• Avian,  Canada Goose,  clouds,  gratitude,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  reflections,  sunrises,  trees

    Listening to Nature

    April 8, 2021

    I have friends vacationing in Hawaii with kids and grandkids. I’m a bit envious of them sitting on the beach working on a tan. All the photos they’ve sent include big smiles. Yet, this morning while visiting the Top Minnow Natural Area, I was reminded by the red-winged blackbirds and the meadowlarks of just how beautiful it is right here. They were reminding through their joyful songs to be grateful for where I’m at and what I have. These two Canada Goose told me the same thing. I’m learning to listen to the wisdom of nature more often.

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  • landscape,  mountains,  National Parks,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Sunrise at Foothills Parkway

    November 14, 2019

    Sunrise on Foothills Parkway in the Smoky Mountains

    In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy skips and dances down a yellow brick road in hopes of finding the Wizard of Oz who will help her return home to Kansas. Traveling that yellow brick road lead her to new horizons, discovering her gifts of wisdom, courage, and love. I like to think of Dorothy’s yellow brick road as a metaphor of our spiritual journey to new horizons.

    Some of us live in the shadow of an illusionary self, a false-self that alienates us from reality, much of this world and a Creator. We can be blind to the possibility of the horizons yet to be discovered, paralyzed with fear, failing to venture forward on our yellow brick road and discover our gifts of wisdom, courage, and love, which I choose to call our true-self.

    “May we seek this inward path to encounter the true-self, the essence of who we are, and allow ourselves to be embraced by love.”

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  • landscape,  moon,  quotes

    Seeking Wisdom

    September 21, 2019

    One of the first images of the moon I made with my Nikon D100 and Nikon 80-400mm lens back in 2003

    “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else … Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”  Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

    No, this post is not an attempt to impart what wisdom is because I agree with Hesse. It cain’t! However, if I can boldly say this, what wisdom I have found is from the knowledge I’ve gained from reading, study, learning from my mistakes, learning from those who have wisdom and made mistakes, my own inward spiritual journey and aware that what I think I think I know is not always so. Or, as Socrates says, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Hopefully, many of us have a bit more wisdom than we did at the age of 20 or 40, that it’s a evolving process. There are those who think I have wisdom and those who think I’m foolish. Debating whether I have any wisdom or I’m just a fool is not the point of this post. The point is to share with you the desire I have to continue seeking wisdom, to live it, to do wonders through it! 

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