Category Archives: Nature

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Mountains, Woods, Rivers, Lakes, Beaches – Find Me Inside

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Mountains, Woods, Rivers, Lakes, Beaches….

 

This is the God or nature of Spinoza:

“God would have said:
Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest!
What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life.
I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.
Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house!
My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there I express my love for you.
Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing!
Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything they made you believe.
Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes…
you will find me in no book!
Trust me and stop asking me. Will you tell me how to do my job?
Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you, I criticize you, nor get angry, or bother, or punishment. I am pure love.
Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you… I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies… free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity?
What kind of god can do that?
Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, that only create guilt in you.
Respect your peers and don’t do what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that your alert is your guide.
My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step, not a step in the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and all you need.
I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.
I could tell you if there’s anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is no. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.
So, if there’s nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?…
Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to feel in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?
I’m bored being praised, I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of you, your health, your relationships, the world. Feeling looked at, shocked?… Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.
Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you’ve been taught about me.
The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.
What do you need more miracles for? Why so many explanations?
look for me outside, you won’t find me. Find me inside… there I am beating on you.”
-Spinoza

 

 
Glacier National Park, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Roots

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“Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots.”

-Rumi

“…The old that is strong does not wither,                                        Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

“I feel a thousand capacities spring up in me. I am arch, gay, languid, melancholy by turns. I am rooted, but I flow.”

-Virginia Woolf

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

For A New Beginning

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Spring has dawned, infusing us all with new beginnings…

FOR A NEW BEGINNING (by John O’Donohue)
“In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
-John O’Donohue
From ‘To Bless the Space Between Us’

 

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Dawn

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“dawn peeks her head
over the horizon softly sweetly
like a child playing peek-a-boo
her smile shimmers warmly
all across the land, cascading
through the branches of trees
across the lakes and streams
glittering like jewels on the petals
of flowers as dew drops cling
to the coming of yet another chance
to embrace one another, love
one another, be kind to yet
another person who longs
for a smile, a hug, a willing ear,
someone dear
yes, dawn is smiling on us
from up above, loving us
with kindness and warmth
giving us this day to
work and play
oh what a beautiful way
to greet the new day ❤“
-Michael Traveler from “morning song”
Glacier National Park, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

The Wisest Balm

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“When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.
This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely. Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.”
-John O’Donohue
(from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)
Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Let Go

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2021 has dawned bright with wonder and hope.
The teaching of 2020 has closed its last chapter, a year of learning and of letting go.  Letting go of plans, expectations, attachments, jobs, in person visits…
But too, a letting go of busyness, of being over-scheduled, of consuming and shopping, of scrolling, and of not being able to say no…
And That Allowed Room for:
Reflection
Deep Sleep
Writing
Contemplating
Time by the Fire
Meditation
Walks in Nature
Long Zoom Chats Across Many Miles
Old Fashioned Letters and Cards
Chats by Text
Photography
Baths with Sumptuous Salts
Communing with Little Bear
A Long Book List to Savor
Healthy Cooking
Growing Herbs
Awareness
Ingesting Positive Media
Editing Photos
Shedding Excess Everything
Finding Value in the Simple
Learning About Trees
Time Spent in Silence with Craig (and in meaningful conversations)
Working Toward Optimal Well Being
And that evolved into:
A Deepening of Being
and
of
Peace
Happy New Year to All!
“She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of fear. She let go of judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the “right” reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go….She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all the memories that held her back.
She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of all the planning and all the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations

No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t bad.
In the space of letting go, she let it be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.
Here’s to giving ourselves the gift of letting go….
There’s only one Guru – you.”
-Rev. Safire Rose
Glacier National Park, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Know Your Essence

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“Know your essence.

As you move through your life, you will claim many identities and belong to many tribes.

At some point, however, you realize this is not you being authentic, this is you being confused.

When you begin the process of dropping all identities, one after another, you reveal your true essence, which is you as a soul.

Let the rest go.”

-Sara Wiseman

Glacier National Park, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Travel Adventure

Doors

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“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few
but precious.

If you have a deep scar, that is a door.

If you have an old, old story,
that is a door.

If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it,
that is a door.

If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life,                       that is a door.”

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés