My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth.
Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook
I no longer celebrate the in coming New Year by partying and then suffering with a hangover in the morning. I am going way overboard this year and celebrating at home with some shrimp cocktail. Have a safe and enjoyable New Years Eve. If you do dance on the tables, please post a video. We can all use the laugh. 
“I have begun to look past reason, past the provable, in other directions. Now I think there is only one subject worth my attention and that is the precognition of the spiritual side of the world and, within this recognition, the condition of my own spiritual state. I am not talking about having faith necessarily, although one hopes to. What I mean by spirituality is not theology, but attitude.”
Mary Oliver, Upstream
I’ve mentioned before how I am experiencing more nights and mornings of disturbed sleep. Here is an example from a week ago. I awoke at 2:00 am, wide awake. I finally got up around 3:30 am and journaled for a half hour. I quietly prayed, taking in deep breaths. I finally got up, dressed and had my quiet centering prayer. Grabbed coffee then drove to Pineridge Natural Area to watch the sun rise. It was dark when I pulled up in the parking lot. I counted eight magpies perched on the branches of a barren tree and silhouetted against the predawn sky while the faint light accented the frozen reservoir. As the sun began to rise above the horizon the magpies leave their perch in search of food. I take a dozen photos but mostly just watch it all happen. Everything around me begins to brighten as the sun brings forth this new day. I watch a flock of geese fly above the horizon then divide in two groups and circle in search of fields to graze in. Nature on display. A few minutes later the sun has fully risen. Its warm rays are extending out to everything. The warmth feels good to my cold hands and feet. I’m in agreement with Mary Oliver that time in the spiritual side of the world tweaks of my attitude.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. 
“Only the blindness of habit convinces us that we continue to live in the same place, that we see the same landscape.”
John O’Donohue
Had an early meeting at Pineridge Natural Area with God, a few magpies, low clouds on the eastern horizon, silence and a cup of coffee to keep my hands warm. I watched nature put on a beautiful show of colors that helped keep me warm in the 15 degree cold. As O’Donohue suggests as long as I do not stay in a place of the blindness of my habits the landscape will provide something new for me to experience, and that is a gift. I stayed until the sun rose above the clouds and my hands and feet were cold. Have a great day and stay warm.
“I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera. I look into the camera and take pictures. My photographs are the tiniest part of what I see that could be photographed. They are fragments of endless possibilities.”
Saul Leiter
Fort Collins Natural Areas have become the place for me to go. I started going primarily because the coffee shops were not allowing dining in due to state mandates. So in March of 2020 I began making coffee at home and going to Pineridge Natural Area to journal, read, connect with nature and get in a walk. My first explorations of Pineridge were made in 2014 but then lost touch with it until March. Then in June of 2020 I discovered Reservoir Ridge which is only about 4 miles away. When I look at my archives there are twice as many images at Reservoir Ridge than Pineridge while only exploring it in half the time. I seem to be drawn to it in a more photographic way.
For the past 5 months I’m out to Reservoir Ridge at least once a week. Yet, this past week was the first time I saw this old water pump, I mean really saw it. It sits along an irrigation ditch and a row of trees so I’ve seen it many times, but never really saw it. As soon as I saw the pump this past week something in my mind kicked in, I really saw it and envisioned the above image. I walked out there to it and accepted the gift. So, I wonder what else I’ve not seen out there. I’ll keep you posted.
“… the heart of vision is shaped by the state of the soul.”
John O’Donohue
The contemplative life should liberate and purify the imagination which passively absorbs all kinds of things without our realizing it; liberate and purify it from the influence of so much violence done by the bombardment of social images. There is a kind of contagion that affects the imagination unconsciously much more than we realize. It emanates from things like advertisements and from all the spurious fantasies that are thrown at us by our commercial society. These fantasies are deliberately intended to exercise a powerful effect on our conscious and subconscious minds. They are directed right at our instincts and appetites and there is no question but that they exercise a real transforming power on our whole psychic structures. The contemplative life should liberate us from that kind of pressure, which is really a form of tyranny.
Thomas Merton
Yes, I am a very much aware how affected I am by consumerism and advertising. Show me an image of a fine fountain pen and the lust for it begins to grow. I am easily enticed. Over the past few years, through the practice of a contemplative life and simplifying my life I feel the lust is being curtailed. At least until Pelikan comes out with another marbled fountain pen color and in my price range. 
What is interesting to me in Merton’s quote is his use of the phrase ‘spurious fantasies.’ We all have watched how the power of our social media/news can affect people, stirring up anger, hate and rage in some, while drawing others to an awareness of our societal and world issues. For some it has meant making a healthy self-examination of ourselves then coming up with ways to change the unhealthy aspects we find, nurture them and sharing the healthy ones. But, for some it means pointing fingers and accusing rather than any self-examination.
For the past few weeks I have reduced my time on social media while staying as distant as I can from the news. This has allowed me to consciously spend more time in my journal, more reading, walks in nature and more prayer/meditation. The biggest impact has been the reduction of unhealthy images in my mind, both words and photographs. I much prefer reading words that nudge me to explore their meaning and to liberate and purify my imagination to create healthy vibes in the universe.
“How we think about making photographs can change how we make photographs and, therefore, change the photographs we make…”
David DuChemin
“Humility is the prize of the leaf-world. Vain-glory is the bane of us, the humans.”
Mary Oliver