• blogging,  coffee life,  fountain pens,  journal,  journaling,  lifestyles,  meditation,  prayer

    … and peanut butter

    October 20, 2025

    Winds have been gusting up to 25-30 mph since early this morning and we may see that continue into mid-afternoon. Because of the winds I wisely chose not to ride the bicycle to coffee and conversation. After returning home I made a piece of sourdough toast with a generous spreading of chunky peanut butter. I then sat in my bedroom chair with the warm sunshine spreading across my journal to write. But before I could get started writing the light and shadows on the pages urged me to put the pen down, set up the camera and tripod and use this image as a starting place for today’s post. As I post this I realize it reflects the life I live today full of prayer and meditation, coffee life, photography, journaling, blogging, and peanut butter. And if the wind wasn’t blowing, bicycling.

    Read More
  • quotes,  shadows

    … when we glimpse it

    March 3, 2025

    Our religious experience begins and ends with the heart. It begins with the insight that our heart is restless. A world of things can never fully satisfy its restless quest. Only that nothing beyond all things that we call meaning gives us rest when we glimpse it. The quest of the human heart for meaning is the heartbeat of every religion.

    Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

    When I returned from my bicycle ride to coffee this morning I caught a glimpse of the sunlight coming through my bedroom window. I knew it as a voice telling me there was a photo being offered. Did I want it? Just a glimpse is all it takes for us to see something that’s small and irrelevant at times and now has something simple to offer. I wanted it! Some would call it a spiritual experience. After looking at the quilt I rememberd it was a handmade quilt given to me by my friend, Judith, who died of cancer 17 years ago. Maybe she was behind that voice.

    Read More
  • architecture,  quotes,  shadows

    Perceive the Wisdom

    December 5, 2023

    When we perceive the wisdom that is in other human beings we are less prone to treat them as objects for our own purposes.

    John Philip Newell

    I saw this scene while waiting at a doctors office last week. I loved how the morning sun was casting its light across the framed photo and the wall. I grabbed my camera but before I could take the photo a man stood in front of the window casting his shadow in the scene. It wasn’t what I wanted so I waited and eventually got what I wanted. It was a windy day yesterday but we reached a nice warm 57 degrees. Today is supposed to be the same. However, we could see snow by Friday

    As I’ve grown older matured in my wisdom, I have learned to perceive the wisdom in other human beings. I would like to believe that’s happened because I’m seeing with different eyes and with a different perspective than in my youth. And I would hope they perceive within me a wisdom. Have a wonderful day.

    Read More
  • Art,  latte art,  poetry,  writing/reading

    The Gift of a Smile

    January 4, 2023

    Made a trip to the coffee shop this morning for
    a much needed dose of medicine in my recovery

    I was greeted with the beautiful smiles
    of Logan and Nate, over two weeks without them

    Nate brings me this cortado with his special touch,
    a cute pigs face made of frothy milk, now I smile

    Soft music lets the din of people’s conversations to dominate
    comforting me with voices and smiles from people I do not know

    I watch as a woman, pregnant with child, sits at a nearby table,
    reading her book with a cup of coffee, its steam rising in the sunlight

    I journal from my favorite chair where the sun warms me,
    these sacred moments somehow bring comfort and serenity

    So this morning I accepted the gift of a smile from my baristas
    holding their smile within me and offering the gift of my own smile

    Yes, the gift of a smile…

    mws

    PS: Sorry for the poor depth of field in the image.

    Read More
  • architecture,  shadows

    Mystery in the Shadows

    November 7, 2022

    There is mystery in the shadows of a photograph. Something is there that cannot be seen as light does not reach it. Death is a mystery of shadows for me. I do not know what is beyond the door of death, in those shadows. I no longer adhere to the belief of my childhood religion. Yet there is within me, some voice, some hidden intuition, that lets me know there is more beyond our door of death. My cousin, Kevin, was buried today. His Christian belief and that of his family is different than mine. I respect their belief. I treasure his life, the gift he was to this world, the times I shared with him in our youth and as adults, and I pray with and for him. Yes, the mystery in the shadows. I feel much love tonight!

    Read More
  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Love the Gifts

    November 5, 2022

    “That is not the way it should be. Good leaders wait to be called and they give up their power when they are no longer needed. Selfish men and fools put themselves first and keep their power until someone throws them out. It is no good to have a way where selfish men and fools fight with each other to be leaders, while the good ones watch.”

    Kent Nerburn

    Drove to Windsor early this morning to meet Eric for coffee and conversation. Had to stop and take a few images of the predawn sky. Love the gifts of creation. Early this afternoon I sat at Mugs in the warm sunlight. Leaves fall and dance all around me. It is a beautiful fall day. Nature is all around us when we look. Meeting a friend at 4:30 pm then an evening of reading. Hope you are having a good weekend!

    I voted for the good ones today.

    Read More
  • landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    What will it take…

    July 19, 2022
    Early morning at Watson Lake

    “What will it take for us to change so that other species like the greater sage grouse, the grizzly, the wolf, and the wolverine can live and thrive in peace? What will it take for us to honor what they need, instead of what we want?”

    Terry Tempest Williams, Erosion
    Read More
  • fountain pens,  journal,  lifestyles,  shadows,  writing/reading

    Time with my friends…

    March 11, 2022

    “Solace is what we must look for when the mind cannot bear the pain, the loss or the suffering that eventually touches every life and every endeavour; when longing does not come to fruition in a form we can recognize, when people we know and love disappear, when hope must take a different form than the one we have shaped for it.”

    David Whyte

    With the state of the world I’ve been spending more time with a couple of familiar friends; my journal and fountain pens. I’m entering into these blank pages to find solace from the pain I feel inside, the suffering of humanity and our natural world. I ask my two friends to help me embrace in a hope beyond what my finite mind is capable of perceiving. I pray that I have the willingness to be vulnerable and accept the risk of this unforeseen hope. So, I add to my gratitude list the time spent with my two friends today.

    Read More