There are no shortcuts on the spiritual path, although many have tried to find one. Learning the lessons the spirit teaches takes time, patience, and perseverance. It requires a sense of discipline. It takes a level of self-awareness that can be difficult, because it requires that we are honest with ourselves. We have to look deeper. We have to study. We have to live a rule of life that never takes love for granted. It is not easy, but it is joyful. The sacred journey may take us up some very steep hills and demand we keep going on even when we are tired, but it shows us the wonder of life along the way and the purpose of life when the day is done.
Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light
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Happy Memorial Day
“To live a spiritual life requires that we choose the values that will ground our hearts, stretch our vision, and give new energy to our hopes.”
Joan Chittister -
Indigenous
“… becoming Indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding SweetgrassI have places inside and outside of the city that are sacred to me. I do not have civil ownership to them but I visit them because this is where I find quiet, solitude and regeneration. I cannot think of one place I visit where the hand of man has not trashed it in some way with beer cans, whiskey bottles, old tires, mattresses, chairs, cigarette butts, etc. It is a sign of how little we know about caring for our world, and those we share this land with or ourselves. I believe the care for the land must start with me.
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Spiritual Practice
The foundation of all spiritual practice is love.
the Dalai Lama
That you practice this well is my only request.My hope is to practice love, as a spiritual practice, and that it’s not just something I preach. Have a great Memorial Weekend!
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Love is…
Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.
Marianne Williamson
It was just after 7:30 am and the morning light on Adriana’s auburn hair was radiating around her! She was in the spotlight. Love is shining on her and in her. She agreed to let me take a shot while she continued to work on her computer. The subject, the light and the moment, all make this image a meaningful moment. Thank you, Adriana.
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Connected to all things
If we look at the Path, we do not
Lakota Seer
see the Sky..
We are Earth People on a
Spiritual Journey through the Stars..
Our Quest, our Earth Walk..
is to look within,
to know who we are,
to see that we are connected
to all things, that there is no separation,
only in the mind!As a young man I spent a lot of time in nature which included walking and riding a bicycle almost everywhere. I spent almost no time in front of a television. I am grateful for that childhood. At some point I attained the coveted drivers license and life took on a new direction. I did less walking and driving and less time in nature. I then began chasing a career that put me in front of a computer, within a cubicle and less time in nature. I began to spend less and less time in nature to the point where I lost a connection to nature. I viewed it as separate from me. More than 20 years ago there was a shift in seeing that we are connected to all things. Getting back into photography and practicing a spiritual life were key elements in that shift. There is a desire within me to have more of that connection and thus the reason this poem strikes a chord with me.
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Spiritual Necessity
“Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.”
Sigurd Olson