Natural Beauty

Just as a plucked string can cause another string to vibrate, we can begin to resonate in harmony with natural beauty by studying and appreciating it. By exposing ourselves to the wonders of nature, we can foster an internal harmony that benefits every aspect of our being. – Thomas Ashley-Farrand

Stillness in Light

   There are still places you can get to relatively easily where civilization's din fades away. Spend a day walking the downtown streets of almost any city, and odds are you’ve just gone over the government’s safety recommendations for exposure to noise. Everywhere, we're blasted by sound — traffic, construction, passing radios, TVs blaring and the constant ring of cell phones. And none of it is quite enough to drown out the sound of airplanes passing overhead.

  What we need is not a complete absence of sound, but to be in places that sound the way the world did before iPods and leaf blowers were invented. But quiet is still out there, ready to be found. Around the world remain places—quite accessible places—where the constant din of civilization simply drops away.    In viewing this beautiful image streaming down the mountainside, I felt the stillness, and beauty as the moonlight fell through the tress. Again as everything in nature is ephemeal and non lasting, it brings the thought of our impermanence in this life. It was not long before the light changed and was gone, and a new presence began to work in the next moment ever reminding me things never stay as they are. And in this new presence is the beauty and sadness of life. All love and hope resides in stillness, all we need to do is be quiet enough to hear. 

It is Your Life

I love the above words because the direction it is going is forward. Life is a choice and you have to live it, not watch it. So many people sit on the sidelines and complain, but just a change in attitude and perspective can make the biggest difference in the world.
There is a quote that I often say which I attrubute to a beloved priest that has made a big impact in my life. It says,"Life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be quick to love, make haste to be kind, and may the blessing of the Lord always be with you." 

A Dandelion Metaphor

 

 

 

 

  How little did I know as a child, when I blew away the seeds of a dandelion that one of the great ends of nature was being fulfilled! This dandelion for me is a wonderful metaphor. For example, the seeds fly away without knowing where they will land. But on the place where they land, new life will begin. This is an element of non-attachment, of freedom. Being detached from the old allows one to gain the new. The seeds grow and develop having found a new place. It is at this point everything is seen from a different angle. This moment will provide a fresh look at the world, and at the many truths that become evident as life journeys on. So the journey that each of us travel, are like the seeds of the dandelion. Letting go of the old, to open up to the new which may take courage and determination, realizing that this is necessary for growth. It is truly amazing that it is not what you see, it's how you see it!  Even the seeds of the dandelion can provide a metaphor for life, if one only takes the time to see.           

Commitment to Silence

 

 

"My pleasure or the contentment that I may have experienced out of silence and solitude and freedom from all care does not matter. But I know that is the way I ought to be living: with my mind and senses silent, contacts with the world of business and war and community troubles severed — not solicitous for anything high or low or far or near — not pushing myself around with my own fancies or desires or projects — and not letting myself get hurried off my feet by the excessive current of activity that flows through here."
             Thomas Merton: A Year With Thomas Merton  

Velvet Time

 "A two-thousand-year-old rabbinic parable claims that the Torah was originally given in seventy languages so that every nation could understand its wisdom and no people could claim it solely as its own. Long ago, the rabbis understood that God speaks in many ways — in nature, silence, music, love, and anguish. Our job is to listen in many ways."

The above quote is truly wise in that God does speaks to us in many beautiful ways. As Fall approaches here in the Rockies one begins to see, feel, and hear the infinite ways of His language. The above photos are a moment in time that I was able to hear this language. The majesty of the elk, the serene setting, and the peacefulness of  nature. As I am drawn to places to photograph, I think of what Henry Miller said, "Our destination is never a place, but a new way of looking at things. I find this so evidently true in that recognizing it is not how far one has come that is significant, but how far one has yet to go. In this realization, in this kind of looking forward from where you are resides the classic virtue of hope. With the moving forward on life's journey, and facing the unknown I realize that I'm never alone no matter where that happens to be.

Everything vs Nothing

    

 

Most of us aren't going to be rich or famous. Presumably, we have made our peace with that reality, and have set ourselves to the discovery what is it that we will do with the gifts God has given us. A joyful life is, quite simply, a life that has found that path. A life that knows why it is here. A life that knows the worth of everything, and what is worth nothing at all. I have found this summer the following:

             Don’t think—
                   look.
             Don’t study—
                   see.
            Don’t try to reason it all out—
                   go with your God-given gifts.
            Don’t stay in your mind—
                  let go of it
            and allow it to let go of you.
            Dare to be in your eyes
            and see with your soul
                             and live with whatever results.



Kindness

 

 

 

 

Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.                 

This poem by Naomi Shihab Nye points out that it is easy to be kind when life is kind. But the point is to find refuge, hope, and joy in kindness even as darkness threatens to swallow up our world. The above images of the butterflies exemplifies the softness and kindness that exists in our world. Even as dark, sinister events happen all around us, the light of kindness cannot be extinguished. Because that light of kindness is with us, in us, and all around us as we travel the journey of life.

The Last Days of Hummers

     The last days of summer "hummers" are quickly approaching. The beautiful hummers that I have been watching all summer and trying to photograph seem to be slowing down.  Instead of filling the feeders three times a day, I am now filling them once a day. Soon I will take the feeders in so as to encourage the little darlings to get on there way. As of this posting, I have used twenty-five pounds of sugar just to be able to not only watch, but photograph these jewels. They have become quite friendly, and don't mind me getting close. Next year, I would like to see if I can feed them from my hand. Patience will be my teacher. So I need to keep in mind a few good quotes on patience. One comes from an old Chinese Proverb which says, "He who knows patience knows peace." And Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience." With this maybe next year my hand will hold a little bit of eternity.

Thoughts to the Hummingbirds with gratitude and awe, may next year bring us even closer!

With wings spun of green and hearts of gold,
These tiny creatures our hearts behold.
With angelic features and colors so bright,
Make even the heaviest heart seem light.
The magical way they flit through the sky,
They appear, then vanish in the blink of an eye.
They're sending a message for us to retrieve,
Anything's possible for those who believe!
    

A Walk in the Forest

 

           Yesterday I was fortunate enough to hike high into the Rocky Mountains.  I say fortunate because altitude slows the pace. Secondly, the parking spaces are a premium this time of year. The ranger at the entrance indicated no parking spaces for five miles. So with prayer in hand we drove to the trail head, and low and behold found a parking space.  From there on, and the next three hours I beheld nature: light, animals, insects of all kinds, wild flowers,waterfalls, and rock formations that only God could arrange. Thomas Merton says, "For these are the discoveries, and it is for this that I am high on the mast of my ship (have always been) and I know that we are on the right course, for all around is the sea of paradise". — Thomas Merton in Turning Toward the World

I feel these words of Merton explemplfy the constantly changing beauty of the forest, and how that change can and does resonate with the depths of the human soul. It's about sidling up next to the unanswerable while noticing what happens to my perspective about life, reality, and eternity as time is spent there. I don't believe I'm supposed to comprehend it. I believe I'm mostly invited simply to be open to it.

"The more I study nature the more I stand amazed at the work of the creator."

Louis Pasteur

Have I Told You Lately

There is a light in my life that I love so dearly, for each day my strength and hope emanates from this source. I have been given a gift of life that I can truly say,"My heart has been filled with gladness, that takes away all sadness, laughter and love renewed. One is by the grace of God, and the other is my precious daughter that is so wise and loving. May God bless her, all of his creation, and you.

Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles, that's what you do

Oh the morning sun in all it's glory
Greets the day with hope and comfort too
And you fill my life with laughter
You can make it better
Ease my troubles that's what you do

There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine
Like the sun at the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray to the one
Lyrics by Scott Wiseman (1945) Sung by Kenny Rodgers

Nature in Macro

To be bent is to become straight.
To be empty is to be full.

To be worn out is to be renewed.
To have little is to possess.
               To yield is to be preserved whole.                              

                                       Lao -Tzu    

One Seed One Step

Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now. As you become more deeply aware of this one step, you realise that it already contains within itself all the other steps as well as the destination."

ECKHART TOLLE The Power of Now
                                    

Tree Sculpture

   My neighbor's tree, he is a marvelous woodcarver. This tree stands near his house. I just had to photograph this piece of art.

   It's not What you see, it's How you see it.



What Are the Best Things in Life?

        I ran across this sign today and liked the uniqueness of it, and the fact that it is homemade.  It would also be interesting to hear the homeowners  reasons and explanations for displaying the statement in their front yard. Obviously there are few zoning laws in this area. Beside these musings, I started thinking about the message. So what are the best things in life? For each of us the answers could be infinite.
     This statement attributed to Art Buchwald, is a commentary on materialism. We live in a culture that to a large extent equates self-worth with how much and what one has. One must look through the collective delusion, the chasing of things in the vain hope of finding worth and completion of the sense of self in things, which can lead to a lack of consciousness of the real self.  No" thing" ever had to do with who a person is. Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in things. Perhaps this is where lies the beauty and miracles of life. For me the" not things" bring the greatest happiness and joy that is given daily if I stay aware and in tune to the ultimate Reality.

Only Today

Today
  Everyday is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good.
  What I do today is important because I'm exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded it for.
    I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success not failure; in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it. May each day continue to hold the mysteries and miracles of a world painted not only in suffering and pain, but also in happiness and joy which fills the heart of humanity.

Kisses

One regret, dear world,
that I am determined not to have
when I am lying on my deathbed
is that I did not kiss you enough.
Hafiz

This Persian mystic and poet calls to me
across the span of seven hundred years,
nudging me, urging me.
“Before death calls you,
make sure you plant plenty of smooches
on the earth itself.
Cherish creation.
Hold dear the days.
Caress that which is caressable.
Nuzzle that which invites nuzzling.
Nestle close to life.
Make time to enfold and be enfolded.
Be lavish with your love.”
The words of Hafiz remind me of my own deathbed,
and the numbered days I have between now and then,
and the unnumbered kisses that are mine to give,
if I only will.