My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
as I put pen to paper
mws
at a favorite coffee shop
sunlight slowly enters
through the window
spreading its warm glow
across blank pages
and in this spirit
words are written
The most ordinary life experiences become transcendent when you offer them your reverent silence, your mischievous laughter, your sacred rage.
Mirabai Starr
Another frigid morning below zero, where my car groaned when I turned the ignition. Almost like it was saying, “Do you really want to do this?” Clear blue skies and sunshine now bring some warmth. My morning included quiet time, a breakfast scramble, then a trip to the coffee shop filled with wonderful conversations and a mocha. I did not journal until after I came home and began laundry. Some may consider my life dull, boring, ordinary but for me there is nothing ordinary about this life I live. My life is full as long as I stay present, my eyes open! I must admit I live the good life! I see that everyone is dealing with this cold weather so I hope you are staying warm.
“As the pen rises from the page between words, so the walker’s feet rise and fall between paces, and as the deer continues to run as it bounds from the earth and the dolphin continues to swim even as it leaps again and again from the sea, so writing and wayfaring are continuous activities, a running stitch, a persistence of the same seam or stream.”
Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
Nothing like a couple of Dark Chocolate Petit Beurre Biscuits and a small glass of chocolate milk to add to my journaling experience. My journaling has been a continuous practice in my life, a journey, a path I enjoy walking, one word, one step at a time.
It was 13 degrees when I left the condo at about 6:47 am. No wind. No bicycle! It was cold enough I could blow off the dusting of snow covering my car. I could feel the peaceful stillness and quiet on this winter morning. I moved on to my coffee life at Mugs where my barista, Dean, made me an extra hot Old Town Mocha. It hit the spot. The coffee shop was rather quiet because of the cold morning. Only a few brave souls would be out on a morning like this. I was able to chat with a two of the brave souls, Jeff and Chris, then had some journaling time. My POD (Pen of the Day) is a Pilot Custom 823 with Yama-guri ink. It is a good combo to find words on blank pages.
As I left the coffee shop the sun was beginning to break through the clouds, offering blue skies and sunshine on the frost covered trees of the foothills. So I drove home along Horsetooth Reservoir. Nature offered its wintery gifts of low lying clouds, mist rising and floating across the open water, frost covered trees and a touch of blue sky over the foothills. And more quiet! Back home I started laundry and will have a bowl of chili soup later today. May you have a wonderful Sunday! Stay warm!
I imagine my books to be my children, each with its own profile and way of walking through the world… It helps me remember that though they are made by me, they are not ultimately mine. They leave home, travel, have their own relationships, and leave their own impressions. I’ve learned it’s best to, as much as possible, stay out of the way and let them live their own lives.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
With all the turmoil in our country, and in the world, I have found it vital to spend time in the pages of my journals and on this blog. The words I write, as well as the books and blogs I read, are important to me and life sustaining. It may be one word or sentence that lifts me in a time of sadness, or brings some clarity to my confusion or the words someone else shares can express what I have been trying to say but couldn’t. How some of these books and blogs find their way into my life is a comfortable mystery. It’s not that I go looking for them but I try to be present so when they do show up in my life I can be nurtured by them. I like the metaphor that Coates suggests books are the authors’ children sent into the world to spend time with us in some impactful way. In that context I hope my words, whether written in my journals or on this blog, have some positive impact in this world, and living their own lives.
I was sad
Joyce Wilson-Sanford, I Pray Anyway
Mad
Big things going wrong
Big
Asked for a miracle
Nope
Screamed for it
Nope
Then looked around
Miracles everywhere
Just not the one I so badly wanted
It has been overcast and cold all day. The snow stopped around mid-morning. I made a drive to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area this morning knowing it was closed due to wet conditions but hoping to get a photo of the snow sitting atop the foothills from the gate. What a miracle it is to be alive and live in this beautiful world. In my quiet this morning I took a book down from my shelf called I Pray Anyway and thumbed through a few of her poems until I came across this one. Sometimes a poet will just say what I need to read. Her poem speaks to me because so many miracles that didn’t/don’t/won’t happen the way I want them to. She reminds me to look around at all the other miracles in my life and let go of what I think outcomes need to be. And then I can make a gratitude list of miracles everywhere in my life!!
Wisdom is precisely a different way of seeing and knowing the ten thousand things in a new way. I suggest that wisdom is precisely the freedom to be truly present to what is right in front of you. Presence is wisdom! Those who can be present will know what they need to know, and in a wisdom way.
Richard Rohr
It began snowing in earnest about 9:30 am, offering us big, beautiful moisture filled snowflakes. I met Jeff earlier for tea and conversation, then stopped by the Arboretum Coffee shop to journal for a while. The small chai latte was a perfect pairing with my journaling. This coffee shop is a nonprofit that is striving to “create a community where refugees and immigrants can rebuild their lives with dignity, gain essential skills, and form meaningful connections.” I come here because I want to support that ideal. So far my interaction with all these baristas has not given me a feeling of working with a criminal, the drug cartel or that I’m in any danger. The only problem I’ve had is our language differences but that is improving! What’s cool about that is we don’t throw up our hands but keep at it until I get skim milk rather than whole. I’m finding my name is strange to them and love how they sometimes say it. If I remain open and willing to encounter wisdom, then these baristas have much to teach me, to enhance my life, and a chance to be present to each other. Seems there is more danger around the white privileged who think they think they know. I much prefer Rohr’s notion that wisdom is precisely a different way of seeing and knowing the ten thousand things in a new way. I want to be a seeker of wisdom.