My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
… to be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others…
David Whyte
It was a 2.2 mile ride to coffee this morning but I decided to take the long-cut home and added 9.3 miles. It was wonderful! We had another beautiful day here in Colorado. I spent time at Reservoir Ridge this afternoon for some much needed reading and journaling. It was one of those days. Nature is a gift!
Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.
David Whyte
Will meet my friend Dennis this morning at 10:30 for coffee and conversation. We will meet at a coffee shop I have not been to in years called the Alley Cat Cafe ( be sure to play the opening video) 😂.
Back in August during my physical they discovered my PSA numbers were high. Since I had a UTI the previous week and was on antibiotics they waited a week then retested. Still high. So we scheduled an MRI rather than do an invasive biopsy. Had an appointment with the urologist yesterday to discuss the results of that test. From the MRI results all looks good and he is not concerned about prostate cancer. We’ve come up with a plan to do another PSA test in 3 months, just to keep track of those. If the PSA numbers go up, then he wants to see me about changing our plans. He reminded me the PSA numbers are not the most exact test for prostate cancer. Otherwise, I have an appointment to see him in 6 months. For me this is all good news. So, I plan on continuing my participation with life as David Whyte says; coffee shop adventures, Natural Area adventures, reading and journaling, daily walks, blogging, photography and taking the steps necessary to stay healthy. And, it all takes courage. Stay warm and thanks for being the online community you are!
Today is my oldest daughters birthday. Hoping she knows she is the gift! Happy BIrthday Christine!!
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light againPainting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavensso you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find thatfirst, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone outsomeone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.You are not leaving.
David Whyte
Even as the light fades quickly now,
you are arriving.
As David Whyte’s poem suggests I arrived in time for the sunset offered by Nature.
“Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.”
David Whyte
“When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your womb tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see. You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up on all other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”
David Whyte
I looked at my watch, it read 1:00 am. Looked again later, now 3:15 am. I really was not tired but knew my night was more of light sleep and little deep sleep. Weather forecast was for partly cloudy skies in the morning and snow this evening so I heard that voice inside whisper of the possibility that the eastern sunrise would have some red to it. I got up and dressed at 5:00 am. I felt the tiredness of my eyes from the lack of deep sleep. After quiet time I grabbed coffee and camera and drove to Pineridge Natural Area. I was not disappointed. Had the place to myself except for a couple of magpies and one of the park rangers. We all just watched this new day come alive and stayed present in this world we belong in. Probably need a nap later today. 😴
SOMETIMES
by David WhyteSometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
that have no right
to go away.
“But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” David Whyte