Weekly Photo Challenge: Focus

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
– Ansel Adams

Sometimes silence is the only response to beauty
Sometimes silence is the only response to beauty

 

Be At Peace

Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.

– Natalie Goldberg

Be at peace with all who surround you
Be at peace with all who surround you

For Dappled Things

Today I share an image of Sister Adele Rowland, OP, one of our sisters. She was famous for her work in photography, particularly Photo Montage. This particular image was created in 1978, long before the advent of Photoshop; she did her creative work in the darkroom, with film, and with slides. I am including an article about her from The Petaluma Post. This particular image is entitled For Dappled Things; Sister surely had Gerard Manly Hopkins poem in mind when she created it.

For Dappled Things, by Sister Adele Rowland, OP
For Dappled Things, by Sister Adele Rowland, OP

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple
upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow,
and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle
and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled
(who kows how?”
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers – forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise [God].

– Gerard Manley Hopkins

God’s Presence Fills Creation

grand_street_dahlia

Holy One of Blessing, Your Presence fills creation.

– Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Wisdom from a Dominican Mystic – Meister Eckhart

Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.

– Meister Eckhart, Dominican mystic of the 13th century

The dahlia: an outburst of glorious compassion
The dahlia: an outburst of glorious compassion

Delighting Ourselves in God

Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee, for Thou has formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.

– St. Augustine of Hippo

And what could delight us more than Mt. Tam in the morning?
And what could delight us more than Mt. Tam in the morning?

Seeking God

lake_phoenix_bridgeGod guides those who seek [God’s] good pleasure into the ways of peace, bringing them out from the shadows into the light by {God’s] act of will and guiding them into a straight path.

The Qur’an

Are We in Tune with the Eternal?

It is an ecological, theological, and biological reality: The more we are in tune with eternal nature, the more we will be able to hear the still small voice withing and have explosions of inspirational insight.

– Dr. Rober Schuller

afternoon sky

Wisdom from Dag Hammarskjold

pres_ctr_los_gatos_trailThe longest journey is the journey inward.

– Dag Hammarskjold

Weekly Photo Challenge: Carefree

How many of you remember that wonderful song by Gordon Lightfoot, “Carefree Highway?”

Carefree highway, let me slip away on you.
Carefree highway, you seen better days.
The mornin’ after blues from my head down to my shoes –
Carefree highway, let me slip away,
Slip away on you.

Carefree Highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree Highway, let me slip away on you

In case you’d like to hear the song,
here is the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa9XVvMtBVk