This morning on a short walk in my neighborhood I kept seeing
Beauty Everywhere
I looked.
I hadn’t brought my camera with me but I did have my iPhone. So I paused every time some scene of beauty caught my eye and made a photo of it. This is a walk I’ve taken too many times to count. But still as I looked at the weeds and the trees and the wildflowers I found tiny scenes of beauty. In the words of the quote from Still Life in my last blog post, I “turned looking into loving.”
I am consistently impressed with the quality of photos I can make with my phone! Though I enjoy making photographs with my camera immensely it’s also wonderful to be able to use my phone as an instrument of creation as well.
All around me the turning of the season is beginning to become apparent. Some tree leaves are beginning to turn shades or orange, red, and yellow. Flowers are wilting and all that remains sometimes are the seeds that will plant a new generation of beauty.
We cannot rewind the summer and play it again. The world continues to turn on its axis —summer will become fall, fall will become winter, winter will become spring. We cannot stop the sun from rising or setting. But we can determine how we live in all that motion.
— Carrie Newcomer, Newsletter
I am working on staying in the present moment and not wishing to “rewind summer.” Sometimes it is easier than other times. When I stay present and awake every photograph that I make is a prayer of both thanksgiving and praise.
Living Between Effort and Surrender
I don’t know about you but I find that I keep learning the same lessons over and over. Last week I learned again (the hard way!) about the need to balance rest with effort. After several days in a row of lots of activity (house cleaning, walks, balance and agility training, and pilates class) I found myself unable to keep a previously scheduled strength/fitness training duo class with a friend of mine.
Just two weeks before I had decided that I needed to stop trying so hard to do more physical activity and adopt a more balanced approach. Pushing myself was a recipe for pain and illness. But there I was, once again realizing that I had been pushing too hard. Perhaps someday I will find the grace to balance effort and surrender. Or perhaps this is as good as it gets. Either way, all I can do is accept my perfect imperfection and love myself as I am.
The Love Field
Inside the love field
it’s not that problems
disappear, but dealing
with difficulties happens
in an embrace of love.
And since there is no
place or situation that
isn’t pervaded, imbued,
and shot through by love,
it becomes a simple matter
of opening to receive it.
Just as I am, with all
my strengths and
weaknesses writ large,
love is always with me.
I pray not to forget this
when the going gets tough
or the day doesn’t go as
I planned. The love field
is everywhere I am.
— Danna Fields
Sending you loving thoughts and wishes that you learn to embrace all your imperfections along with your gifts.
May you walk in beauty.
Note: all photos in today’s post made with my iPhone (except for the green heron at the edge of the pond).
The View from my Deck Swing
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