My source of joy during this entire mess of a year has been the Downtown Greens community garden. No matter when I stop by I am encouraged by the nature of this place.
This Thanksgiving, I’m not counting my blessings or listing things I am grateful for. Instead, I am seeking meaning in all that has happened and embracing my whole messy self. I’m not fine and everything is not always okay, but I see life as worthwhile and often glorious.
Still Life with Peppers
Photography is a beautiful exercise in meditation.
I like the way David of Raptitude presents attentional skills as a recession-proof investment.
“I’m an advocate of Shinzen Young’s way of defining mindfulness, as a combination of three simple attentional skills: concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity.
Concentration is your ability to keep your attention where you want it, the main benefit of which is obvious. Sensory clarity is the ability to discern detail in your sense experience, deepening your enjoyment and understanding of everyday experience. Equanimity is the ability to allow experience to come and go without resistance or clinging.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
A love letter to winter.
I see you coming. The branches nearly bare.
I feel you coming. The chill in the air.
Darkness falls earlier but the morning light is glorious.
I promise to notice your beauty. To steel myself against coldness in body and spirit. To generate warmth for others and embrace the solitude.
To know this season as one of hope. To savor the days rather than wish them away. To take pictures of falling snow.
Every so often I take a picture with hints of something really special. And then I load the picture from camera to computer and no matter how hard I try, I cannot bring my vision forward. In this case, I decided it just wasn’t meant to be and sent the file directly to the trash can. Then today I was reading a post on Don’t Take Pictures—Weekend Reading: Robbie Lawrence. The article featured a book of images and poetry, A Voice Above the Linn. A few of the photographs really pulled me in and I went searching for more images from the book, settling into the work and studing the subtle treatment of the photographs. It’s always the tones that I fall in love with. In looking at the work of Robbie Lawrence, I came across a photograph similar to my image of leaves on the water (image 17/25) in the Fredericksburg Canal. Robbie’s photograph inspired me to take another pass at my own picture. I restored the folder from the recycle bin and tried again.
There is so much in this life I have been wrong about. Tapes that have played in my head that have hurt me and the way I think about others. Biases and beliefs. All turned upside down now. I love it. The chance to start over, to try again. To make it better.