My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
You have countless opportunities to grow through life’s challenges—in other words, to become an ever more fully, deeply human human being. This is the meaning of the Yiddish word mensch. Someone whose humanity shines through the darkness of this world. Someone who believes in the fundamental goodness of life and embodies it. Not despite challenging experiences, but as the result of having practiced facing them with courage and kindness.
Mirabai Starr, Ordinary Mysticism
When your mind is blown and your heart expands, your humility deepens. You become aware that the world is magical, mysterious, and heartbreaking. You know that you know nothing, really, and this is not a problem. It’s a cause for celebration. Ambiguity, paradox, and darkness are the domain of wonder.
Mirabai Starr
Landscape photography has taught me patience. The evening I went out to take the above sunset photograph, I went with the intention to make an evening of it. They have a rather uncomfortable rock bench along the edge of the water that I sometimes sit on. And uncomfortable is an understatement. My goal was to experience the twilight colors and take a few images as the clouds looked promising. Twilight is when the sun has dropped below the horizon and the atmosphere is neither completely dark nor fully illuminated. When clouds are present, the colors can be magical and mysterious. I arrived early, took a few photographs prior to sunset, a few photos as the sun set, and journaled. After the sunset I felt restless, wanting to head home, yet aware of how often I do not stay for the twilight show. I stayed and glad I did. I returned home with at least one image I was pleased with and again, humbled by the beauty and gifts of nature. Yes, landscape photography and time within nature is teaching me patience. It’s a cause for celebration. May you have a wonderful day!
Allow yourself to be like a child, seeing the world through fresh eyes. Instead of trying to control life by making sense of it, embrace ambiguity and paradox as being the domain of the truest things.
Mirabai Starr
I’ve come to realize we can only experience the world when we are a part of it. Seeing it with fresh eyes. Feeling the cold. Listening to the silence. Smelling the tangy fragrance of pine. Watching the clouds constantly change shape. Realizing how a small a part we are within the cosmos. So, even at my age I desire to be childlike but not childish, seeing the world with fresh eyes, embracing ambiguity and paradoxes and letting go of the need to know the answers!
I am continually challenged to stop arguing with reality and instead soften into what is. Over time, I learned to find beauty, meaning, and wholeness in the heart of reality. Unpredictable, ever-changing, humiliating, and humbling reality.
Mirabai Starr
It began snowing last night and is still snowing as I write this evening. We do not have much accumulation, 3-6 inches, but roads are messy and slick. Morning will probably be worse. I met friends earlier this morning for brunch and have been inside the rest of the day. I am wrapped in a blanket and curled up in a cozy chair with a cup of hot tea. A day of reading, journaling, and grazing. That is the reality of my life. Stay warm and I hope you had a good day!
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.
The intimacy our souls long for can happen only when we take off whatever stands between ourselves and union with the One. Our hunger for new cars and clothes, our reliance on other people’s opinions of us, our preconceptions about what it means to be spiritual, our attachment to habitual states of misery. Take it off. Peel it off and fling it off. Find your own subversive spirit and reclaim even the most challenging parts of your life as holy ground. Then everyday miracles will spring from beneath your bare feet to astonish you.
Mirabai Starr
A rather cold morning here in Colorado with last night bringing a hard frost. The middle of next week will be cold with the possibility of our first snowfall of the season. That will curtail my bicycle rides to coffee. I am intrigued by Mirabai’s suggestion to find our own subversive spirit because I have been on that path for several years now, and enjoying it. I am learning to see those everyday miracles and sometimes capture an image of them. And, I like how Kathleen Dowling-Singh suggests it is a gift to pursue a spiritual path while still in the midst of life.
“We forget that the path to God is bound up with our life in the world. Evidence of our spiritual mastery lies in our ever-deepening, continuously expanding humanity. The trick is to be as fully present as possible to the holiness of each moment.”
Mirabai Starr
I walk by this wall each morning on the way to and from one of my favorite coffee shops. I admittedly often pass, giving it only a mindless quick glance. At other times I can be more present, walking in my shoes rather than wandering aimlessly in my head. This morning I noticed! As it’s an east facing wall these shadows dance on the brick wall as the sun rises above the houses until mid day. Not only do these shadows create art on the wall, and a photo opportunity, they share with me the time of season. Soon to be filled with leaves these shadows will look differently. I’m hoping my noticing is a sign of being more present to life, expanding my humanity. So I accepted the holiness of the moment and sharing it with you.
“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!