“Don’t just do something. Stand there.”
Daniel Berrigan
I like this saying because for too many years I thought it was more important to do something than to stand there and take it all in. Have a wonderful Sunday!!
Stand there
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Coneflowers at the CSU Trial Gardens -
You Have the Answer
Prairie Blazing Star At the center of your being
Lao Tzu
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.Prairie Blazing Star is a hardy native perennial forb. It can grow up to 5 feet tall. It has abundant grass like leaves and hairy stems. The lowest leaves can be well over 1 foot long and up to ½ inch wide. The flower heads are in a dense spike at the top of the plant and bloom top-down. The stamens and styles protrude from the tufted flower heads creating a soft fuzzy appearance. It is one of the most popular varieties of blazing stars. It is native to the midwest where it naturally occurs on prairies, rocky bluffs and open areas. It prefers slightly acidic, poor, well-drained soils and demonstrates both heat and drought tolerance. They are common in all the natural areas I visit. I haven’t seen one 5 feet tall, yet. Hope you had a good Monday.
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Leaves
For all the great thoughts I have read
Steven Charleston, Spirit Wheel
For all the deep books I have studied
None has brought me near to spirit
Than a walk beneath shimmering leaves.My walks over the past few days have been cooler and wet. The much needed moisture and a break from the heat is welcomed. I love walking in nature especially when green leaves are covered in dew from the mist. I was awakened during the night as thunder shook my room and rain tapped on my windows. I did not sleep well after that. This morning has been sunny but more storms later this afternoon. I also got in a nice bicycle ride while the weather was good. I will attend a friends retirement party this afternoon and probably overeat, again. Suspect a nap after that!! Enjoy your weekend!
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Things are wet
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.
Henry David ThoreauThings are wet. And, because of that photo opportunities were everywhere. So, I took my camera with me to get the mail yesterday afternoon. And by doing that I stayed present as I’ve learned there is no other life but this. No mail but I did return with a few images that depict our weather condition. Even has a tinge of fall to it.
So I had an enjoyable, serene, quiet time of prayer and meditation this morning. Then a half hour later burst out in profanity at my phone. Shows I am a work in progress. It is a cold, humid, and misty morning. It’s the perfect morning for an Old Town Mocha at Mugs and made by my barista, Emily. Have a wonderful Friday!
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The Gifts of Other Beings
Gratitude is founded on the deep knowing that our very existence relies on the gifts of other beings.
Robin Wall KimmererLatest news this morning shows the Alexander Mountain FIre to be held at 9,668 acres and is 74% contained. The Stone Canyon Fire is 100% contained. Grateful the skies are returning to their blue color! I found this bee enjoying their time on a sunflower the other afternoon at the CSU Experiment Garden. I really need to thank them more often for being the gift they are and not just as a photographer’s subject.
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Serenity
Solitude… is what sustains me and protects me from my mind. It renders me fully present. I am desert. I am mountains. I am Great Salt Lake. There are other languages being spoken by wind, water, and wings. There are other lives to consider: avocets, stilts, and stones. Peace is the perspective found in patterns. When I see ring-billed gulls picking on the flesh of decaying carp, I am less afraid of death. We are no more and no less than the life that surrounds us. My fears surface in my isolation. My serenity surfaces in my solitude.
Terry Tempest WilliamsThe Oxford Dictionary defines solitude as: the state or situation of being alone. I relate to her quote because there are times when enjoying my coffee life, surrounded by people in conversations, baristas foaming milk, and piped music, I can feel isolated. A major contrast to the city’s natural areas which provides a place for me to be in solitude. Yet, I am never really alone as I am surrounded by plants, birds, animals, clouds, and people, who add their presence and sounds to my solitude. So, while I’m in solitude with nature, I too find serenity. Happy Friday!
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A Great Poem
“Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
Walt WhitmanAnd why not? How many of us will or have said I’m an engineer, a doctor, a salesman, a photographer, a Buddhist, a poet. Or worse yet? How many of us are told that we’re a sinner, or stupid, or too short, or worthless, and believed it. Maybe Whitman’s right, we will be a great poem or even prayer or maybe a saint, when we listen to the voice of our own soul.
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The Sadness of the Zoo
“We are moving into a period of bewilderment, a curious moment in which people find light in the midst of despair, and vertigo at the summit of their hopes. It is a religious moment also, and here is the danger. People will want to obey the voice of Authority, and many strange constructs of just what Authority is will arise in every mind… The public yearning for Order will invite many stubborn uncompromising persons to impose it. The sadness of the zoo will fall upon society.”
Leonard Cohen
