looking for frogs

{ 9 photos, for those gathering on dial-up}

as is often the case, the articles that i read on gather stay with me for a long time. i think of candida's husband's cancer and how their whole family is coping, john walter's cancer as he writes from the cancer ward in spain, linda douglas's impromptu trip to care for her mom, serina's kids off to college, bonnie's new job, mary alward's grandkids, mary legg's frog, nathan's tree, etc...all of you mean so much to me and your words stick. they mean something.   today i read chris bell's article on being alone. it is still circling in my head, as i think of what chris (and his commenters) wrote, as well as how it applies to my own life.

tonight, we were out looking for frogs. it started with checking out the sunset, a daily occurrence in our life. as we neared the water's edge, a frog jumped out into the lake and hid. we stood silently, looking, daring him to move so that we could find him. finally, ed spotted him. lillie was put on frog watch, ed went to get the camera (i know, i ventured outside without a camera. what??). she got distracted by the swans, and when we looked again near the weeds where he was hidden, he was gone.



we then headed down the shore a bit...to a rocky area where there are lots of rocks and reeds and yes, frogs.  six of them - from large to small - jumped away from us and burrowed into the reeds, swam away in the water, escaped our perusal.




no matter where or how hard we looked, no frogs were sighted again tonight.




we did see lots of other beautiful things, though - a plethora of shells, washed up on the shore, tangled with chopped weeds. a fading lilypad, torn from its tethering base. a feather, loose and adrift from a goose. the reeds, some bent and broken from a summer's worth of waves.












you never know what you'll find, when you venture out. isn't life grand?




copyright 2006, jessica voigts