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A Beautiful Love Letter to the World

As my amaryllis flowers gift me with their beautiful blooms, winter feels like it has finally arrived in Minnesota. It’s bitterly cold outside today. And I am grateful that we’ve once again escaped the heavy snow that fell south and east of us. It’s great weather for curling up with a good book or for photographing amaryllis flowers. I am currently reading Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, and loving her beautiful essays on nature unfolding in her backyard. Her descriptions of the beauty of the world around her feel like A Beautiful Love Letter to the Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Yes, And…

In meditation, you are encouraged to come back to the breath when you notice that you have drifted into thinking. I used to I say to myself, “Forgiven” when I noticed that I was no longer centered in the present moment (because for a long time I was so hard on myself for not being perfect). But that no longer works for me during meditation because I have (finally!) moved to a place where I feel there is nothing to forgive. Of course thinking happens and my mind drifts into old patterns. That’s why I meditate. Yesterday I noticed that Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Time to Be Slow

These gray days we keep having weigh down my spirit and make me feel like this is a good Time to Be Slow to relax and replenish. No need for to-do lists or busyness. Better to lie low and curl up with a good book. This quiet in-between time is a gift I think, giving my spirit time to relax and replenish. As I sit at my computer and write this morning snow is falling outside. The birds that usually flock to the bird feeders outside my office window are nowhere to be seen. They are nestled in some protected Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Looking and Seeing

The longer I study and practice photography the more that I learn that there is a difference between Looking and Seeing and every person sees the world through a slightly different lens. A photograph is an invitation to look — and to look at looking. Looking and seeing are two different things.     — John Paul Caponigro Before I fell in love with photography I saw the world differently than I see it now. I noticed far less beauty in ordinary scenes. But as I began looking for beauty in the world around me I began to find it everywhere Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

A Gift

This first week of 2024 has been a quiet one for me. I’ve spent a lot of time beginning to plan the  Flower Power workshop that I’m teaching at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts in late February. Every time I teach another photography class I discover the need to learn more deeply about photography myself. It is A Gift to be able to immerse myself so deeply in doing the things that I love. When I dive into seeing and photographing the beauty of this world my life expands to take in all of the beauty, contradictions and paradoxes Read more…

By Marilyn, ago