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Planting the Seeds for Joy

This has been a tough couple of weeks for me health-wise. And it’s not clear to me when or if it will resolve. There are many unknowns and perhaps much that is ultimately unknowable. A part of me wants to figure it all out, and fix it. But perhaps the only real fix is to learn to live a full life within the constraints of my physical body in each moment. So today I am working on Planting the Seeds for Joy in my life just as it is. How do I do that? My first choice today was to Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Simple Grace

Yesterday I changed the wallpaper on my phone. I’ve had the same photograph of migrating monarch butterflies on it since I first bought the phone. But I decided to make a small change and picked a blue sky photograph with treetops and puffy white clouds that I made with my phone camera on a walk last week. What a piece of Simple Grace that has brightened my days! It was such a little thing to do. But every time I pick up my phone and see that beautiful blue sky I feel like smiling. It’s not a spectacular or special Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Seeking the Holy

When I go out for walks with my camera I feel as if I am Seeking the Holy that is hiding in plain sight in the world. I find it equally in wild pockets of plants along the path and in cultivated gardens along the way. This morning I discovered a Wild Altar along the path where I often walk — a little still life created by nature that I found beautiful and meaningful. There was a small tuft of white fur alongside some drying leaves, sticks, and mottled clover leaves. The scene is nothing and everything at the same Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

From This

I’ve been playing around with iPhone photos of scenes I see along my short daily walks. And I’m enthralled with a technique that takes photos From This (see top photo) To This (see photo below) The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear I came upon an area beside the path with numerous tall dead plants that had lost all their leaves. The plants were surrounded with other plants with various shaped, colored and textured leaves. And there was Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Carefully and Slowly

Between an acute episode of vertigo with associated balance issues and a very sore left hip I’ve been moving very Carefully and Slowly for a couple of days. The world-spinning vertigo is gone now, and I no longer feel the balance issues that had me grabbing onto the wall or anything else solid along my path. But my right ear still feels funny and if I move suddenly I feel a bit off balance. I also notice balance issues when I try to look through the viewfinder of my camera. It has been a reminder of how quickly things can Read more…

By Marilyn, ago