My thought and the outcome

Greetings!

Recently, I happened to pick up a print-out of an incident among my notebooks.  The incident took place on August 31, 2011.  I wrote down what happened after I was home that night.  I had forgotten the details.  As I read it, I felt this experience was worth sharing.

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I went to a forum.  The auditorium was completely filled.  I saw some of my friends from the small church.  I also saw a friend from the Unity church that I went to once in a while.  We were excited to be there.  The presenter was very loved and highly respected.  She had come with her daughter.  I had heard about the presenter, but it was the first time I saw her.  She laughed freely as she shared with us the interesting stories of her life.  Every now and then, she played the piano.  Her music brought forth her joy.  Though many of us had heard or read about her life story, we felt blessed to be in her presence that night.  Her enthusiasm of life was contagious that seemed very much to be part of our nature.  

Near the end of the gathering, there was a drawing for prizes.  The presenter had donated a few of her books, her music CD, and her husband's book as prizes.  A holistic store had also donated two gift certificates.  Altogether, there might be about 12 prizes.  (Not sure about the actual number of prizes)  We had put our names on small pieces of paper and placed them in a basket.  The host of the event (another wonderful soul) randomly asked a woman in the audience to come up the stage to pick names from the basket.  

Many of my friends voiced how much they wish they would win the books or CD.  I would love to read the presenter or her husband's books too.  If the presenter had brought with her some of their books for sale, I would have bought one.  Seeing the filled auditorium, I thought, "Those who win a prize deserve the prize, and I am happy for them."  

The woman picked a paper from the basket, and handed it to the presenter.  The presenter announced the name, and that person went up the stage to receive the prize.  As this went on, I said in my heart to every person that won a prize 'I am happy for you'.  I let go of wanting to win anything.  After the books and CD, someone received the holistic store's first gift certificate.  Before they drew a winner for the second gift certificate, I suddenly thought, "I have not visited the store since I held my workshop there.  I know it has moved to a new location.  If it is in the divine plan that I should visit the store again in the new location, then I will win this gift certificate."  Just then, I heard the presenter called my name!  

(Re the store and my first workshop, please view A beautiful pink fish on the back of a white dove )

When the gathering was over, I talked to my friends.  Before I left, I thought I should go to thank the presenter.  It was truly an honor to meet her.  There was a line of people that wanted to talk to her.  I waited.  After a while, the woman in front of me did not want to wait any longer.  She left.  I stayed because I wanted to hug the presenter.  When I finally stood in front of the presenter, she looked into my eyes for a while as I looked into hers.  Then we hugged.  She said, "Do I pronounce your name right, (she said my name including my married name)?  She just saw my name earlier on a piece of paper, and we had not met before this night.  Many people found it hard to say or remember my name.  There she was saying my name right in every way.  At 91, her mind / memory was truly incredible.

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I used 'my thought and the outcome' as the title of this post.  It was interesting how my thought correlated with the outcome. 

I found out online that the presenter had moved on in 2019 at the age of 99.  I could not visualize, and had a hard time of recalling faces of people that I met.  However, I could easily remember her face, her laughs and her joyful expression of the love of life.

To the wonderful sister and teacher, thank you!

Love,

Q of D

Lens flare or not, pictures of the sun / nature bring me joy 😊

Greetings!

Since September 3, I had been taking pictures of the sun in the sky whenever I went for a walk in the school fields.  (Re Suddenly, I wanted to capture the magnificence of the Sun )

I had taken pictures of the sky (e.g. rainbows, sun, moon, clouds), trees, flowers, insects, geese, ducks and animals as I walked.  Seeing the beauty and magic of creation brought me lots of joy.  After taking the amazing pictures of Sept. 3, I looked through my old photos of the sun in the sky.  I did not see any image of objects near the sun.  

I showed the recent pictures of the sun to my son.  He said the images were probably reflections of the light of the sun.  I went online to search for pictures of the sun.  There were many beautiful pictures of the sun.  I learned about Sundogs / halo around the sun.  As for the objects near the sun, the experts in photography and some scientists had the same view as my son.  They said those images were merely the results of lens flare.

Well, my enthusiasm of seeing the beauty and wonders of nature remained.  I continued to take pictures with my android as I walked in the school fields.  Later, I decided to bring my pocket size Fuji JX420 camera too.  I wondered if the lens flare effect would also be clearly visible on the pictures taken by the small Fuji camera.

I usually examined the pictures closely after I was home.  Those images were captured by the Fuji camera too.  Lens flare or not, looking at the pictures brought me joy 😊.  

I usually took 3 to 5 pictures at a time, i.e. within 20 to 30 seconds.  Sometimes a picture was totally clear without any lens flare image.  One day, the sky was not clear.  I took a few pictures.  It seemed those objects near the sun were not there.  When I was home, my son and his friend were there talking about bodybuilding.  I looked at my pictures.  I saw a barely visible image on the far horizon.  Excitedly, I assumed the greenish object 'was coming'.  My son said they were going to the playground by the school to exercise.  I asked him to use his android to take a picture of the sun because I wanted to see if his android would capture the same image around the sun.  After they left, it suddenly came to me that my son would not do as I said; I should just go and take some pictures by myself.  I grabbed my phone.  I was going to walk over to the school field.  However, as soon as I got out of the door of the apartment building, I 'got' that I should take some pictures right there.  That day I took some beautiful pictures of the sun with big, clear images of the greenish blue object (or you may call them lens flare images).  I used to feel a little uncomfortable taking pictures of the sky / sun while other people were around.  I had since let go of that feeling, and took pictures when I wanted to.

Since September 3, I had taken many wonderful pictures of the sky.  In some pictures, I saw an image that looked like a spaceship behind the luminous greenish blue object.  According to the experts, they called them 'ghost' lens flare images.  In two of my pictures, I captured a globe on luminous cloud appeared near the edge of the picture.  The image of the globe was clear.  A white band was in the center, purple bands with some green energy were seen next to the white band and then blue bands.  It might just be a big balloon or it could also be something else.  I had seen many pictures of sundog online, but Oct. 14 was the first time I captured the sun with a halo.  

On August 1, I saw a golden yellow caterpillar in the mud below a tree along the road.  (Re A Golden Yellow Caterpillar )  On August 13, I saw a hawk (about 18" to 20" tall) in the school playground.  I was gladly surprised that the hawk allowed me to walk near to take some pictures.  Later, it flew up a tall tree.  A man who was running on the track saw what happened.  He raised his thumb and said loudly, "Congratulation!  They (the hawks) seldom let people stand that close to take pictures!"  On Sept. 12, I saw another big, golden caterpillar on the black running track.  There were other people walking on the track.  Therefore, I stood by the caterpillar to make sure it got onto the grass safely with the help of a leave.  On Oct. 6, I saw a green praying mantis in the middle of the track.  I took a few pictures and made sure it got to the grass before I walked away.  

I did not know much about insects particularly their names in English.  Luckily, both of my sons participated in Science Olympia in high school.  They were quite knowledgeable of insects.  For instance, I saw a beautiful greenish insect in August 2019.  My son told me it was a cicada.  In later days, I saw a few more.  I had not seen any cicada in August 2020.  In Oct. 2019, I took some pictures of katydid (grasshopper).  October 2020 was almost over, but I had not seen any katydid.  In where I lived, it seemed there were less insects flying around this year than it was in 2019.

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Recently, we have many rainy and cloudy days.  With thick clouds, I still capture the green and purple (lens flare) images / objects in most of the pictures.  Sunny days, rainy days or cloudy days are part of nature.  I feel peace walking under the cloudy sky.  (Re my posts Writing Is Healing and On a cloudy, gloomy morning, I go looking for the sun )

Love and Peace, 

Q of D