My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
A free afternoon found me
mws
lying in the grass at the park.
Above me a canopy of leaves
offering the gift of cool shade.
I take deep breaths and stay present
while leafhoppers jump around me.
I inhale the scent of freshly cut grass
and hear the unseen blue jay’s call.
Clouds drift above me in a sea of blue sky
as I take in the awe and wonder of nature,
a sanctuary without walls, doors or windows.
I close my eyes in reverence, gratitude, prayer
… and I’m never the same!
Let my gift to the world be
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer from The Unfolding
my constancy, a devotion to openness,
my willingness to be with what is.
Let my gift to myself be patience
as I tend to what is dense and dark.
We shall not cease from exploration,
T.S. Eliot
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
It was a cool bicycle ride on this August morning. The temperature was at 56 degrees and the humidity was over 90% when I mounted the red steed and headed for the coffee shop. I could see the fog lazily drifting along the eastern horizon but we had none here. I had never thought of my bicycling as a form of exploration but I am coming to see that it is. It is not much different than walking the trails, at least at the meandering speed I pedal. I needed to stop on the way home and photograph these (Apocynum cannabinum) leaves covered in dew along Spring Creek Trail. The leaves and stems are quite lovely but probably not something to put in your salad ( see the link). I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!
Why do people keep asking
Mary Oliver
to see God’s identity papers
when the darkness
opening into morning
is more than enough?
So I can’t save the world—
Because from The Unfolding by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
can’t save even myself,
can’t wrap my arms around
every frightened child, can’t
foster peace among nations,
can’t bring love to all who
feel unlovable.
So I practice opening my heart
right here in this room and being gentle
with my insufficiency. I practice
walking down the street heart first.
And if it is insufficient to share love,
I will practice loving anyway.
I want to converse about truth,
about trust. I want to invite compassion
into every interaction.
One willing heart can’t stop a war.
One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.
And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,
I tell myself what’s the use of trying?
But today, the invitation is clear:
to be ridiculously courageous in love.
To open the heart like a lilac in May,
knowing freeze is possible
and opening anyway.
To take love seriously.
To give love wildly.
To race up to the world
as if I were a puppy,
adoring and unjaded,
stumbling on my own exuberance.
To feel the shock of indifference,
of anger, of cruelty, of fear,
and stay open. To love as if it matters,
as if the world depends on it.
the quiet of early morning … the perfect end to the night,
mws
a splash of pink nestled in the clouds
along the eastern horizon,
while the same delicate clouds
are mirrored in the calm waters,
mallards feed along the water’s edge
making their little sounds of joy,
a great blue heron stands motionless
eyes fixed below the surface,
a red tail hawk flies overhead
with its morning prey locked in talons,
the quiet of early morning … the perfect start to the day.
Our air quality this morning is much better than the past two days. So I made a trip to catch the sunrise, the colors, and the clouds at Pineridge Natural Area. We are expecting it to be in the high 90s today. Have a wonderful Thursday!
There comes a time in the spiritual journey when you start making choices from a very different place . . .And if a choice lines up so that it supports truth, health, happiness, wisdom, and love, it’s the right choice.
Angeles Arrien
If you notice she does not include monetary wealth or anything that has a physical presence in her list. Everything she lists has an intangible value. And, in my world her list does not have a monetary value to them. I believe this is one of the reasons this quote resonates with me and one of the major reasons our world is in a state of decline. Which begs the question within me; What would our world be like if more people lived their spiritual journey?
Perhaps some part of me still believes
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Toward Peace
peace is a destination,
a place we arrive, ideally together.
I notice how shiny it is, this belief,
like a flower made of crystal,
beautiful, but lifeless,
devoid of the dust and scuff
that come from living a real day.
Meanwhile, there is this invitation
to grow into peace the way real flowers grow—
in the dirt. With blight and drought,
beetles and hail.
Meanwhile this invitation
to live in the tangle of fear and failure,
to be humbled by my own inner wars
and wonder how to find a living peace
right here, the peace that arrives
when we take just one step through the mess
toward compassion and notice
as our foot rises our heart also rises
and in that lifted moment
still scraping along in the dirt,
there is a peace so real we become light,
become the momentum that is the change.
If we learn to open our hearts,
Pema Chodron
anyone, including the people who drive us crazy,
can be our teacher.
I have come to see that my old thinking served me for a short period of my life. However, there came a time when I needed to unlearn, to let go of old ways of thinking, let go of how I perceived life, and let go of what I was taught, so that I could have a new basis for living. As long as I stay teachable, I will find keys to opening new locks of my heart, soul and thinking. And Pema is right, those who don’t unlearn can be my best teachers.
I see it’s hot almost everywhere, so stay cool!
in the silence
mws
a new day begins
as the sun rises above the horizon
in the silence
beams of golden light
illuminate our dark shadows
in the silence
we find hope, love and healing
for a broken and troubled world