My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
Winter means more time indoors. Winter time means longer shadows. Winter means more crockpots of hot soup. Winter means dressing warmer for the bus stop and morning walks. Winter means crawling between the sheets at night with cold feet. Winter means reading more books. There are more but…
Took the bus to Old Town the other night and walked around with my camera. This is not all that sharp as I was hand holding it. You can see on the left side of the image how the lights are lit up in town. I will try and take a few images of the lights during this Christmas season. It was a bit on the cold side and thus the reason no one was sitting outside and I’ll blame that for the blurr, also.
When we create sanctuaries we are creating places for possible healing, quiet, hope, peace, to pray, to belong, even commnity. We can find these sanctuaries in our churches, a coffee shop, out in nature, such as John Muir writes about, or it can be the wicker rocker in the corner of our bedroom.
This is a repost of a previous image but this time in color. I only have one image of this scene because sitting directly behind her is a man in a rocking chair. My timing was perfect because the next image I took was with him in his rocker.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
With fall comes visible changes which we see and feel. Leaves are changing colors, Canada Geese are arriving and temperatures are turner cooler. It is one of my favorite seasons of the year. Our world is also going through changes, environmentally, socially, economically, spiritually, etc. We hear those who shout for this reform, promoting legislation they feel will bring change but almost all of it is one persons attempt to control or change another. We are pointing fingers and hearing a lot of “if you” or “if they” being said. Seems to me the change starts within each of us, we need to be the change that we seek. Young Greta Thunberg has shown us how to open doors of change.
..amateurs worry about equipment,
professionals worry about money,
masters worry about light,
I just take pictures…
– Vernon Trent
A refreshing rain began falling yesterday morning just as I was leaving a local coffee shop. When I pulled up in my condo it was pouring, so I sat in my car to wait out the rain. I found it peaceful for the next 10 minutes. As I sat there my mind wandered back to the coffee shop I had just left and to one of the regular customers there.
He sits at the same table almost 6 days a week from 7:00-10:00 am, reading one of the larger national newspapers, from front to back, and sipping on a large iced tea. Of course he is known by both the baristas and the customers. The other regulars will keep the table reserved for him in case he’s late and he has conversations with other customers on a regular basis. My wandering mind was thinking about how differently we spend our time in the coffee shop, and I imagine that’s true outside the coffee shop. I prefer spending my coffee shop time visiting with a friend, reading an uplifting book, writing in my journal, and fighting the battle to spend as little time on the internet as possible but I almost never read the newspaper. I would rather fill my mind with positive images and thoughts, which is an unreachable ideal. A smile came across my face and I laughed at myself because my idea of coffee shop time would bore him, and probably many others, into a glazed-over-stupor. As I thought about it more, he’d also be bored sitting in my car listening and watching the rain. Sheesh, can my mind wander and not just when it’s raining! 🙂