An online journal sharing my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty ‘yes’ to your adventure.”
Joseph Campbell
I like his suggestion that “being who you are” is a privilege. Because for me, I was never truly happy with my life when trying to be who or what society suggested I be. Life is becoming more of an adventure each day, even at this age, as I say “yes” in becoming me. It is a privilege! Hope everyone stays cool and safe today.
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Joseph Campbell
My early goals were often set by parents, church, schools, society and hidden dreams. These goals set me on certain paths. Not everyone’s path is the same so realize I am only speaking about mine.
My parents instilled within me the goal to marry and have children. I did that. The church of my youth suggested I be a hellfire and brimstone preacher. Instead, I chose to raise hell. School offered me a couple goals: to be the hero at the football game, which never happened. And the other was to attain an education, build a career, and go into debt on a 30 year home mortgage, which did happen. Then, 20 years later I got a divorce, sold the home, changed careers, and was still unhappy in my career.
However, none of these goals nurtured the questions that were being asked within me; “Who am I? What do I have to offer the world? How do I make the world a better place? How do I participate in the world?” Once I entered my early fifties these questions began to shout for acknowledgement. Thus began the journey of discovering who I am, and who I am not. On this path I’ve uncovered a few things I do have to offer the world and believe there are many more yet to uncover. I am reevaluating my goals and their impact on others, nature and the universe. Seems Campbell may have narrowed it down, “to make my heartbeat with the heartbeat of the universe and live as if I am a part of nature.” I can see that as a goal and a prayer. May I live it!!
People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
Joseph Campbell
Another image of Fremont Lake in Wyoming.
“He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows that he doesn’t know, knows. For in this context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know.”
Joseph Campbell
Happy Halloween!
When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
Joseph Campbell
There are times when nature stops me in my tracks. It could be a familiar scene we see regularly such as these leaves. Today it was the life giving viens of these leaves that awoke my consciousness. And, I hear October tapping on the door. I’m ready for the transformation of the world around me into the season of fall. 😊
“In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say ‘Aha,’ that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say ‘Aha’ to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.”
Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959-87
With the very warm days the green is fading quickly. This image was taken back in May near Reservoir Ridge Natural Area. In reference to the above quote, I’d like to think of this image as my recognition of the divine. An “Aha” moment!
“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that
Joseph Campbell