Tag Archives: Photography

Sweet Breathing

Crater Lake – A Gallery of Photos

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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…

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.
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I Am Light

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Words and Song by India Arie

You can listen to her sweet clear voice here:

“I Am Light
I am light, I am light, I am light

I am not the things my family did
I am not the voices in my head
I am not the pieces of the brokenness inside

I am light, I am light, I am light, I am light

I’m not the mistakes that I have made or any of the things that caused me pain
I am not the pieces of the dream I left behind

I am light, I am light, I am light, I am light

I am not the color of my eyes
I am not the skin on the outside
I am not my age, I am not my race, my soul inside is all light

All light, all light, all light, all light
I am light, I am light, I am light, I am light

I am divinity defined
I am the God on the inside
I am a star, a piece of it all
I am light”

Sweet Breathing

Meditations on Summer – A Gallery of Photos

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(*You can click onto any individual image to see a full size version, and then click the right hand arrow to see all images in full size.)

“The summer night is like a perfection of thought.”

-Wallace Stevens

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

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Sweet Breathing

Everything Real

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Sometimes you read something that resonates as if you had written it yourself!  When I read this quote it was surely one of those times.

I think Victoria and I would get along famously!

*I’d have to add books and wine though!

“I just want to live in a world of mountains,

coffee, campfires, cabins and golden trees,

and run round with a camera and a notebook,

learning the inner workings of everything real.”

-Victoria Erickson

My living with coffee, campfires, cabins, golden trees, cameras and a notebook represented in photos below.  Living the dream… (you can click onto any image for a full size version, then hit the arrow to see each image in turn).

Sweet Breathing

Grace

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May we be unified in Grace…

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
-Anne Lamott
“Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.”
-Pope Francis
“For me, every hour is grace.”

-Elie Wiesel

“Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Sweet Breathing

To Be Found

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“The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the center of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.”

-Margaret Atwood

Sweet Breathing

You Are This Flower

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“The breath is coming in and out now, whether you believe you are worthy of it or not.

The earth is unconditionally supporting you. She is holding you whether you believe you deserve to be held or not. Rest in her presence.

The breath will be gone at some point, usually much sooner than we’d all like. Breathe deeply now. Breathing is only now. There is no “breathing in the future.”

“No matter what is happening in your life – maybe you have lost hope, you’re confused, your heart is broken, or an old dream has died. Or even if you’re experiencing some joy, some peace, if things are going okay. It is not an ordinary moment. It is never ordinary inside your heart.

The only thing we know for sure is that we will be returned to the vastness soon. Let us not forget what is most important, never apologize for the yearning in our hearts, and not wait any longer to be fully here.

Let us renew the vow we once made to not abandon ourselves, our emotions, our vulnerability, our bodies, our sensitivity. With the sun, the moon, and the stars as our witness, we will no longer pathologize pure feeling and the longing that has been placed inside us.

Let us take a risk on this new day, like a flower who cannot hold back any longer from erupting with color, with fragrance, with life, with her song. You are this flower. Attune to what is truly happening here. This world needs you now more than ever. Please don’t forget what you are.”

-Matt Licata