• landscape,  mountains,  National Parks,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Sunrise at Foothills Parkway

    Sunrise on Foothills Parkway in the Smoky Mountains

    In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy skips and dances down a yellow brick road in hopes of finding the Wizard of Oz who will help her return home to Kansas. Traveling that yellow brick road lead her to new horizons, discovering her gifts of wisdom, courage, and love. I like to think of Dorothy’s yellow brick road as a metaphor of our spiritual journey to new horizons.

    Some of us live in the shadow of an illusionary self, a false-self that alienates us from reality, much of this world and a Creator. We can be blind to the possibility of the horizons yet to be discovered, paralyzed with fear, failing to venture forward on our yellow brick road and discover our gifts of wisdom, courage, and love, which I choose to call our true-self.

    “May we seek this inward path to encounter the true-self, the essence of who we are, and allow ourselves to be embraced by love.”

  • grass,  gratitude,  landscape,  leaves,  Plants,  sunrises

    Living in Gratitude

    The sun rising on a November morning

    “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” Meister Eckhart

    On Tuesday I heard of separate tragedies that ripped the lives of two families apart. I’m unable to put my feelings into words. So, after my prayer and meditation I bundled up, grabbed my camera and headed to the bus stop. A spirit of gratitude began to arise with each step I took. I no longer was aware of the cold but yet very present to the moment. I began to see so much of the world around me and not just with a photographer’s eyes. Today the sun arose on both those families but their lives will never be the same. Yes, I’m living in gratitude.

  • fog,  landscape,  lifestyles,  sunrises

    Thoughts on journaling.

    Morning sunrise and fog on the farm

    This habit of journaling has become an integral part of my life, a daily practice. I carry both a fountain pen (3) and a journal every day. At the end of the day there may only be a paragraph and some days a couple pages. There are days I just stare at empty pages because the words I’m seeking are hiding somewhere in those blank spaces or because of my busy mind I’m unable hear them. At other times a gem appears, a thought or insight. At some point in time I began journaling by first asking for words, desiring the gifts they are. There also was an awareness that these journals are now more of a letter, a prayer and a conversation with the inner essence of who I am. They are no longer called my journals but our journals. I also journal slowly and write in cursive to give the journals an artistic look, make them readable and at the same time it slows down my mind which creates another form of meditation for me. Anyway, these are some rambling thoughts on journaling.

  • clouds,  fog,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Simply being alive…

    Morning sunrise and fog along the Poudre River

    “What we have named as anger on the surface is the violent outer response to our own inner powerlessness, a powerlessness connected to such a profound sense of rawness and care that it can find no proper outer body or identity or voice, or way of life to hold it. What we call anger is often simply the unwillingness to live the full measure of our fears or of our not knowing, in the face of our love for a wife, in the depth of our caring for a son, in our wanting the best, in the face of simply being alive and loving those with whom we live.”  David Whyte, Consolations

    Had a friend share how they enjoyed the writings of David Whyte, an English poet. So I bought and read his book Consolations and have enjoyed it. At this time of my life much of what he writes in this book has touched something within me. I read more now but not everything I read resonates with me and I no longer expect that from an author. What I like is when the author makes me think. I can read something and hear an “Aaahh” come out of my mouth then a need to read it again. It may be how they say something rather than what they say. Or, they use a word that sets their thought or idea apart. His writings have done that for me. At this stage/age of my life reading is one of the keys helping me to awaken to simply being alive. 

  • landscape,  mountains,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Something from the Past

    This is another HDR image from a trip back in 2003 to the Great Smoky Mountains. It is a sunset image taken on the Foothills Parkway. This image is a merging of three images exposed plus and minus 2/3 stop. I took it prior to any knowledge of HDR. My reason for the multiple exposures was to make sure I had a good exposure. It was taken with my first DSLR, a Nikon D100 and the Nikon 80-400mm lens. It wasn’t a day or two later that I dropped that lens and destroyed it. I pretty much bent it in the middle. Lesson learned was to make sure the camera and lens are securely fastened to your tripod before picking up your tripod. I ended up shooting the rest of the trip with one lens, a Sigma 24-85mm f2.8-4.0 lens.

  • Black and White,  coffee shops,  sunrises

    Rereading

    Morning sunrise at a local coffee shop

    “A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” Steven PressfieldDo the Work

    I’ve been rereading a couple of Steven Pressfield’s books on creating art and what stops us from being creative. Thus the quote above.

  • coffee shops,  lifestyles,  sunrises

    Morning Chai

    Finally, this morning had that feeling of spring. This was taken from the patio of Bindles Coffee. A few minutes earlier the sky was red and pink as I drove to the coffee shop. I took this image before I went in. It was quiet with few people when I got here but it has quickly become busy and noisy. I will attribute that to the beautiful morning and the feel of spring.

    On cold mornings they turn on the gas fire pit and people will sit around to discuss the world’s woes or how their child is doing on the soccer team. My drink of choice this morning was a chai latte. Perfect.