Chances

"If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances."

- Julia Sorel

Insignificant

"When made frustrated and fretful by small cares, look up at the sky, the stars, and see how insignificant our troubles really are."

- Unknown

Worry...

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength''

-Corrie Ten Boom

It begins with imagination

Imagine from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.

Two Options

But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us--if only we were worthy of it. ~Edward Abbey 

It seems to me there are only two options, silently allow the endless destruction to continue or do something about it. We each have gifts, we each have a voice, it's time to use them...or passively enjoy the soulless, man-made world that is being creating around us...when the Earth suffers, we suffer, even on the most subtle psychological levels...there is no reason we can't all enjoy a healthy and happy environment and life on this planet, we have an amazing amount of knowledge and resources, but we sure are having problems letting go of archaic ways of thinking and taking ourselves to that place. I truly don't understand it.

Day vs Life

I came across this and realized how important it is for me to remember it. Personally, when I have a bad day, I can fall into a spiraling mood of frustration that begins to permeate all my thoughts and situations. It can spread like wildfire for no reason. Just because one thing or a few things aren't how I want them, or they don't go as planned, or a day causes me frustration, anger or sadness, there's no reason to let that invade the rest of me. There are always many things to be thankful for, to enjoy and be happy for. It's especially important for me to remember this when I am having a "bad day."

Happy Solstice

http://www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/snowflakes.html

December 21, 2011

 9-15 inches of snow predicted in the canyon this Solstice. 

Decided to take a few shots of the beautiful snowflakes as they just started to fall today. 

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together. ~Vesta Kelly

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

~Henry David Thoreau

Winter Reflections

"The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued."

by Robert Frost (1923)

Now is the time to honor the winter season that is upon us. Her cold and dark gives us the opportunity to face challenge, to persevere, to look inward, focus on the mind and honor nature's most difficult aspects.  While not so true with today's modern conveniences, winter used to be a time of survival and overcoming difficulty and challenge. Through our obstacles, we learn, grow and evolve. I remind myself to honor this, remembering my ancestors who survived through winter with little other than their own determination, will and strength. I choose to honor this within myself, spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. I see winter as a time to reflect, to stimulate the mind, body and soul with warmth and growth. A time to reflect inward and give thanks, a time to honor and respect nature and realize that balance is essential to survive and thrive. For the winter snow brings the source of life as spring and summer thaws her frozen crystals. 

Below are some wintry photos from my time living in the Colorado mountains

The sun travels low on the horizon

I'm taken deep inside

shades of white and grey pervade

until the sun fills the skies so wide

a silence like no other

from the blanket of snow below

fills the air and brings a peace 

that only the soul can know

underneath the layers of snow

awaits a beautiful world

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"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

~ Anne Bradstreet

And this is what I wait for every year. One of the most beautiful places on Earth. The colorful flowers, the deep green grass, and the serenely flowing waterfalls do something to my soul that no other place can do. All thanks to the nine months of snow that hold this Alpine regions in it's grip for so long. Once it melts, it feeds the Earth and she supplies one of the most spectacular places of beauty and grandeur...

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”

~Yoko Ono

Pause

Life is a luminous pause between two great mysteries, which themselves are one.
~ Carl Jung

Web of Miracles

We All Need to Work to Preserve Our Wonderful World

Matrix

Our present urgency is to recover a sense of the primacy of the Universe as our fundamental context, and the primacy of the Earth as the matrix from which life has emerged and on which life depends. Recovering this sense is essential to establishing the framework for mutually enhancing human-Earth relations for the flourishing of life on the planet.

~Thomas Berry

Within

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

~Albert Camus

Heart and Mind

Achievements