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Posts from the ‘Photography’ Category

May 16

6 Comments

Wellspring

“Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.” – John B. Sheerin

“Friendship, love, health, energy, enthusiasm, and joy are the things that make life worth living and exploring.” - Denise Austin

“Friendship, love, health, energy, enthusiasm, and joy are the things that make life worth living and exploring.” – Denise Austin

“The secret is this. You make your own happiness.” - Harold Klemp

“The secret is this. You make your own happiness.” – Harold Klemp

Be a wellspring of encouragement, enthusiasm and excitement. Our days can feel like a desert, leaving us thirsty and dry. We can be an oasis. Our happiness and contentment is mulitpied by giving ourselves to others in simple yet meaningful ways. The world is starving for recognition, acknowledgement and “likes.” Say a kind word (or many), smile (alot) and shine (everyday).

May 14

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Praise

“Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit: we cannot flower and grow without it.” –  Jess Lair

Be grateful for the many gifts that we don’t see because we are too busy chasing the next “thing.” See the wonderment in each day and express appreciation to those right in front of you. It’s so simple and often too rare. Start today and repeat again and again and see what it does to your world.

“Wonder is involuntary praise.” - Edward Young

“Wonder is involuntary praise.” – Edward Young

May 13

4 Comments

Blank Canvas

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.” - Danny Kaye

“Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.” – Danny Kaye

Ten hours and $5800 later, my sixty year old silver maple is gone. The backyard is stark. A blank canvas. I am not sure what I’ll put in its place. I’m still thinking about it and looking at garden and patio magazines for ideas. When it’s right, I’ll know it. I asked them to leave a chunk of the tree to make a bench out of it to carry a piece of the old into what will be new. Some things we get so used to that we don’t have a vision of what could be until the canvas is blank. So as I face a blank canvas in my backyard and other parts of my life, I go forward with confidence that the possibilities will be more exciting if I am open to them. Start painting and watch the colors fill the canvas. The beauty unfolds if we get out of the way.

May 10

12 Comments

Tree Funeral

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” - William Shakespeare

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” – William Shakespeare

For safety reasons, my sixty year old silver maple tree will be cut down and ground to its roots tomorrow. A large limb dropped off two weeks ago from no additional force – no wind, no lighting. Fortunately, no one got hurt when the limb fell, crushing the fence and taking down the power at 2:00 am.

I will miss swinging in the woven rope chair, listening to breeze flow through the branches and the sound of laughing leaves. I will miss the canopy of shade and the beauty it gave freely without condition. For so many sentimental and the practical reasons, the tree will be greatly missed.

So, I’m having a tree funeral – food (no casseroles), guests and all. Material things, even trees, can be replaced. Family and friends are to be treasured. So a tree funeral to say goodbye and to honor the gift of majestic nature in my backyard for so many years.

 

May 8

6 Comments

And the Clouds Break

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” – Lord Byron

Every three months for the past two years, we drive to the Mayo Clinic to see if cancer has developed in my Dad’s esophagus. He was diagnosed almost three years ago with stomach cancer and Barrett’s Esophagus. Today, they took a biopsy and now we wait, like we’ve done before. There’s never a conclusion, just a continuation of wait, pray, hope and be grateful for good news every three months. The gift in this reality is that each day becomes a blessing, not to be squandered on the futile.

As we drove home tonight with thoughts racing through my mind, probably the same thoughts others had in the car, I glanced to the left and the sun burst through the dark clouds. And it occurred to me that this is really the essence of life. There are moments of sunshine and moments of clouds, but most days are a mix of both. We can choose to see the sunshine or we can choose to see the clouds. I choose the light.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” – Rabindranath Tagore

May 6

13 Comments

Contemplate

“If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world.” – Sri Chinmoy

Take five minutes today to be quiet, be open – focus on BEing instead of DOing. There’s more to life than checking tasks off our to do list.

“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true." ― Thomas Merton

“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.” ― Thomas Merton

May 1

7 Comments

Explore

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  – Mark Twain

While doing my morning routine, I glanced out the window to discover Lily was scaling the limb of the tree that fell last week. “Explore” immediately came to mind. Explore your world everyday.

"Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness." - Bryant H. McGill

"Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness." - Bryant H. McGill

Apr 29

7 Comments

Play All Week Long

“The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.” – Buddha

Cast away those Sunday night blues and look at this week in a new light. Remember the playfulness of the weekend and carry that through the rest of the week. Try it for one week. Just one. Take back those five days that we trade away waiting on the weekend.

“Play is the exultation of the possible.” - Martin Buber

“Play is the exultation of the possible.” - Martin Buber

Play hard, look up and forward to the possibilities.

“Play with life, laugh with life, dance lightly with life, and smile at the riddles of life, knowing that life's only true lessons are writ small in the margin.” - Jonathan Lochwood Huie

“Play with life, laugh with life, dance lightly with life, and smile at the riddles of life, knowing that life's only true lessons are writ small in the margin.” - Jonathan Lochwood Huie

Apr 24

9 Comments

Let Your Puppy Out

“The ability to retain a child’s view of the world with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare – and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking.” – Mortimer Jerome Adler

It’s inside all of us – that enthusiasm of childhood (puppyhood for some of our friends). Rediscover the simple joy and awe of youth and carry it with you no matter what your age. Let your “puppy attitude” out to play in the world. Be a gift.

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” - Tom Stoppard

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” - Tom Stoppard

"All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, this is when I became myself." - Rita Dove

"All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, this is when I became myself." - Rita Dove

“To a young heart everything is fun.” - Charles Dickens

“To a young heart everything is fun.” - Charles Dickens

Apr 21

6 Comments

Symphony

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
– Thomas Merton

We amplify what we focus on. The first step to regaining balance in a noisy world is to be quiet and still. Listen closely to the inner voice that creates a beautiful symphony and turn it up.

“Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” - Robert Fulghum

“Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” - Robert Fulghum

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