Category Archives: Sweet Breathing

Sweet Breathing

Enough

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Is it enough to be you, as you are right now?  Is it enough to be present and not consumed by doing?  Is it enough not to need anything?

This video by “The Mrs” examines self image, and the book I just finished, “The Map of Enough” ponders what it may look like to be satisfied with now – with where you live, what you have and who you are…

Map of Enough

 

As the New Year of 2015 moves closer, I am examining this concept of enough.

Thankful for all that is and being present to this gratitude is enough more and more of the time.

The fullness comes from the inner gifts, never from outer appearances.  From the wildness and completeness of nature, and not from those things that are contrived.  From present moments and not busyness.   From awareness.  From taking a long sweet breath of life, as it is, now.

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

“There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it.”
― Vanna Bonta, Shades Of The World

“The only true thing is what’s in front of you right now.”
― Ramona Ausubel, No One is Here Except All of Us

Andrew's Trail in Snow

Sweet Breathing

Rise Like the Sun and Burn

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 Welcome Back the Sun!!

On this beautiful winter solstice day the myriad gifts of the warm and nurturing Sun are acknowledged.

There is thankfulness for the grace in the giving.  Appreciation too for the countless ways we are sustained and lifted up by the radiance.

Now, even as winter settles in, the hours of sunlight grow longer and we have the potential with each day for more luminance and warmth, accelerating inner growth and deepening.

Roots reach for depths unexplored.

The knowledge that the sun lengthens its shining each day allows for a serene, restful absorption of the season. No need to yearn for Spring.  It is coming. .. In the meantime, the present of winter is to be savored.  Deep snow and long nights.  Love and light.  Dark mornings by candlelight.  Warm fires.  Good books. Snowshoe walks.  Life.

January 27

“The day will be what you make it,

so rise,

like the sun,

and burn.”

-William C. Hannan

Sunrise, Snow, Treeview

“…the Persian savior Mithra, who, as an incarnation of eternal light, was born on the night of winter solstice.”

-Joseph Campbell

Sunrise on Beach, Amelia Island

 

 

Sweet Breathing

Sanctuary & Shelter

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What is it about barns?  They just draw you in…

Barn in the Snow copy

 

Creating a bridge between the landscape and the humans who inhabit the land, barns provide a place of sanctuary and shelter, where hay is stored, cows are milked, and little furry babies are born.   The photos are of Montana barns with one exception.  The first photo below is from the West Virginia land where my Dad was born, and where my Grandparents farmed and made their life.  My Dad grew up on this land. I remember my Grandfather there in that barn, milking the cows and giving squirts of that fresh milk to the kittens that gathered.   There were horses in the field, chickens roaming, a big garden, wheat, pigs in the pen.  My Grandfather built this barn and it was a work of structural genius.

From a frosted October sunrise, this is Grandpa’s barn.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA Barn & Mountain Big Mountain, Horses & Red Barn, January

Shed with Mountain

 

Sweet Breathing

The Poor, The Poets and Monks

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“I stand before you tonight to represent the people who do not count: The poor, the poets, and monks. As long as there are people who are trying to realize the divine in themselves, there shall be hope in the world.”

—Thomas Merton

Prayer Flags2

Thomas Merton distills the experience of being human in this life.  He was a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.

As a writer, poet, activist and continual student of comparative religion, he wrote timeless words that continue to resonate and teach.  The quote above is from the closing he gave to an interfaith conference in Calcutta in 1968.  Thomas Merton transitioned from this life a few days after he spoke these words.

Young Monk