My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.
Hermann Hesse
“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.” E. E. Cummings
I took this image about three days ago just before the cold front moved in and the Cameron Peak Fire began raging. Even though the smoke is not conducive to walking I still drive to the natural areas for the serenity and closeness to the natural world. Sometimes I will sit in my car to journal or read, yet staying aware of all that’s around me. Sunshine this morning but smoke sitting atop of the mountains. The fires still burn.
It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from effects that are beyond our control and be content with the good will and the work that are the quiet expression of our inner life. We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to work without any instantaneous satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition.
New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton