Blog

Emergence and Awe

Seeing beauty, finding beauty, and photographing beauty has led me to experience Emergence and Awe more and more of the time. The fact that we are living on this beautiful blue planet circling our sun at just the right distance to allow life to emerge fills me with awe, wonder, and gratitude. The whole idea of emergence fills me with awe. Where did everything come from? For what purpose? When I consider the number stars in the sky and the size of the universe I cannot comprehend it all. Emergence of ever more complex structures seems to be programmed into Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Being Here Now

As January winds to a close and the weather forecast predicts frigid temperatures in the next few days, I am concentrating on Being Here Now without judging or wanting things to be different. I’ve said it before — I don’t like winter. But here I am in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Most of the time I think it’s worth it to live here, because the rest of the year here is so beautiful. Heck, even winter is astonishingly beautiful. Still sometimes I struggle with wanting to escape winter or wishing for milder weather. I think the message is Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Slowing Down

After days of working on my first hand-made sample book and other projects last week, this week I’m feeling like Slowing Down and spending some time simply being present and quiet. My body is feeling a little achy and tired and my mind is feeling fuzzy and slow. Snow is falling outside my office window (still/again/seemingly forever) and the skies are gray. Fortunately, though it’s been snowing most of the day, very little has accumulated. Thank goodness for small blessings! I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life.― Mary Oliver This morning I read, Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Green Get-away

Today Jon and I headed to the Como Park Conservatory for a morning walk and Green Get-away It was beautiful, though there were lots of people there, too many for me to really slow down and make serious photographs. I find that I need a lot of alone time to truly pay attention when I photograph, otherwise I simply don’t see the world the way that I want to see it. Still, I enjoyed being surrounded by green. My heart soared inhaling the scent of flowers and green things in the air. And my senses basked with the gentle touch Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Visual Prayer

It struck me today that the photographs that I make and share are a kind of Visual Prayer My photographs are not about words. They are about feelings of gratitude, wonder, grace, and mystery. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. — Mary Oliver When I pause and look—really look—at the world around me, I cannot help Read more…

By Marilyn, ago