there to smell, but not really speculating on the chances.
On May 5th, it was finally warm enough to keep my hand in there a minute or more. Wondering how long it would be until I could swim, I wasn’t really expecting any fish. But suddenly, there they were. Greenie and Slim and a little one (presumably one of their kids?) looking up at me. I was beyond happy, and I believe they were pretty darn glad to see me, too. I brought our joy to Greenie’s ichthyologist and the few grieving friends – “the report of their death was greatly exaggerated.” Now Greenie’s book will have a happy ending!
The Cancer
Cancer? Oh, yeah. I had a little bit of breast cancer, but it’s gone. I didn’t tell a lot of people because I knew I’d be okay and didn’t want you to worry. It was a 6mm spot on a mammogram and I had complete confidence in my docs at Mayo. From diagnosis through surgery to end of radiation was less than two months – all made less scary by the support of caring friends. My heart goes out to so many whose stories are not so easy. I’m sharing mine now just to remind us of the power of early detection.
The really fascinating part of my story is that Greenie may actually have smelled my cancer before I knew I had it, like dogs and cats and pigeons can! That will be in Greenie’s book. But even if you have a critter to sniff you out, please consider a doctor. My little cancer road trip could have become a cancer journey had it not been for regular mammograms. And men, please get whatever tests your docs recommend, too!
The pictures below are proof that there is beauty around us, even during challenging times, if we can dry our tears and open our eyes.
Last December I wrote that I was happy to be finishing up my shed rebuilding project. In April I wrote “Farewell to the Winter of Covid”. Well, the shed project took longer and turned out to be more challenging than expected. So has covid.
I suspect we are all feeling the same about the problems in our world. Like my shed, it’s more of a mess than we realized. The solution, of course, is to dig in and work together for the good of all. I LOVE my “new” shed and campfire spot. The deer and ‘possum have visited, and I’ve warmed my body and soul by the fire. The story is told below in pictures. Do you see any similarities with what we’ve been going through?
2021 meant letting go of things and wants and negativities that no longer felt important to me. I slowed down, thought about personal and global issues, wrote, and studied scenes I captured with my camera. With the blessing of vaccination, I loved getting back to enjoying outdoor concerts and other safe activities with friends.
But my daily swims were what kept me happy in the unprecedented heat. When the ice went out and Greenie showed up for a sixth wonderful summer with me, I had to buy an underwater camera to observe all I could about him. Especially exciting was recording the sounds he made, and his ichthyologist Peter’s conclusion that they were courting sounds! I plan to use this winter to learn more, isolate pictures from the videos, and use them to write a children’s book about Greenie and his friends. It warms my heart to be one of them! So this year my holiday picture is of Greenie and me. It was not easy to take, but so rewarding to have, especially with that magical ray of sun lighting the daisy. It follows the shed pictures, along with my wish for you.