My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and asking deep questions.
I spent part of late yesterday afternoon at the CSU Flower Trial Gardens. With my camera and tripod I meandered around for awhile. It is still early in the season so they do not have much planted. And, even though it was a beautiful day there were not many people there. But, I left with the hope of what is to come and the desire to spend more time there this summer. It is not that far of a bicycle ride and there will always be little gems to find. And for me there is also a gift that flowers offer with their beauty, peace and silence. And in today’s competitive world more time among Creation’s gifts is needed for the spirit.
“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.”
I have made it through some hard times in my life. I imagine you have too.
Looking back, I can honestly say That in more than one of those times I was not sure I would make it.
The presence of a living and conscious love Got me through. I can only call it Spirit. So my faith is not the product of an emotional need Or an intellectual imagining.
I believe because I know. Because I have been there. Because of my experience.
I cannot convince others of this truth. I can only share it and wait to see The light of memory in their eyes.
Steven Charleston
I believe in the presence of a living and conscious love because I, too, have been there and experienced it.
Today I will conjure love from the empty air. I will call it out from thin places Where people walk without breathing From dark places where they stumble without seeing. I will find love in those I do not like And let love appear in the faces I avoid. I will make room for love in my life Even if I feel overcrowded with worry. I will offer love without restraint Even if I have not received love in return. I will dance with love in innocent pleasure. I will sing love as though love were a new discovery. Today I will be the love Spirit made me be When Spirit loved me from the empty air.
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.
Chief Joseph
Seems to me a lot of mankind needs to unlearn this idea of quarreling over God. At least it would be one less thing for us to quarrel about. I know in my life when I stopped defending my opinion and listened to the other, I usually learn something I needed to learn.
Pelican in early morning fog at Arapaho Bend Natural Area – May 2023
One of our problems today is that we are not well acquainted with the literature of the spirit. We’re interested in the news of the day and the problems of the hour.
Joseph Campbell
My wife and I separated in 1991 and sold the house that fall. I drove away with everything I owned in the back of a small Ford Ranger pickup and with a feeling I was not familiar with. Her and I were closing one chapter of our lives and moving forward into another. It was a time of letting go. One thing that I have fully embraced from that day to the present was the letting go of television. I have not owned one since then. I came to a place where I’m not interested in the news of the day, the problems of the hour or what society considers entertainment. I focus my attention on the reality of life, one-on-one time with family and friends, the gift of time in nature, reaching out to the needs of those who are suffering, time in solitude, silence, prayer and meditation, journaling, photography and listening to the spirit that pervades everything. I guess you can say that’s being acquainted with the literature of the spirit.
Six years ago today I had open heart surgery. That valve lasted about four years when it failed and they needed to replace it in a TAVR procedure, March 2023. So today I am grateful and living life as full as I can. Thank you to all who have been reading these ramblings over the years!!
It is a wonderful day in our life when one is finally able to stand before the long, deep mirror of one’s own reflection and view oneself with appreciation, acceptance and forgiveness.
On that day one breaks through the falsity of images and expectations which have blinded one’s spirit.
One can only learn to see who one is when one learns to view oneself with the most intimate and forgiving compassion.
In the late summer season of life, I found authors, guides, and teachers who have made me aware of the gift of my wandering soul and spirit within my own inner landscape.
With no knowledge of an inner landscape I went seeking in the enticing outer landscape yet this wandering soul and spirit of mine was never satisfied, never fulfilled, always lost
Now in my winter season of life my soul and spirit wander my inner landscape seeking the Unknowable, that source of life, Whatever and Whoever that may be.
mws
I’ll end this with a thought from C.G. Jung, suggesting that our wandering has and is the thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.
