What's in a Name?

Picture 1

Playing a little game here today.

Two pictures.  One is of a native flower here on Georgian Bay.

The other is of a very shy dock visitor I'm lucky to have gotten a picture of.

Picture 2

I will give three scientific Latin names.

Can you guess what name belongs to whom?

1.  Dolomedes

2.  Calibrachoas

3.  Prunella vulgaris

Without using any fancy aps or anything, can you match the name to the picture?

I'll reveal the answer tomorrow, just to make it a little more challenging.

Comment or not as you like.  This is just for fun.

Honestly, I wouldn't know the fancy names without my fancy ap thingy.  Since I discovered this feature on my phone, I've been having a great time taking pictures of various things and finding out what they are.  Very educational.  And also helpful when, in the case of spiders and also the snake from the other day, I can learn about them and whether or not they pose any actual threat of harm, other than the creep-out factor.  

In this case, the scientific names were not what I was expecting.  Which I find to be something of a life-lesson in that this seems to be a common experience in a lot of the way the world works.  And while I will keep a respectful distance from critters I find a tad creepy, I do still want to call them friends. 

Because in my life, some people who I might have at one time found intimidating or off-putting or even unsafe, have ended up being surprisingly like me in ways I couldn't have expected had I not explored the relational possibilities. Some have even become good friends.  I wonder, if we adopted this principle at an every day street level, how this might ripple out to affect the big picture geo-political level.  Maybe we'd want to drop fewer bombs.  Maybe.

Another reason for posting these two pictures more or less side by side is simple transparency.  The tendency is to post the magnificent skyscapes, or the majestic deer, or the playful otter, or the spectacularly teeny blooms on spectacularly resilient plants that grow in impossible crevasses in the rocks.  

Truth is that spiders, and snakes, and mosquitoes, and, this year particularly, ticks are part of this cottage experience too.  Also, cottage opening plumbing woes, while lessened for now, certainly are part of the deal.  But that's another story for another day.

This day, though.  This day is a beauteous day!  I was able to get out in the kayak around the island first thing this morning.  It's Sunday, and I miss worshipping with my community of faith at Highview....and we don't start things up for the season up here at Cognashene Community Church until next Sunday.  

So a different kind of worship simply out here being fully present in these perfect moments on the deck.

Happy Canada Day long weekend everyone.  With July 1st being on a Tuesday, it's less certain what days folks have 'off.'  So maybe this is a long weekend, and maybe it's not.  Either way, I wish you a meaningful, restful, peace-filled day.  

Answers to the game will be posted tomorrow.