• clouds,  landscape,  musings,  sunrises

    Just a touch of pink…

    October 9, 2024

    I enjoyed my ride this morning to the coffee shop. It was cool and crisp at about 47 degrees but not cold. I find these rides to be invigorating, actually beginning to look forward to them. No traffic to deal with and parking is a breeze. I enjoyed my coffee conversations this morning with Jeff, Curtis, Shawn, Terry and Adrianna, which always seems to make the coffee taste better.

    A touch of pink over CSU campus this morning

    I journaled this morning about how short life is, aware mine gets shorter each day, each breath. I do not know when my heart will beat its last beat, but I am at a place of acceptance when that moment comes. And that acceptance includes finding myself waking each morning with gratitude, looking forward to the possibilities of the day. What photo will be given? Who will I share a conversation with? What lesson(s) can I learn today? What words will I find on the pages of my journal? Will I be present to experience feelings of gratitude, love, fear, serenity, anger, sadness, and other emotions that make me human? These remind me of Mary Oliver’s question asking us how we will live this one wild and precious life given to us? I will not have an answer until I reflect back on my day when I lay my head on my pillow tonight. But, I must say my day has been rich and fulfilling already and it’s not finished.

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  • coffee life,  gratitude

    Full of Gratitude…

    August 29, 2024

    I had my oral surgery today. I’m happy to say I’ve had almost no pain and eating soft foods has been a breeze. I remember almost none of the procedure. As usual with IV’s it took three stabs to get a vein. Just after that its a blank. When Larry and I got home he said something about them taking me to the car in a wheelchair. I don’t remember that at all! It’s been a long time since I had a blackout from my drinking days. 😂 They also prescribed me 4 small pills for pain called oxycodone to take every 6 hours. I’m following those instructions and will take the last one in the morning then be done with them. Oh, and since I did not have to have the sinus perforation closure done, the cost was about half. From the x rays, it looked like they may have been a sinus perforation to repair but once the tooth was removed all was good. 

    Old Town Mocha latte at Mugs taken a couple weeks ago

    This oral surgery experience is so different from the one I had over thirty years ago. I have to admit that because of that past experience, I experienced a couple days of anxiety. However, when I got up this morning and went through my routines, I had a calm about me. I will be taking antibiotics (Amoxicillin) three times a day for the next ten days. No coffee for a few days but I can still go to my coffee shops. It may be iced tea for a while. I’m full of gratitude this evening! Hope you had a good day!!!!!

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  • fountain pens,  journal,  musings

    To Be Fully Alive

    August 4, 2024
    Pilot Custom 74

    Someone shared a quote with me by Mother Teresa that says “to be holy is to be fully alive.” Seems as I’m aging I am becoming more alive, maybe even fully alive! But, being holy is another story. Anyway, my experiences in becoming fully alive has required me to rely on courage. I remember a time when I prayed for courage, believing it was something I didn’t have, not realizing it’s already a part of who I am. And, I believe a part of who we all are. I’ve learned that looking at my failures as lessons rather than condemning myself has required courage. Asking for help requires courage. It takes courage just to believe that I can grow in my creativity, in my spiritual life, to face the reality of life and, yes, to be fully alive.

    Read this morning that the Alexander Mountain FIre is at 9,680 acres and now at 32% containment. Smoke is still bad so air quality is very poor. We are hoping to have rain showers and cooler temperatures for the next 7 days. Should help with containing the fires. Happy Sunday

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  • coffee life,  journal,  latte art,  quotes

    Life comes from living it…

    April 16, 2024

    Things do not make life, life.

    Joan Chittister

    From my own experiences I’m aware that a new fountain pen “will not” make me a better writer, or a wiser person. Yet, I still look. I also know that a new Fujifilm X100VI will not make me a better street photographer, or a wiser person. Yet, I still look. From my own life experiences the simple things I have in life are the real treasures of life. I am doing my best to live my life with less attachments to things and not accumulating more things. Chittister also says that life comes from living it. So, living life today means taking the time to savor the beauty of latte art, enjoying my mocha, and a bit of journaling with the treasures I have.

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  • Creativity,  quotes,  winter scenes

    Where We Become Who We Are

    January 18, 2024

    Creativity is at bottom the combinatorial work of memory and imagination. All of our impressions, influences, and experiences — every sight we have ever seen, every book read, every landscape walked, every love loved — become seeds for ideas we later combine and recombine, largely unconsciously, into creations we call our own. The most wondrous thing about these seeds is that, when they first fall into the fallow ground of the mind, we have no sense of what they will bloom into years, decades, and selves later, what alchemic cross-pollination will take place between them and other seeds in the dark underground of consciousness where we become who we are.

    Maria Popova
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  • moon,  quotes,  spirituality

    I had another one…

    October 20, 2023
    Last night’s moon

    “A mystic is someone who has an experience of union with The One—and The One may be God, it may be Mother Earth, it may be the cosmos. That experience is rare, but everyone has them I think, where you momentarily forget that you are a separate ego, personality, self, and you experience your interconnectedness with all that is.”

    Mirabai Starr

    Captivated by the moon on my walk last night, I grabbed my camera when I finished and took about a dozen images. I find myself standing in awe and wonder and gratitude when I experience moments like this. Something inside me agrees with Mirabai that everyone has had some mystical experience in their life. I know I’ve had those experiences in my life where I no longer needed to ask who I am or my purpose or any other question. I felt I was just where I was meant to be at that moment, maybe accepting a gift of interconnectedness. I had another one last night. Enjoy your Friday!

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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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