• clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Seeing the World

    February 3, 2025

    Allow yourself to be like a child, seeing the world through fresh eyes. Instead of trying to control life by making sense of it, embrace ambiguity and paradox as being the domain of the truest things.

    Mirabai Starr

    I’ve come to realize we can only experience the world when we are a part of it. Seeing it with fresh eyes. Feeling the cold. Listening to the silence. Smelling the tangy fragrance of pine. Watching the clouds constantly change shape. Realizing how a small a part we are within the cosmos. So, even at my age I desire to be childlike but not childish, seeing the world with fresh eyes, embracing ambiguity and paradoxes and letting go of the need to know the answers!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  poetry,  quotes,  sunrises

    I believe…

    February 2, 2025
    Pineridge Natural Area – December 2020

    I have made it through some hard times in my life.
    I imagine you have too.

    Looking back, I can honestly say
    That in more than one of those times
    I was not sure I would make it.

    The presence of a living and conscious love
    Got me through.
    I can only call it Spirit.
    So my faith is not the product of an emotional need
    Or an intellectual imagining.

    I believe because I know. Because I have been there.
    Because of my experience.

    I cannot convince others of this truth.
    I can only share it and wait to see
    The light of memory in their eyes.

    Steven Charleston

    I believe in the presence of a living and conscious love
    because I, too, have been there and experienced it.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  meditation,  natural areas,  silence,  sunrises

    I am grateful!

    January 28, 2025

    Meditation is the attempt to provide the soul with the proper environment in which to grow and become.

    Morton T. Kelsey

    As the quote suggests I’ve come to believe that starting each morning with a meditation time provides my soul with the proper environment in which to grow and become. But, I also include my time in nature as part of my meditation. The beauty, serenity, and silence of a sunrise and being able to share it, does something to my soul, just as the twenty minutes sitting on a zafu cushion does. And, both of these experiences are the perks in my retirement years and for being an early riser. I am grateful!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    Watching the Changes

    January 6, 2025
    Predawn at Pineridge Natural Area – 28 sec at f 22.0 and ISO 200

    It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not. We need to learn to appreciate the value of impermanence.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    Nature is a good teacher of about impermanence. If we watch closely nature is always in flux. In this scene the movement of the clouds is blurred during a 28 second exposure. Yet, as we stand and observe this scene we are not necessarily aware of the subtle changes with them. I now enjoy taking the time to watch the changes as they happen. I took a total of eight images from this same spot and each one is subtly different. Photography has and is helping me learn to appreciate the value of impermanence. It looks like much of the nation is dealing with wintry weather. So stay warm, be safe!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  sunrises

    The Last Sunrise

    December 31, 2024
    Last sunrise for this year at Pineridge Natural Area

    A cool 20 degrees and clear skies this morning to end the year. I got up early so I could watch the predawn colors over Dixon Reservoir at Pineridge Natural Area. So beautifully quiet up there. An owl would hoot once in a while, giving notice, or warning, of their presence. I took a few photos of the subtle colors. When my hands got cold I headed to Mugs for an Old Town mocha made by Adrianna.

    I’m not much of a New Years celebration type of guy. And, I have never been one to make new year’s resolutions, probably because I’m not good at keeping them or remembering them. I’m practicing a way of life where each day is an opportunity to step over a new threshold into a world of experiences and lessons. No better gift than that! When I don’t plan tomorrow I will not be disappointed and more apt to enjoy life’s surprises! However, I may gather with friends early this evening and hopefully be sound asleep by nine. I assume that’s due to age and wisdom (those lessons learned)!! May your coming year be full of unimaginable gifts and may you and your families be healthy. Thank you for your presence and comments on my blog this past year.

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  • landscape,  quotes,  silence,  sunrises

    Meeting the Sunrise

    December 29, 2024

    One of the things that makes you feel good is to get out into nature—go walking, go hiking, go swimming in the ocean, or wherever you live, in a river or a lake, experience the beauty of America, experience how America is such a sacred place. Everywhere you go in this land, our people have been there and they have said, “This place is sacred.”

    Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman)
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  • landscape,  nature,  quotes,  sunrises

    Sunrise over the farm

    December 28, 2024

    We have always preferred to believe that the spirit of God is not breathed into humans alone, but that the whole created universe shares in the immortal perfection of its maker.

    Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman)

    This morning’s drive to meet Eric was a gift. The predawn colors began as pink, shifting to red then orange before the sun burst over the horizon. About all I could do was stand there and smile. Actually, let’s call it more of a grin! It’s mornings like this that make my aches and pains of aging and where I somehow find the gumption to brave the cold, all worthwhile. So, I watched the predawn colors, listened to the silence, then witnessed the sunrise over the farm. A wonderful start to my day. May you enjoy your weekend!

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  • Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    I usually learn something

    December 26, 2024
    Sunrise at Arapaho Bend Natural Area – March 2013

    We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.

    Chief Joseph

    Seems to me a lot of mankind needs to unlearn this idea of quarreling over God. At least it would be one less thing for us to quarrel about. I know in my life when I stopped defending my opinion and listened to the other, I usually learn something I needed to learn.

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