My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Non-violence is a power which can be wielded equally by all—children, young men and women, the elders, provided they have a living faith in the Source of Love and have therefore equal love for all humankind. When non-violence is accepted as the law of life it must pervade the whole being and not be simply applied to isolated acts.
Mohandas Gandhi
It is in the quiet times that we build our strengths and know we have something to rely on. Solitude is not withdrawal into a place where no one and no sound can penetrate. It is a sweet moment of peace with or without other people that lets us re-center and reset the rhythm of the mind, body and spirit. It is wisdom to stay close to the solitude of nature to keep us young and pliable.
from A CHEROKEE FEAST OF DAYS by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
It was a brisk ride to the coffee shop this morning but it took very little time to warm up. About mid morning I made a trip to Arapaho Bend Natural Area for some journaling time, finding quiet and hoping to find a photo of clouds. I found all three. I hope you are having a wonderful day and doing your best to keep cool.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Rumi
Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
I made another trip to Pineridge Natural Area today about mid morning. Things were rather quiet there. I walked out to the bench and sat down to let nature share a sacred moment with me. I then did some journaling, played the flute and took a few photos. With the light cloud cover it provided lovely diffused light. The sun was still warm but a cool breeze was just what I needed. So was the journaling and flute playing. They say showers are possible around 3 pm.
Grandfather says this: in life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes walked in shadow.
Joseph Marshall III in KEEP GOING
I am a traveler on a sacred journey through this one shining day.
Richard Wagamese, Embers
I am learning to pray again,
Terry Tempest Williams
not in the way I was taught as a child,
but in all the ways the desert has taught me to listen.
There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really.
Terry Pratchett
The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it.
Change the story, change the world.
As photographers and creatives, I imagine we all hope that our images tell a story. On many of my blog posts, I also add content to express my experience of that moment, that morning, that evening, that day. In other words, I am telling a story. Was I cold? In a place of gratitude, or wonder? What birds were singing to me? What was I thinking or feeling? And hopefully the photograph, the content, or both have the potential to be a story capable of changing the world in some small way, including myself.
The moment when, after many years
Margaret Atwood, The Moment
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Like so many of my images, something called me to stop and press the shutter button. I pulled into the Running Deer Natural Area parking lot and took the image from there. I did not create any of the beauty in this scene, nature did and lovingly shares it with us. Our task is to accept the gift of its presence and beauty with grateful hearts! May we come to realize we belong in this world not as conquerors but as integral parts of it.
“There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving.
Mary Oliver
But, who wants easier?”
I finally got in my much needed bicycle ride yesterday afternoon. I rode out to Spring Canyon Park and back, a 5.9 mile ride. The last time I rode was December 27th. It felt good physically and mentally to ride again. I followed that up with a round trip ride to Mugs and back this morning, about 5.4 miles. My Fitbit is telling me to take it easy and go slower and I am. It has been cloudy and overcast today with the wind gusting up to 16 mph but the temperature is 68 degrees. Winter is not showing up in Colorado. The above image was taken last week on a drive along Horsetooth Reservoir. Love the blue and the effort!
For many years I had no clue what love was. I guess you can say I took a lot of those paths Mary Oliver mentions in search of it , while not really knowing what I was looking for. It also took a while to realize how I had love, lust and desires all tangled up in my head. I am happy to say that the past 25-30 years have given me an appreciation of all the varieties of love we can experience in life and the wisdom that there is no need to define love, but only experience the gift of loving and being loved. It requires knowing ourselves, letting go of preconditioned notions of love, taking risks, being open to the other, and an openness to the unlimited possibilities. That’s true whether loving or being loved. As Mary suggests it is not easy but in my experience, well worth the effort! I would even suggest it’s much easier than being full of hate. I hope you are having a good day.
After my morning mocha I drove along S County Road 23 which runs along side of Horsetooth Reservoir. I was hoping to see clouds sitting atop the foothills overlooking the reservoir but that was not the case. However this open field of cut grass with the solitary and motionless irrigation system near Bellevue caught my attention so I pulled over and faced into the cold north wind. Even though the field was what caught my attention, it was the blue sky that is the real star in the image. The temperature this morning at 6:31 am was 23 degrees. With wind and humidity it felt like low teens. I noticed a dusting of powdery snow still hanging around places where the sun’s rays do not reach. I hope you have a great day in whatever you do.