My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and asking deep questions.
The mystic knows that what really matters is the inner connection of the heart in which our heart opens and cries. It is something so simple and yet so easily overlooked. Prayer is a way to be with God.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
It was 37 degrees and 82% humidity when I rode to coffee life this morning. Needless to say it was also cold coming home but so invigorating. My barista, Winter, made me a lovely heart this morning on my Old Town Mocha, and lets me know I’m loved.
Rightly understood, the mystic is not a special kind of human being; rather, every human being is a special kind of mystic.
David Steindl-Rast
A blue sky and sunshine the day after a snowfall will make me smile as a photographer. I can be confident that images will be available if I will bear the cold. This was one of those days! The quote above makes me wonder what our world would look like if we all believed we were a special kind of mystic. Mirabai Starr states a mystic is a person who has a direct experience of the sacred, unmediated by conventional religious rituals or intermediaries. I’ve also seen it defined as someone who has a direct experience of the Divine. Mary Oliver also believed that anyone who knows how to pay attention, can be considered a mystic. And, there are many more we could list. But with those definitions, then if we have stood in awe and wonder at a sunrise, snow covered mountains, a butterfly flitting from branch to branch or mesmerized before a place of refuge, then I would suggest we are a mystic.
One eye of the photographer looks wide open through the viewfinder, the other, the closed looks into his own soul.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Looking into our souls is the practice of mystics, monastics, poets, and sunflowers but also includes the photographer. I’m off to meet Mark for breakfast! Happy Wednesday!
No, it’s not fools who turn mystic. It takes a certain amount of intelligence and imagination to realize the extraordinary queerness and mysteriousness of the world in which we live. The fools, the innumerable fools, take it for granted, skate about cheerfully on the surface and never think of inquiring what’s underneath.
Allows Huxley
I must say our fall colors are truly popping now. I see trees that are almost naked. I also see trees glowing and radiating in the gold, yellow, red and bronze colors of fall, their leaves excitedly dancing with the wind. I am glad to be at a place in my life of witnessing the extraordinary queerness and mysteriousness of the world in which we live. My hope is that I never lose the curiosity Mark mentions in his comment a few days ago. I wish that we all be the curious mystics we are meant to be. Met my friend Eric for coffee this morning and saw this scene on the way home. Enjoy your Saturday.