(Colorado River. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.)
Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.
~ Mary Ann Brussat
Portals & Pathways
An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed with beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a person. Enchantment may be a state of rapture and ecstasy in which the soul comes to the foreground, and the literal concerns of survival and daily preoccupation at least momentarily fade into the background.
~ Thomas Moore
Every exit is . . . an entrance somewhere else.
~ Tom Stoppard
As we grow old … the beauty steals inward.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
(On the road to Estes Park. Photo © 2009 by Robin)
We are not going around in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral.
~ Hermann Hesse
(Feeling small. Photo © 2009 by Robin)
Sometimes during the day, I consciously focus on some ordinary object and allow myself a momentary “paying-attention.” This paying-attention gives meaning to my life. I don’t know who it was, but someone said that careful attention paid to anything is a window into the universe. Pausing to think this way, even for a brief moment, is very important. It gives quality to my day.
~ Robert Fulghum
More photos and a bit about this morning’s hike at Life in the Bogs.
(Path at the back of the pond. November 2008.)
Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult…
~ Og Mandino
You can find the music here.
The photo above was taken a couple of weeks ago. It looks nothing like that outside now.
(Today’s view of the pond and visitors.)
The ducks are back, and the pond is starting to freeze. I guess that means we won’t be avoiding winter this year.
I think the wooly bear may have been wrong.
(Doorway into the woods. October 2008. Photo © Robin)
When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.
~ Joseph Campbell
(Longwood Gardens pathway. Photo by Robin. 2007)
The secret of life is in the shadows and not in the open sun; to see anything at all, you must look deeply into the shadow of a living thing.
~ Ute saying
(Peat bog trail at Quail Hollow. Photo by Robin. 2007)
I’ve been spending a lot of time sorting through my photos on the computer. I’m a very lazy photographer in that I haven’t had many of them printed. This sorting business is going to take a long time.
I’ve noticed a trend in my photography, something I might not have noticed if I hadn’t been so lazy and forced to spend an entire day staring at the fruits of my photographic labors. Every group of photos contains at least one shot of a road, a pathway, a river, a window, a gate, or a doorway.
I wonder if that reflects my nature as a Sagittarius. We’re known for having itchy (as in wanting to travel) feet. I do enjoy traveling, that’s for sure. I don’t enjoy the packing and the angst and anxiety (aka fear of flying) I go through getting ready to travel, but the traveling itself is always a fun adventure.
This pathways and portals trend might also be a reflection of my favorite activity: walking and hiking. I like nothing more than to set out on a long walk or hike. I have dreams of going on walking tours where we spend the entire day walking through some countryside or along the coast of any country. Like Forrest Gump and his running, sometimes when I start walking I just want to keep going and going, see where it leads me. Walking is, in my opinion, the best way to travel. It slows you down so you can truly see and enjoy the scenery and the moment. I like having my feet on the ground and in touch with the earth (which might partially explain my fear of flying).
In spending a day looking at a lot of these photos, they also remind me of meditative journeys. I look at the photo and in my mind I begin to wander the path in front of me, letting my spirit lead me where it will. This type of journey opens up whole new worlds for me, when I allow myself the freedom to travel in this way. It’s not always easy to let go, or to feel safe enough to let go. But when I do, oh…what a wonder it is!
I frequently keep this type of photo as my desktop background because these images are so calming to me. But they’re also exciting, because who knows where any pathway or portal may lead?
Man takes root at his feet, and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it. Then the tie of association is born; then spring those invisible fibres and rootlets through which character comes to smack of the soil, and which make a man kindred to the spot of earth he inhabits. –JOHN BURROUGHS, The Exhilaration of the Road, Winter Sunshine, 1875
Bountiful Healing 