Fog and Branches

            Rarely do I get to photograph in foggy conditions. The past couple of days has been an exception to the case. The natural light on foggy days is not only beautiful, but gives images a special quality which adds to the emotionial, and asectic value of what is being captured. I like to remember Carl Sandburg's poem Fog which I quote here.


                                               

THE fog comes

on little cat feet.

 

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

A Gift of Love

Choice

 

 

                                 Things that are sometimes bristly, sticky, pointy and sharp, can direct us to take a look at the dimensions of life and ourselves as well. Accepting all experiences as necessary to our development, we can detach from the negativity we sometimes attach to the painful,sharp or pointy things that life throws at us. Instead choosing to celebrate difficult times, and recognizing their worth to our human potential will enhance the value of every experience. The choice is open to me and to you.

Morning Prayer

 

 

The Way Things Are

Since the Beloved is involved in everything, it has to be this way: The skinned knee is better off for having ached. And a face that has known a tear's movement, may not show right away any signs of change, but a magnificent inner canyon is being formed from the currents of sacred elements touching -- shaping us. -- Hafiz

The Beauty of a Lampshade

 

It's times like this, when the photo itself is just incidental, when I realize again the truth of Eckhart Tolle's words: "The purpose of all art is to serve as a portal to the sacred." In cases like this, I don't need to contribute much. What matters is the magnificence of creation; I just get to share it with you.

Looking Beyond the Window

 

So often we get caught up in the responsibilities of the moment and forget to look beyond the window, to notice the beauty right before our eyes. We forget to listen for the song of the universe that is always humming in our hearts. Taking notice of the things before us; honoring, loving and being with all that is. As I looked beyond my kitchen window this morning, I heard the song of the universe and find I am blessed with one more day for gratitude.

Nature's Sculpture

 

 

Imagination is an inner resource. That's why it takes stopping, slowing, silencing, reassuring, embracing to allow it to speak.  Let your imagination ponder this image. What do you see?

A Taste of Spring

 






  The color of springtime is in the flowers; the color of winter is in the imagination.
                                              Spring will soon be here to delight our senses.

Too Complex

 

  

     A bird flys past. It is needed somewhere. Our lives touch the lives of thousands of other people.We are all needed by everyone, and our chosen lives become a necessary part of the larger pattern woven by all others. We don't see the pattern as a whole; it's too complex, too vast for us to grasp. About the best we can hope for is the optimistic detachment that lets us see that the bird/birds are needed. The squirrels, the ants at the picnic, the angry driver honking behind me, are all needed. What can we learn from them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



       

Mystery

                                      
                                      I do not at all understand the mystery of grace~only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.
                                                   ~Anne Lamott~

Fire and Ice

 

 

 

  

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

~Robert Frost~ 

 

   Robert Frost's poem" Fire and Ice" seems appropriate given the images that have been captured. It has been many years since I last read this poem, and  metaphorically "Fire and Ice"  can be read on many differnt levels. What seems to me that Frost is saying is that the two extremes are completely opposite, and extremely different, yet both are the same. It is like having two things you love that seem so different you can't put them together, only apart. It says to me whatever path one chooses to take; which ever you chose to taste it will always end up the same. At some point, life will end, and you will be at the same place you would of ended up to begin with.

   Frost is a master at making simple words say profound things. Here, he takes a slightly dark musing, and converts it into a telling insight into the destructive power of desire and hate, fire

and ice respectively. The metaphor is apt, and powerful just as fire or ice may one day destroy the external, physical world; desire and hate can destroy the internal, spiritual one. It's interesting to see how this poem works not so much by what it says, but by what it doesn't say.

Cold Blooded

                    
                Only nature could form something so spectacular. It looks reptilian to me!

A New Year

 

Everything changed

the day she figured out

there was exactly enough time

for the important things in her life.

 

 

“The years teach much the days never know.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson
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So teach us to number our days,

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

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