My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.
Chief Joseph
Seems to me a lot of mankind needs to unlearn this idea of quarreling over God. At least it would be one less thing for us to quarrel about. I know in my life when I stopped defending my opinion and listened to the other, I usually learn something I needed to learn.
I can disagree with your opinion, it turns out, but I can’t disagree with your experience. And once I have a sense of your experience, you and I are in relationship, acknowledging the complexity in each other’s position, listening less guardedly. The difference in our opinions will probably remain intact, but it no longer defines what is possible between us.
Krista Tippett
I’m finding my task is not to argue or attempt to change another who has a difference of opinion. Nothing builds a wall faster in a conversation than where someone interrupts and tells another they are wrong or rolls their eyes. We miss out on a wonderful opportunity of a relationship. I am learning what is possible between us when we become listeners sharing our experiences. I believe Krista is correct!
Setting sun at Arapaho Bend Natural Area – Nov. 2023
To journey without being changed, is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.
Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk
I love the idea of transformation by the journey. And the journey I am referring to is an inward journey. I tried the geographical change but that didn’t work. I spent way too much of my life being a chameleon and that didn’t work. It has only been in the last few years that looking inward has become a door into an accurate self-awareness. Who I thought I thought I was, was not accurate because the glasses I was using to see myself needed to be replaced. My inward journey has included self-examination, prayer and meditation which have become an unshakable foundation in my life. It’s a regular part of my daily practice and I enjoy being a pilgrim!!
Good morning! We have our first forest fire of the season burning called the Alexander Mountain Fire. It is burning just west of Loveland and was estimated at 1,820 acres with 0% containment as of 10:00 a.m. this morning. I took this image around 7:00 pm yesterday evening from Arapaho Bend Natural Area.
This morning I was awake and up by 4:00 am. After my quiet time I drove up to Pineridge to watch the sunrise. What a gift with a cloudless sky. I could see the smoke from the fire drifting gently out to the east but not smell it. On my way back into town, I came across a house on West Mulberry with a large fire burning in the backyard of the home. I pulled over as the four fire trucks and ambulance pulled up and just cried, and cried hard. Think I’m feeling too much of the pain of this world with natural disasters and man’s incessant need for killing, so the dam burst. Hope you have a good day!
All the joy the world contains Has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
The Way of the Bodhisattva
I drove through Arapaho Bend Natural Area on my way back from my coffee and conversation with Eric. I saw three Golden Eagles but they were out of my lens range. A couple minutes later I watched and listened to this meadowlark sing. I want to believe the meadowlarks song is offering joy by wishing happiness for others. Now sitting outside enjoying the cool wind and lovely clouds! Enjoy your Saturday!
A simple lifestyle is quite simply an act of solidarity with the way most people have lived since the beginnings of humanity.
Richard Rohr
It takes a lot of gumption this time of year to photograph sunrise scenes. because that sun comes up too early. So, I again missed this morning’s sunrise. I realize the powers that be who decided daylight savings was a good idea were not photographers. Anyway here is a sunrise from May of 2020 at Arapaho Bend Natural Area.
“Love knows no color, no class or culture, no nationality or religion, but exists in all the above.”
Steven Charleston
I thought this image interesting because of the wet wooden planks on the foot bridge after an early morning rain. The high winds we experienced yesterday and last night did some damage but not as much as I expected. This morning on my way home from coffee shop I saw one tree and couple of fences blown down. Happy Sunday!
Full moon reflecting in Beaver Pond at Arapaho Bend Natural Area
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Joseph Campbell
My early goals were often set by parents, church, schools, society and hidden dreams. These goals set me on certain paths. Not everyone’s path is the same so realize I am only speaking about mine.
My parents instilled within me the goal to marry and have children. I did that. The church of my youth suggested I be a hellfire and brimstone preacher. Instead, I chose to raise hell. School offered me a couple goals: to be the hero at the football game, which never happened. And the other was to attain an education, build a career, and go into debt on a 30 year home mortgage, which did happen. Then, 20 years later I got a divorce, sold the home, changed careers, and was still unhappy in my career.
However, none of these goals nurtured the questions that were being asked within me; “Who am I? What do I have to offer the world? How do I make the world a better place? How do I participate in the world?” Once I entered my early fifties these questions began to shout for acknowledgement. Thus began the journey of discovering who I am, and who I am not. On this path I’ve uncovered a few things I do have to offer the world and believe there are many more yet to uncover. I am reevaluating my goals and their impact on others, nature and the universe. Seems Campbell may have narrowed it down, “to make my heartbeat with the heartbeat of the universe and live as if I am a part of nature.” I can see that as a goal and a prayer. May I live it!!
Perhaps the first step in making the Middle Passage meaningful is to acknowledge the partiality of the lens we were given by family and culture, and through which we have made our choices and suffered their consequences. If we had been born of another time and place, to different parents who held different values, we would have had an entirely different lens. The lens we received generated a conditional life, which represents not who we are but how we were conditioned to see life and make choices… We succumb to the belief that the way we have grown to see the world is the only way to see it, the right way to see it, and we seldom suspect the conditioned nature of our perception.
James Hollis
Overcast skies this morning, a light mist falling, and almost no wind. I did not expect to watch the sun crest the horizon with all the cloud cover but needed to include time in the Arapaho Bend Natural Area to start my day. The clouds were showing their better side so I accepted a few images. On the top branch of a barren tree two hawks surveyed their land. I listened to the babbling of hundreds of blackbirds. Not far from where I stood a goose or two were in a heated debate over nesting rights. I watched the graceful slow flying blue herons glide over the water in search of a fishing spot. And in the distance one eagle sat perched on a pole. After giving thanks and a few deep breaths I moved on to enjoy a mocha by Issac and an almond croissant at Starry Night. Rain and snow are predicted later today and into the night. Hope so as we need the moisture. I am grateful for the lens my family and culture gave me, with all of its limits, but I am just as grateful for the lens of maturity I am now seeing the world with. It will be a good day to enjoy a bowl of vegetable soup with andouille sausage added for a kick. Enjoy your day!
Tonights sunset and reflection at Arapaho Bend Natural Area
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
