What Do You See?

How do we find beauty in a place like Alcatraz?
How do we find beauty in a place like Alcatraz?

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.

– Confucius

Weekly Photo Challenge: Golden Hour

No matter the hour, this surfer certainly considers this moment to be golden
No matter the hour, this surfer certainly considers this moment to be golden

It is said that the best times to photograph landscape is during the “golden hour”, that magical time near dawn or dusk when the sun’s light adds a special magical light to all. The bright sunlight that we experience later in the day can appear a bit harsher, and the results through the camera’s eye, not quite so pleasing.

Nonetheless, there are times when the only time we have available to us to take a picture is the time we are given.

How like life!

We might think we could live a more full life . . . we could live more compassionately . . . we could be more fulfilled . . . if only . . .

If only the time was right . . .
If only we were more prepared . . .
If only we felt better . . .
If only we had the right degree, right position, right mate . . .

How many are waiting for the “golden hour” instead of seizing this moment now to live the life God called us to?

Now is the Golden Hour.

Wisdom from the Medieval Mystic

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw God in all things and all things in God.

– Mechtild of Magdeburg

Mechtild a Beguine, was a medieval mystic, who lived c. 1207 – c. 1282/1294.

One wonders how the thistle was ever discovered to be edible! Is it anymore difficult to find God there?
One wonders how the thistle was ever discovered to be edible! Is it anymore difficult to find God there?

Permeated with God

Reality is permeated, indeed flooded, with divine creativity, nourishment, and care.

– Marcus J. Borg, Conflict, Holiness, and Politics

Permeated with Divine Creativity
Permeated with Divine Creativity

How Much Do You Value Freedom? Whose Freedom?

Unfortunately these zebra are not free. I have mixed feelings about zoos. What about you?
Unfortunately these zebra are not free. I have mixed feelings about zoos. What about you?

All good things are wild, and free.

– Henry David Thoreau

Why do we prefer to contain them?

Heart Touching Words of Rumi

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What draws you?

– Jalaluddin Rumi Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks

Wise Words from The Buddha

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Let us share our light so that others can find the next step.

If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.

– The Buddha

Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgia

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.
― Marcel Proust

Sometimes it's difficult to even imagine things as they were.
Sometimes it’s difficult to even imagine things as they were.

Breathe – Just Breathe

The whole universe is breathing as our breath; we limit the process by our assumption that we are doing the breathing.

– Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom

I like to think, sometimes, when meditating that I am not so much breathing, as being breathed.

Breathe. Just breathe.
Breathe. Just breathe.

A Thought to Remember in the Dry Passes of Our Lives

I am always amazed at flowers blooming in the desert
I am always amazed at flowers blooming in the desert

Dryness promotes the formation of flower buds…flowering is, after all, not an aesthetic contribution, but a survival mechanism.

– Ann Haymond Zwinger, The Mysterious Lands