“Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”-Mary Oliver
This One Moment
“All that is important is this one moment. Make the moment vital and worth living. Don’t let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”
-Martha Graham
Song of the Trees
“Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky.”
-Kahlil Gibran
“Go outside and don’t go to a special place. Just go into your neighborhood and repeatedly, over and over again, open your ears and harvest the sounds all around you. Whether those are tree sounds or car sounds or bird sounds. Without judgment, just be present for the physical experience of sounds flowing into our consciousness. Do that over and over again and the trees will befriend you — or come into your consciousness and teach you some of what they’re saying.”
-David George Haskell
“Come to the woods, for here is rest.” -John Muir
A Mosaic of Them All
“No spring nor summer hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”
-John Donne
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”
– Emily Bronte
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all.”
-Stanley Horowitz
“Autumn is the season to find contentment at home by paying attention to what we already have.”
-the inspiration room
Reflections on Autumn – A Gallery of Photos
“Fall, the time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
-Lauren DeStefano
You can click onto any of the thumbnail photos for a full sized version, then use the arrows for a full sized slide show.
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
-George Eliot
Crater Lake – A Gallery of Photos
You can click onto any individual photo to view a full size version – then use right and left arrows for a slideshow.
“A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.”
-William Woodsworth
This lake certainly did carry me into impenetrable recesses of feeling! It’s incredible depth carries an equal depth in peacefulness. The blue is otherworldly, the reflected mirror of the sky and clouds serene and beautiful.
At 1,949 feet, it is the deepest lake in the United States, and 7th deepest in the world. The caldera was created when Mount Mazama’s top quarter was blown off in a powerful volcanic eruption and over time it was filled entirely from rain and melted snow. The purity of the water is felt as well as seen.
I loved the feelings accessed here, and just being absorbed by the tranquil quiet of this lake’s shores…
October
“Ah, Lovely October, as you usher in the season that awakens my soul, your awesome beauty compels my spirit to soar like an leaf caught in an autumn breeze and my heart to sing like a heavenly choir.”
-Peggy Toney Horton
Columbia River Gorge – A Gallery of Photos
The Columbia River Gorge, bonds Washington and Oregon, and has draped them both with overwhelming power and beauty. And the Gorge and its waters have touched my soul.
I long to spend more time here. There is a depth to be penetrated over time, in the inner and the outer realms. Rich tapestries of greens, radiance of waterfalls, myriad wildflowers, mysterious forests, sumptuous grand canyons, all endlessly beautiful. They touch the deepest part of me.
Every turn holds a wonder – a sometimes quiet and often times shuddering exuberance of majesty. Hidden wonders everywhere waiting to be explored.
Yes, I need more time here.
“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: What is soft is strong.”
-Lao-Tzu
“Water is the one substance from which the earth can conceal nothing; it sucks out its innermost secrets and brings them to our very lips.”
-Jean Giraudoux
A few facts about the Columbia River Gorge (from the website for Foundation for Water & Energy Education; http://fwee.org/environment/what-makes-the-columbia-river-basin-unique-and-how-we-benefit/):
- Within the Basin, there are 2,500 square miles of waterways and lakes.
- The Columbia River and its tributaries account for about 219,000 square miles of drainage in seven western states.
- The Basin consists of the Rocky Mountains to the east and north, the Cascade Range on the west, and the Great Basin to the south.
- The Columbia River is the fourth largest river in North America.
- The Columbia River originates in British Columbia and flows 1,214 miles to the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon.
- The Columbia is fed by a number of major tributaries including the three largest, the Kootenai, the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille and the Snake rivers along with the Payette, the Sultan, the Cowlitz, the Santiam and the Willamette.
- The Columbia River is second only to the Missouri-Mississippi River System in terms of annual run-off as the water flows to the Pacific Ocean.
At No Other Time Than the Autumn
“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cezanne
“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Ethics
The Native American Code of Ethics originally published in the Inter-Tribal Times in October of 1994.
Depth in simplicity, honor in dealing with humanity and the earth.
Twenty tenants to live by…
It is done, it is good. All My Relations.
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.
2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth – whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. Animals, plants and other living creatures are all part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life’s lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of one’s will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others – especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.
