Blog

Joyful days

Quote of the day: “Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.” —Albert Einstein Joy is a new bouquet of flowers to photograph and enjoy. Joy is a wonderful pattern of light on a wooden floor. Joy is playing with photos and words. Joy is capturing the perfect expression on a friend’s face. Joy is seeing a Buddha statue in a dormant garden. Joy is washing the dishes mindfully. Joy is breathing in and breathing out. Joy is noticing beauty everywhere I go. Joy is a state of being, not necessarily caused by the circumstances surrounding my life in Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Waiting for spring, a life lesson

…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” —Rainer Maria Rilke Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

The Art of Seeing—Week 6

Quote of the day: “The camera always points both ways. In expressing your subject, you also express yourself.”—Freeman Patterson This week’s exercise was a simple “thinking sideways” activity. The assignment (from Photography and the Art of Seeing) was to lock yourself in the bathroom with your camera, a tripod, and a standard lens (I didn’t use a tripod). Give yourself 20 minutes to make 10 pictures. According to Patterson, the resulting photos, when he has given this exercise to students, have been hilarious and instructive. I found this a challenging activity.  Aside from making funny faces in the mirror or Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Letting go of the reins―entering Wordlessness

Quote of the day: “Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you . . . remember that the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s business . . . even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s business. Leave it to God. It is an astonishing thought. It can become a life-transforming thought . . . unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy . . . What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Going Toward My Best Life

Quote of the day:  “To navigate the wild world, you need to move your basic perceptual and analytical thinking out of your head and into the whole inner space of your body.” —Martha Beck Finding Your Way in a Wild New World Getting out of my head and into my “inner space” is a daily discipline. Some days it’s easy but often it’s devilishly difficult. Old thoughts and old habits recur regularly. Often, I fool myself into thinking that I am operating and making choices from within, but it’s old programs and scripts that are driving me. That’s when books like Read more…

By Marilyn, ago