It’s understood that invasive species are bad for our island’s flora, and the debris afloat at sea is at epidemic proportions. Weeds and trash are no one’s friend.

But what if I were an alien from another planet? What if I had no concept of friend or foe, good or bad? What if on my morning beach walk there was no story attached to any thing I encountered, not even a name.

With my E.T.-version of a camera, perhaps I’d pause to take photos of things that earthlings may dismiss.

Weeds and debris, framed within the neutral ground of simple curiosity,

And as I like to play with metaphors, I invite you to consider the overgrowth and refuse within ourselves. We all have a shadow side. What’s our story about it? Is it possible for us to view our ‘darkness’ with an unbiased eye?

If so, what new perspectives might emerge by simply looking?

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64 thoughts on “Weeds and Debris”

  4. Thank you for taking the time to shed some light on our inner darkness. I’m driven to question if all of our shadows are, in fact, the absence of that good light, or simply beautiful nothings that we fearfully hide…

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    1. Good question. I’m not sure, myself. What I do know is that I like the freedom I feel when I can let go of an “idea” about something and simply accept it, absent of any notions – good or bad. A fun practice…

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  12. Amazing thoughts and amazing pictures.It pays to examine things before judging..Regards.jalal

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  16. Some cultures would make better use of the trash. Maybe someday our landfills will be mined for their resources.
    And weeds are often simply so much more prolific than the plants we garden for their food produce or their flowers. Alas!
    In the meantime, keep looking at the abundance of our universe. Even a desert can be seen to be overflowing.

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    1. I have a friend who is an artist and she continually finds beautiful ways to transform beach trash into treasure. In fact, she created her whole art studio from “scraps” and debris. So yes, the ‘desert’ is all in the eye of the beholder. Thank you!

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  18. I like your little thought experiment. I would imagine the alien, as an explorer, would regard everything, the weed and the native, the treasure and the trash, to be equally fascinating and wondrous, if it is capable of those feelings. There is a lot of beauty in the things we ignore or take for granted.

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  20. Do you know that most of the weeds are very powerfull to cure and help us out with our daily and more specific health problems. Even the lion’s teeth that your captured while the petals turned into seeds ready to fly away.

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      1. Nice feeling, I started my blog yesterday ! Though it’s waiting in my head since a long time. You are my first follower. Thanks.

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  22. Great post. I was just thinking something along these lines the other day! I was at Mt Baldy and at the bottom of the snowy hill there were thousands of broken up pieces of plastic, all different bright colors, that were once pieces of sleds that kids had slid down the mountain on before they were shredded by rocks. It was a weirdly beautiful and fantastical colorful monument to childhood fun.

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    1. A nice example. I see the beach trash every day and feel very sad about the endless plastic that will never biodegrade. It was nice on the day I took these photos to just let go and observe from a neutral perspective. Glad you can relate. Thanks for your comment!

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  31. very wabi sabi- I like your images. In the same way that we are what we eat- we live in a world that has evolved and been influenced by our reckless mis use and pollution……let’s enjoy what remains- for now.

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