ARIZONA ROCKS!!!

I recently went down to inspect the wall on the Arizona-Mexico border and had a chance to visit the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix with some dear friends before returning to more temperate climes. Though I haven't spent much time there, I love the desert, so I had a ball dancing around the amazing variety of succulents on display. I got a feeling reminiscent of hovering underwater, viewing close-up the live coral growths on tropical seabed reefs. Here are a few of my favorites... Thanks Kathy!

Once again, ain't nature grand?

Tom

ONE OF A KIND...

Here's to the best mother in the world and the love of my life...

Happy Mothers Day, Sriyani...

Tom

IN THE LONG RUN...

Last Sunday, I headed down to the UNL campus to see what was going on... Wow! 8,000 people all lining up to race around the city for the next few hours. It was a beautiful spring morning and everyone was excited about the Marathon event held annually in Lincoln. According to officials, this year's turnout was a record setter. With so many early entries, some good runners missed getting entered before the limit was filled. But, the day was wonderful... I got caught up in the fun of it all and chased the runners around the city with my camera as they wove through the neighborhoods of Lincoln.

hamming it up passing the State Capitol...

some came more for the fun than the run...

...this year's men's champion, Matt Hoyt from Vermillion, South Dakota

Here's James Bresette looking fresh at the 20 mile mark running with Ann Marie Chappell, the women's winner from St. Joseph, Missouri...

This year's finish was at the 50 yard line of Memorial Stadium, the scene of many other great finishes...

the family that runs together...

fresh as a daisy girlfriends from Kansas after the run...

a great time was had by all....

a tip of the hat to all the runners,

Tom

JUST PASSING THROUGH...

Here's Luke viewing Sandhill Cranes from the blind on the South Platte River.

Well, we journeyed down to the Platte again this year to watch the cranes arise from their night spent in the shallow waters of the river. We crept down in the early morning darkness to a blind at the Rowe Sanctuary and watched thousands of them take off to feed in the local fields for the day. It seems they hang around the neighborhood long enough to rest and fatten up before launching off toward the north to do that crane thing they do up there in the summertime.

This time our journey was a family affair... making up crane jokes, crane puns and singing crane songs along the way... like 'Uncrane My Heart' by Ray Charles, 'Driving That Train, High on Cocrane', and my personal favorite, Aretha Franklin's 'Crane of Fools'.

We were all acting like a bunch of craniacs and by the end of it, I had a splitting micrane.

Ain't nature grand?

Happy landings, cranes...

Tom

THE STUMBLING STONE...

Here are a few works of art I shot in European galleries and Cathedrals, all depicting pieces of the life of a man called Jesus.

During this 'Holy Week' when people worldwide solemnly recall his last days on earth, the dilemma of the 'one from whom men hide their faces' remains...

Is he...

...a mere religious figure out of the past or the risen king of all creation?

...a selfish schemer and masterful manipulator or the purest expression of love?

...irrelevant today or the ultimate way of life?

Were his words the preposterous statements of a raving lunatic or timely, well spoken truth?

Was his death a pitiful end or with unfathomable purpose?

Was his life a case of hope deferred or the consummate fulfillment of promise?

The ball's in our court...

In the words of Mavis Staples... Lord, forgive me for forgetting, without your giving, nothing would be mine...

Here's to the One from whom all blessings flow...

Shalom