• clouds,  quotes,  trees

    Enjoy the Surprises

    February 14, 2024
    A touch of soft pastel pink clouds outside the coffee shop

    We humans can easily lose our perspective on our humble place in the universe. We get locked up in our heads, prisoners of our limited ideas and thoughts, cutting ourselves off from the wider world of experience. We forget or are simply unaware that we are part of an immense cosmic history that continues to stretch into a vast unknown future.

    Ilia Delio

    I cringe when I hear anyone claim they know how a situation will turn out, how people will react, or the course nature will take. Even when challenged about their assumptions, they will say yes they know. Way too much ego for me and a total turnoff. I admit we can make pretty accurate assumptions based on past evidence and experiences but we cannot predict the future. Just ask any weather forecaster. So, I try to live life with the awareness that I don’t know all that my ego would like me to think I think I know, or believe all my assumptions and opinions. And, in truth those assumptions and opinions are evolving over time. When I remain in a place of humility, accepting my limited ideas and thoughts as just that, I am open to the wider experiences life offers. Then, I’m in a place to watch as the day unfolds and enjoy the surprises, like soft pastel pink clouds outside the coffee shop! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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  • coffee life,  fountain pens,  journal,  writing/reading

    It has me thinking…

    February 8, 2024
    Accepting time for coffee and journaling

    Somewhere in the past I read where we do not make images but receive them. That has resonated with me every since. And, I often reference that idea in some of my blog posts. I’ve personally heard myself give thanks when I have finished a photo session of a sunrise because I do feel I’ve received some kind of gift. Could be the romantic in me. Anyway, I also just read where someone suggests our transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society has shifted our vocabulary and thinking so that we talk about making rather than growing.1Let Your Life Speak by Parker J Palmer, page 97 Something else for me ponder. Just listen to how we speak: we make time, make love, make memories, make a photo, make money, make a living. I have caught myself saying I need to make time when in reality I can’t make time but I can set aside time for coffee and journaling. Anyway, it has me thinking/pondering about how I use the word make. When I think about it, it would make a great conversation over coffee. Gotta make time for that!!! 😂

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  poems,  quotes,  sunrises

    More Patience

    February 6, 2023

    The mind is but a visitor;
    it thinks us out of our world.

    Rilke’s Book of Hours: I, 51

    I saw last night that the morning hours could have scattered clouds so I drove to Pineridge Natural Area thinking nature could offer me some colors. I waited for a few minutes in the cold penetrating wind but my thinking mind, who Rilke suggests will think us out of our world, told me nothing was going to happen and a better choice would be to head for the coffee shop. By the time I was halfway there that pink streak you see on the horizon burst into a blazing pink sky. Sigh! This post actually follows up with yesterday’s post about going out with my camera and seeing what nature offers. Seems there’s a need for patience, even in a cold wind, to see what nature has to offer. Oh well, I enjoyed my mocha and told myself, tomorrow morning. And, it has been overcast and windy all day.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  seasons,  sunrises,  winter scenes

    Another Sunrise

    December 18, 2020

    What’s broken can be mended.
    What hurts can be healed.
    And no matter how dark it gets,
    The sun is going to rise again.

    Well, back to another sunrise. Took this image yesterday but this one is a bit different. I arrived at predawn when the sky was pink and took a few images of those colors. It was 18 degrees and a slight breeze from the northwest. What is different about this image is the young lady located in the lower left corner of the image. She is sitting on a small bench at the trailhead, wrapped in a blanket and sipping on a thermos of hot coffee or maybe tea. I was there about 45 minutes and she was there when I arrived, sitting on that bench the whole time. We watched this lovely sunrise as well as seeing a couple coyotes walk across the frozen reservoir in search of food. We did not talk. Not sure the reason she needed to be there but for me nature is a place to go when I need to find healing, answers, peace, serenity, silence, a boost, even a good cry and most often the need to slow down the chatter of my thinking. It had warmed up to 19 degrees by the time she left. I departed soon after. We’re expecting light snow today so right now it is overcast and windy. Happy Friday!

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  • rants,  rants,  writing/reading

    Things I Think I Need

    August 20, 2018
    The County Road
    The view on a County Road 90

    The Things I Think I Need otherwise known as TITIN. I think I caught it. It explains much of my thinking over the past few decades. I’m pretty sure there are no med’s for it, although I suppose I could ask my family doctor. He may get a kick out of it or have the same affliction, disease, broken thinking, or whatever ya call it.

    My TITIN thinking is trying to justify purchasing a new laptop or an iPad Pro or a Surface Go to replace an old Chromebook and a nine year old Macbook. I use both of these tools for writing on my blog, reading your blogs, checking emails, editing my images and, of course internet shopping for the next thing I think I need.

    According to marketing both tools are outdated, which means there are hands wanting to take more money from my wallet for their latest and greatest. They don’t seem to understand there is no money in the wallet. I’m retired! Every once in awhile the Sugar Mama solution enters my mind but the side effects may be worse than the solution.

    In all honesty the Macbook is outdated due the constant updating of software. However, my simple needs are met with both the tools I have. I wonder if TITIN is related to GAS Cramps.

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  • Arches National Park,  landscape,  musings,  National Parks,  writing/reading

    “From my experience….”

    March 26, 2018

    Arches National Park
    Arches National Park

    All of us have heard people say, “I know…” when they really don’t. And, if we’re honest, we are well  aware of the times we say it, and don’t. There is a saying that “what I think I think I know, ain’t so.” Reality is we do not know what another thinks or feels unless they share that with us and that is filtered through their ability to articulate and how we listen and understand. We do them an injustice when we assume to know. Our assumptions can easily be our imagination or a thought which we quickly make into a false reality. We’ll believe it. I’ve not found this to be a good foundation for a conversation or relationship. So, what if we were to say, “From my experience….” or something similar. Seems the mind wants to know, plan, or control the next moment, as if it’s real, rather than stay in the present and find out what we don’t really know.

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  • Black and White,  Documentary/Street

    1132

    September 6, 2017

    1132
    1132

    Reflecting back over my life I see a pattern where I’ve lived much of my life seeking to fill some void. I’m now aware this void is more of a spiritual hunger. It’s not a religious hunger, although I looked there. Maybe this assumed void has really been some subconscious spiritual part of me calling from within. It’s a new way of thinking and living in my life and sharing a bit of that with you.

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