PICTURES OF INFINITE BEAUTY

Halfmoon Betta

A Halfmoon Betta fish has a distinctive half-moon shaped tail that can spread out to a full 180 degrees, looking like a perfect semicircle, or D, when flared.  Known also as Dumbo Hafmoon Bettas, they come in a variety of colors and patterns.  They are quite aggressively territorial.   The golden rule of keeping bettas:  Don't put two bettas in the same fish tank unless you're ready for a fish fight!

Halfmoon Bettas are native to Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), where they live in shallow, freshwater ditches, rice paddies, canals and floodplains.  All Betta fish have what's called a labyrinth organ (located above the gills)...a unique organ that allows them to breathe air from above the water's surface.  That's how they can survive in these low-oxygen waters. 

Since last year when I began writing about art and artists and the importance of color, I find myself noticing all the colors around me wherever I happen to be.  Mother Nature is the most famous artist, and Her work is majestic, angelic and cannot be replicated.  Let's take time to stop and think about flowers, how fragile their petals are, and how colorful and fragrant.  Then there's the world of butterflies, which are affectionately known as flying flowers.  We humans are created in different colors.  The sky is a canvas of its own, if we take the time to lift our heads and look up in the sky.  Just imagine how many rainbows, sunrises and sunsets and puffy white clouds we never see because we are slaves to our cell phones.  

There are countless distractions in today's world.  Sometimes I'd like to shake people and say, "for goodness sake, look around and see the beauty.....forget the drama, the media, the division, the hatred.  We're in this mess together, despite our color and global location.  The term 'life is short' is so overused that it's not taken seriously.  However, time passes one day at a time until the day comes when we realize where we are on life's 10-inch ruler.  Each inch represents a decade.  That's when life really gets short, scary and all sorts of fears and angst come along.  If we don't have something to focus on besides the worst of the worst, well, then the remaining couple of inches will be a nose-dive.  Maybe it's the feisty in me that will fight to see the beauty in this spectacular basket of insanity.  It's there, but it takes inner strength to choose the positive over the negative.  And, that my friends, is why I've been walking down the path of art and color, and sharing it.  

None of us knows what's around the corner, but I'm gonna try my best to keep my eyes on the masterpieces around me, keep lifting my head to the clouds in the sky, and my eyes to the ground so I don't step on a lonely little violet or dandelion growing in the grass.