Category Archives: Photography

Home, Inspiring Words, Photography, Sweet Breathing

And the People Stayed Home

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These words by Kitty O’Meara resonated with me deeply.  Kitty has a blog called “The Daily Round”: https://the-daily-round.com/

“And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
“And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”

-Kitty O’Meara

 

Home, Inspiring Words, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Yes There is Fear

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These are lovely, real, and needed words right now.  Written by Brother Richard (Richard Hendrick), it’s called Lockdown.

“Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan
after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone may hear
the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.But there does not have to be disease of the soul.
Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming, And we are always
encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing. ”

-Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard)

Today, breathe, reach out, slow down, reflect, do what you can, realize what really matters, treasure your home and those in it, and take care of yourself and each other.

*I don’t usually explain the pictures  that pair with my posts and quotes – there’s always a reason, some more obvious that others! In this case though, I wanted to share the meaning of the photo to me.

The shadow is mine appearing on the snow in the photo  and to me represents not living in shadow but in the light – and those little trees that are puncturing my heart chakra and third eye speak to me of  being broken open by the outer events of the world, growing through it as best as I can, while being completely present and literally and figuratively solidly at home.  And the image at the top is that home that I so treasure.

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

Our Rarest Commodity

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“As our world becomes increasingly polluted with noise, silence is becoming our rarest commodity. Through all the madness, how can we possibly hear what the Earth is so patiently trying to tell us? Wilderness is our only hope. The one place we can always come back to.”

-Scott Stillman

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

In Gratitude for the Rain

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Ecstatic in the bounty of the rain today.

Its waters slow sinking into our earth,

A deep and boundless love offering,

A joyful pour of life.

Today, I am in gratitude for the rain.

Rain Drops, Pine

 

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head

with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”

-Langston Hughes

“How quick we are to find the rainbow,

before being thankful for the rain.”

-Dieter Uchtdorf

Crater Lake National Park, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

The Untrimmable Light of the World

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“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

Flowers, Nature, Photo Gallery, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Travel Adventure

Columbia River Gorge – A Gallery of Photos

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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.
Nature, Photo Gallery, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Travel Adventure

Yosemite National Park – A Gallery of Photos

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Click on any image to see a full size version – to continue to see all full size photos use arrows to move through.

“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”

-Ansel Adams

“Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, River of Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the onlooking rocks; things frail and fleeting and types of endurance meeting here and blending in countless forms, as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her.”

-John Muir