Seeing the patterns before me

So intense and clear

No negative thoughts or self-doubts

Wonder soothes all fears

A world without an end

by Matthew Benoit

© realization

Golden Lotus Temple of the Self-Realization Fellowship

Southern California

www.WestcoastWildlife.com

Dragonfly symbolizes change, transformation, adaptability, and self-realization.

There are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies, all of which (along with damselflies) belong to the order Odonata, which means “toothed one” in Greek and refers to the dragonfly’s serrated teeth.

Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve, some 300 million years ago. Modern dragonflies have wingspans of only two to five inches, but fossil dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to two feet.

Dragonflies are expert fliers. They can fly straight up and down, hover like a helicopter and even mate mid-air. Between the speed, distance and flexibility when hunting, dragonflies are one of the most exceptional fliers on the planet.

Nearly all of the dragonfly’s head is eye, so they have incredible vision that encompasses almost every angle except right behind them.

They not only have an exceptional field of vision, but they can see the world in colors we can't even imagine.

Dragonflies, which eat insects as adults, are a great control on the mosquito population. A single dragonfly can eat 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day. They catch their insect prey by grabbing it with their feet.

Dragonflies can't bite humans. The vast majority of species don't have mandibles strong enough to break the skin. Only a small handful of large species are capable of actually biting, but this only occurs as a defensive strategy.

Mullein is a valued medicinal herb, especially in treating diseases of the lungs. A wash prepared from the leaves, flowers, and roots soothed sprains, reduced inflammations, and heals wounds. The leaves can also be used as a poultice for swollen glands, bruises, insect bites, for treating sprains, swelling, and wounds. It makes a good addition to an herbal salve. The flowers infused in oil were used to cure hemorrhoids and as a specific cure for earache.

My photographs are available for purchase through EliseCreations.net

Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!

© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

Photo by Mikhail Mokrushin / Strelka Institute

© REALIZATION

America is waiting for a message

Of one sort or another....

He was nicknamed "Mr. Universe" by the other lamas of Tibet for his high spiritual realization

Website: www.icandidyou.com/

Spathodea campanulata

This is the rather rare yellow or 'Aurea' variety of the African Tulip Tree, seen growing from the public sidewalk over the fence of the Self Realization Fellowship near the ocean in Encinitas, CA

14Jul14 BushPhoto

Bignoniaceae

Silver Gelatin Print.

Self processed and developed in a wet darkroom.

i came to the realization that i'd meant to make 4 panels for my drapes, not 3. looks sooooo much better! now if only i'd selected better hardware.

the interim solution to make things work better has been to use size 3 quilter's safety pins as hangers. someday i will feel spendy and get some real curtain rods.

In the early 1950s, air forces around the world came to the realization that it made little sense to train pilots on older piston-engined trainers, then expect them to go from those aircraft to high-performance jets without a high accident rate. Most nations with an aviation industry then embarked on designing jet trainers and a training syllabus entirely with jets.

For the Soviet Union, it would not only need a jet trainer, it would need thousands of them, to equip not only its own air force, but those of the Warsaw Pact and client states. The Khrushchev regime learned that two of the Pact nations were working on their own trainers--Aero of Czechoslovakia was designing the L-29 Delfin (Dolphin), while PZL of Poland was working on the TS-11 Iskra (Spark). Surprisingly for the Soviet Union, it issued a requirement for the jet trainer and opened it up to a competition between the two aircraft.

Aero's L-29 was designed to be everything a trainer should be: easy to fly, easy to maintain, forgiving of mistakes, and capable of simple aerobatics. As Soviet doctrine called for aircraft capable of operating from austere airstrips, the L-29 was given a strengthened landing gear, and for either weapons training or in emergencies, could be equipped with four underwing hardpoints for bombs, rockets or gunpods. It was not particularly fast and considered underpowered, but that was less important in a trainer.

The L-29 would first fly in 1959, and went up against the TS-11 in 1961. To the surprise of many, considering the TS-11 was faster, the L-29 was declared the winner. Suspecting politics and wishing to keep some independence, the Polish Air Force would never use the Delfin, and would make the Iskra its primary jet trainer. For the rest of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, the L-29 would go into production. NATO would give it the reporting name of Maya.

Some 27 nations would eventually fly L-29s, as trainers, but occasionally in combat as well: Egyptian L-29s were pressed into service during the 1973 Yom Kippur (October) War as ground attack aircraft, and they were also used in the Biafran War of 1967-1970 and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1988-1994 between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In these cases, the Delfin did not do well, but it was never intended to fight against modern air defenses. Saddam Hussein reportedly converted a number of his L-29s to drones, intended to carry poison gas towards Coalition forces in 2003, though they never flew.

While the L-29 was adequate, as aircraft got faster and more manueverable, the Delfin was becoming obsolete. In response, Aero designed the L-39 Albatros, a more advanced trainer, and L-29 production ended in 1974 after 3665 had been produced. Though most L-29 users replaced it with the L-39, some continued with the Delfin, and Angola and Georgia would use it as late as 2016. After the end of the Cold War, many Delfins became available on the open market, and while not as common as its Western equivalent--the T-33 Shooting Star--or its successor the L-39, L-29s are found in small numbers in the warbird community, and a few have raced in the Reno Air Races.

This L-29 entered service with the Soviet V-VS as Bort (nose number) 34 in 1971, and would remain in service until the mid-1980s; it was probably handed over to the paramilitary DOSAAF national flying clubs as the L-39 replaced the L-29 in Soviet service. In 1997, it was bought by a Colorado-based warbird collector, and flown out of Phoenix, Arizona for a time; in 2013, it was sold to Planes of Fame in Chino, California, joining another L-29 the museum already had.

For some reason, my camera just didn't want to get a picture of the aircraft in this single row outside of the main Planes of Fame buildings. This one turned out all right. Bort 34 retains the standard bare metal scheme of Soviet L-29s; the red stripe on the rear fuselage, red nose, and red wing panels is also common on L-29s. This was the first time I'd ever gotten up close to a Delfin.

There are two interesting background features of this photo as well: the tail of the QF-100D Super Sabre to the right, showing the damage done by an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, and the nose of the B-50 to the left--that is "Lucky Lady II," the first aircraft to fly nonstop around the world.

The yogi's interest is inner peace, self realization & social harmony

- Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda

See more insights by Jagad Guru Chris Butler here :

www.jagadguruchrisbutler.com/the-search-for-wisdom/inner-...

Self Realization Fellowship, Meditation Gardens, Pacific Palisades(Santa Monica), California

Since its opening to the public in 1950 by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Lake shrine has inspired thousands of visitors each year, many of whom return again and again to refresh mind and spirit in the peace that pervades this beautiful sanctuary.

The ten-acre site is a natural amphitheater. The spring-fed lake has an average depth of 15 feet. Its waters are inhabited by numerous varieties of colorful Koi.

Out of respect to the meditating visitors in various sites throughout the grotto,

I have limited my photographs so as not to include these private moments. There are many beautiful cottages and lush hillside bench locations to photograph.

The Shrine is a quarter mile from the Pacific Ocean, it was a 72 mile freeway drive from my home.

Reallizzazione | Realization: Leonardo

Modella | Model: Sara

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Linda Lewis’s surreal digital composition, “Miscalculation Realization,” confronts the viewer with an apocalyptic vision that merges classical symbolism with contemporary existential dread—most pointedly, the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

The digital photomontage shows a nude man, with a white cloth draped over his shoulder. He is kneeling on the ground, his hands are open, and his face is lifted towards the sky. This posture indicates deference, and is a primal behavior. This man is clearly beyond saving from the inferno of burning sand and violent fire he is engulfed by. It could also be interpreted as seeking deliverance from the current situation.

Next to the figure rests an abacus—a powerful metaphor for the failure of humans to pay heed to climate change predictions. The man finally realizes that the predictions were correct, and he submits to this knowledge. In this reading, the image becomes a stark allegory for the hubris of modern civilization, that ignored decades of scientific warnings and now kneels, too late, before the flames it helped ignite.

The environmental message is blisteringly clear. The landscape is not simply infernal—it resembles a climate-ravaged Earth, stripped bare by wildfires, drought, and ecological devastation. The man, perhaps a stand-in for humanity itself, is caught at the moment of horrifying clarity: that civilization has miscalculated the fragility of its own ecosystem.

Miscalculation Realization is a haunting indictment of our failure (refusal) to heed the warnings of climate science, wrapped in the fire-and-ash aesthetic of mythic reckoning. Linda Lewis holds up a mirror to our collective delusion—that we could endlessly calculate, consume, and control nature without consequence. This is not just an image of the end—it is the moment after the final calculation, when the answer has arrived, and it is burning.