• leaves,  love,  poems,  shadows,  snow

    … and never looks away

    October 30, 2023
    A small part of our amazing winter wonderland this morning

    I stand in the midst of creation’s wheel
    And watch in wonder the quiet majesty of its turning.
    We are in the care of a love without limit or definition
    Under the protection of a love that never looks away.

    Steven Charleston

    It is Monday morning and we have fresh snow on the ground, clear blue skies and sunshine. I am grateful to be a witness to this beautiful winter wonderland. Today I am missing my mother who would have been 92 today. I also can say I miss her with a love that is without limits. Not sure I would have said that as a teenager which makes me grateful for my growing maturity. I’m also grateful for the belief that there is a caring love (and I speak of love as an action word, not a noun) that never looks away. I have experienced such love in family, friends and nature. So, I pray today for the gift of sharing with a love I’ve experienced which is without limits and never looks away. 

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  • Art,  Art/Design,  Mary Oliver,  poems,  poetry,  quotes

    The Miracle of a Kiss

    September 22, 2023

    If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
    don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
    of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
    to be. We are not wise, and not very often
    kind. And much can never be redeemed.
    Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
    is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
    something happens better than all the riches
    or power in the world. It could be anything,
    but very likely you notice it in the instant
    when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
    case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
    of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

    Mary Oliver

    This past weekend I shot some senior portraits in Red Feather Lakes. While I was there I made another trip on Elf Lane. As I got out and walked among all the elfs and assorted other characters I suddenly, but not unexpectedly, experienced joy. Thought this little frog and princess needed to have their photo taken.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  Meister Eckhart,  poems,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Darkness & Light

    August 23, 2023
    Sunrise taken August 10, 2023

    When people ask me what they should do,
    I tell them this: Love others as much as
    you love yourself. If you find
    that you don’t love some people as
    much as you love yourself, then this
    is because you’ve not yet learned
    to love yourself fully.
    For what you do not love in others
    you’ve not yet learned to love in yourself;
    work on this and you’ll begin to discover
    what it means to love as God loves.

    Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness & Light

    I’m enjoying this third book by Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S Burrows, Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness & Light. I use it in much the same way I used their first two books, where I read a poem at a time and sit with it. I almost always find one word or a short line that resonates with me. I may write one of the poems or line or two in my journal because it helps me to retain it in my old memory banks. And, hopefully somehow these words will take seed and therefore potentially change the world, or at least change how I react to it. I would add to make a comment about he last line of this poem. I’ve read somewhere that if the God you know only loves the people you love, then maybe that God is too small. Because that group of people we can love is most likely a rather small group in relation to the population of this world.

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  • fog,  horizons,  landscape,  Mary Oliver,  Plants,  poems,  poetry,  sunrises,  trees

    Conversation in My Heart

    August 15, 2023

    Another morning and I wake with thirst
    for the goodness I do not have. I walk
    out to the pond and all the way God has
    given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
    I was never a quick scholar but sulked
    and hunched over my books past the hour
    and the bell; grant me, in your mercy,
    a little more time. Love for the earth
    and love for you are having such a long
    conversation in my heart. Who knows what
    will finally happen or where I will be sent,
    yet already I have given a great many things
    away, expecting to be told to pack nothing,
    except the prayers which, with this thirst,
    I am slowly learning.

    Mary Oliver
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  • Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  poems,  poetry,  sunrises

    The great Way

    August 13, 2023
    Predawn red sky at Arapaho Bend Natural Area

    The great Way is easy,
    yet people prefer the side paths.

    Be aware when things are out of balance.
    Stay centered within the Tao.

    When rich speculators prosper
    While farmers lose their land;

    when government officials spend money
    on weapons instead of cures;

    when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
    while the poor have nowhere to turn-

    all this is robbery and chaos.
    It is not in keeping with the Tao.

    Tao Te Ching – Verse 53
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  • Mary Oliver,  poems,  poetry,  quotes,  writing/reading

    It’s a gift…

    August 10, 2023

    I believe poetry is very old.
    It’s very sacred.
    It wishes for a community.
    It’s a community ritual, certainly.

    And that’s why, when you write a poem,
    you write it for anybody and everybody…
    It’s a gift to yourself,
    but it’s a gift to anybody who has a hunger for it.

    Mary Oliver
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