• coffee life,  coffee shops,  Food,  fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  writing/reading

    Spiritual Adventure

    January 15, 2023

    I read a statement by Ilia Delio that says, “We are not called to maintain the existing order but to engage disorder as it lingers on the edge of new order.” Somehow that resonates with me. Seems nature is that way. Instead of accepting the chaos that is a part of my life, I want and try to keep things in order. Which doesn’t happen. What many consider chaos in nature is really the change, growth, transformation, metamorphosis, where something new is arriving. At the present I’m living with a certain level of anxiety, uncertainty, and doing my best to embrace faith, trust, hope, acceptance and even surrender. Let’s call it living this spiritual adventure.

    It has been overcast all day. The eclair in the above image is called an almond apricot eclair. I’ve never had one before today. It has an almond cream filling with apricot preserves over the top. Not as rich as I expected but had that sweetness that excited my taste buds. I will probably need to collect more data for my final analysis. Hope you had a good weekend! Stay warm!

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  • lifestyles,  spirituality

    A Few Books

    June 27, 2019

    This is some of the books I’ve read or going to read for this retreat starting on Saturday. There are going to be 17 books used in these five weeks where we will cover a chapter or two of the book and no written essays. There will be a lot of practicum in this retreat, actual participation, rather than just gathering more knowledge and information.

    Today is my 69th birthday. The coffee shop, Mugs, gave me a free mocha and a chocolate éclair, which made my morning. I also receive the sweetest phone message from Julie and Tom as they sang happy birthday. Brought me to tears and not because their singing was bad. 🙂

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  • Photography

    Don't Worry, Be Creative

    November 14, 2009

    20091105-_DSC6841-Edit
    Sea shell on the beach

    “Worrying about doing something new ends up stunting creative growth. Being creative does NOT require doing something new. It requires doing something that is authentically your real personal and true vision. If you take away anything from this blog post, I hope it’s that.” Scott Bourne

    What a powerful post Scott wrote for me, sort of like a personal letter. There are several nuggets in his post, I posted one of them a couple days ago. My history has included a lot of worry. As I’ve aged in years and have a few more experiences under my belt, those worries are far less frequent. I no longer work in engineering because I do not want to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about a problem that needs solved. In fact I could have used his quote back then. It nice to live the day as it unfolds before us and not struggle to make it way we want it. When I live the moment I can be more creative. Walking the beach for me is nothing new, done it a few times and love it. I’ll do it again, living the moment and see what creative juices flow without worries.

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  • landscape

    Pruning in Our Lives

    February 19, 2009

     

    Fresh Rain for the New Season
    Fresh Rain for the New Season

    Like a tree during the seasons of fall and winter, we need to be pruned of a lot of dead branches before we will be ready to bare good fruit.  The winter season has its own way of pruning itself, leaves and fruits dry up and fall to the ground. With the sun and rains of the spring and summer seasons comes the flow of new life to the seemingly dead branches and we begin to see new buds, blossoms, leaves and fruits. So it is in our lives, pruning is a necessity of our lives.

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