“One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in.”
-Henry David Thoreau
“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
-Zen Saying
“The force of Spring – mysterious, fecund, powerful beyond measure.”
-Michael Garofalo
Tag Archives: Photography
Walking Meditation
Walking, rambling, wandering in nature, creates an absorbing meditative state. Interconnections are felt as a natural presence and awareness is sharp but relaxed and calm.
Cultivating a mindful state too while walking is restful and peaceful. A day begun in this way sets the energy for all that will follow.
In this calm, meditative state there is also stimulating brain benefits.
Your brain after a walk!
“Wildmind” provides resources for walking meditation. Learn the “how to do it” and the “whys” of walking meditation’s benefits by checking out the link below:
http://www.wildmind.org/walking/why
“In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . . .
Beautifully joyful birdsOn the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.”A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)
May you walk in beauty and calm attention today, breathing sweetness and wonder with every step.
Enjoy the Passage of Time
“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”
-James Taylor
The hurry sickness has left me. The ease of the morning to contemplate life, nature, the day, fulfills a longing to sit with the purity of being here now. Hearing those words, there is a knowing, a real knowledge, that being fully present, attentive, focused, and aware truly does bring peace. The gift of life is acknowledged in these moments – and these moments expand to hours and inform the days.
The house still needs to be cleaned, bills paid, the plants tended… with the awareness of the morning extended, these small tasks take on a sacred feeling. Every movement a prayer. This is not a constant state of course – for me. The periods of time though are extended more and more…. I need so much less to feel full. Less activity, less doing, more be-ing is a grace filled way.
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
-John Lennon
Breathing
“Breathing in I Feel Gratitude…
Breathing out I Give Thanks…
Breathing in I Feel Joyful…
Breathing out I Celebrate…
Breathing in I Know Compassion…
Breathing out I Am Compassion…
Breathing in I Feel Loved
Breathing out I Offer Love…
Breathing in I Am Still…
Breathing out I Am At Peace…
Breathing in I am Enough… “-Aunty Nania, Molokai
Sweet breathing indeed!
*The photo at the top of this post is of Nanaistako, Chief Mountain, a most sacred place of the Blackfeet Nation. It radiates power and masculinity for miles and is quite beautiful in myriad ever changing light blessings and in every season. Love spending time with the Chief.
Thoughts on Rocks – A Gallery of Photos
I have rocks everywhere. In the yard, found unearthed after the winter, stacked, lined up, appreciated where they are, in the house, on windowsills, the desk, tables, in my pockets… These stones in myriad colors and vibrations surround me with a feeling of sustaining nature. There is an embedded remembering of what has happened through time – and is continuing. Quartz crystals help to ensure calm and clarity, colored stones assist in healing, stones with holes in them bring protection… simply holding a stone in your hand can center and calm. Our original peoples consider the Stone People to be holders of history and energy.
When in tune with an environment a stone may come to your attention. Pick it up! It may help bring a calm centering or have a message for you. (*if you’re thinking this is too “woo-woo” nonsense, take a look at the research being done on “memory that will outlast civilization – dimensional memory in crystals”).
“The data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz, which is able to store vast quantities of data for over a million years.
The information encoding is realised in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures.
Fused quartz created from practically pure silica is used as the core component.”
http://www.zdnet.com/superman-crystal-memory-could-outlast-civilization-7000018310/
So here in northwest Montana, I’ll keep looking for and listening to the rocks, carrying them in pockets, and enjoying them around the house. Another of nature’s gifts to be thankful for and to be learned from!
“You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
The Only Prayer
“If the only prayer you ever say is, “thank you”,
it will be enough”.– Meister Eckhart“For all that has been, Thank you!
For all that is to come, Yes!”
-Dag Hammarskjold
Get Into the Forest Again
The forest is a sanctuary, a temple of contemplation, connection and peace. Serenity surrounds with a warm cohesiveness – an encasing womb. Comfort, meditation, life expressing itself, all waiting for our immersion. Honest and raw. Inviting and absorbing. A sweet embrace.
When you can, get into the forest again!
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool unlying life will rush in.”
D.H. Lawrence
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
-John Muir
“We must not always talk in the market-place of what
happens to us in the forest.”
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
“A forest bird never wants a cage.”
-Henrik Ibsen
“When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.”
-Thomas Carlyle
Bryce Canyon National Park – Photo Gallery
Click onto any image to see a full size version – then use right/left arrows to see all photos full size.
From Nile Guide, for travelers by locals website (Bryce Canyon Travel Blog):
1. Interesting fact: Water, ice, and gravity are the natural forces that formed the geological “hoodoos” that make Bryce Canyon unique.
2. Fun fact: This park is named after Ebenezer Bryce, who started ranching the area in 1875. Upon showing the canyons to visitors, he is said to have remarked, “It’s a hell of a place to lose a cow.”
3. Cool fact: Prairie dogs were wiped out from the area in the 1950s. In the 1970s, they were reintroduced.
4. Bryce Canyon’s rocks are among the youngest of those on the Colorado Plateau, dating back a mere 65 million years ago to the Cretaceous period.
5. Interesting fact: Paiute Indian history says the colorful, wildly-shaped hoodoos were “Legend People” who were turned into stone by the trickster god Coyote.
6. Fun fact: On a clear day, visibility from Bryce Canyon can exceed 100 miles.
7. Cool fact: Most rural parts of the U.S. have 2500 stars visible on any given clear night. At Bryce Canyon, that number jumps to a whopping 7500. Currently, these essential remaining dark night skies are being threatened by mining in the nearby community of Alton. The mining will potentially adversely affect the clear skies. It is a hugely contentious situation.
8. There are 400 hardy plant species in this high desert environment.
9. Cool fact: Lions and foxes and bears, oh my! Foxes, mountain lions, and black bears inhabit Bryce Canyon, although they are rarely seen.
10. Bryce Canyon is situated along the southeastern rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The word paunsaugunt comes from the Paiute Indian language. It means place or home of the beavers.
11. Geological fact: Bryce Canyon isn’t actually a canyon. It’s actually a natural amphitheater.
12. Weird fact: Marmots, a high-elevation mammal found here, are often called “rockchucks” by the local population.
Night Music
There are places where you can love the night. Under the big sky, when cares are far away, as calm peace absorbs the day. Stars to get lost in, time does not work as when sunshine warms. Alone with yourself. The dog breathing. The stars and night breathing too. And the trees. The moon hidden.
Night wonders deep and satisfying.
“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”
-D.H. Lawrence
“What hath night to do with sleep?”
-John Milton – Paradise Lost
“Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere, cloudcover thick
I try to stay
just above the surface,
yet I’m already under
and living with the ocean”
-Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.”
-Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace
“The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark. Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb-time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.”
-John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Here’s to the night and the promise of a new day dawning…
(written at 3am!)
May Day!
Singing with the flowers, feeling the forest’s music, listening for raven song. Seeing connections large and small. May is sure to be filled with simple pleasures that are deeply fulfilling.
Unfolding, evolving, expanding, deep breathing earth mirrors our own journey through the season.
A “cross-quarter day” of importance in Celtic festivals this day was also the first day of Summer in early European history. An important marking of time is this day!
Dances, singing and cake are part of the official celebration of this first day of May, May Day, across our planet – a spring holiday for many, I hope you too will celebrate Spring, flowers, nature, life and connections with cake, singing and dancing!
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”
-Robert Brault
“May you live all the days of your life.”
-Jonathan Swift
