(Frost on the locust tree.)
The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
~ John Burroughs
Spirit of the Seasons
(Sunlight on snow and hoar frost.)
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.
~ Rachel Carson
(Winter’s blanket.)
Kindness is like snow — it beautifies everything it covers.
~ Author unknown
I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of any individual or any society. I believe that whenever we destroy beauty, or whenever we substitute something man-made and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of man’s spiritual growth.
~ Rachel Carson
(Red-tailed hawk on a snowy day.)
Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still.
~ Ajahn Chah
(Yesterday’s rainbow.)
There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
(American winterberry, a holly.)
Red ‘rings’ inwardly with a determined and powerful intensity. It glows in itself, maturely, and does not distribute its vigor aimlessly…
~ Vassily Kandinsky
Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.
~ Russell H. Conwell
I think I’m going to forever associate sunflowers with my mother’s illness and death. Not in a bad way, but in a way I can’t fully explain just yet. Perhaps I’ll never be able to explain it completely other than to say that somehow sunflowers brought a measure of beauty, peace, light, and comfort into my life at a time when I most needed those things. Some of my sunflower photos even served as expressions of my feelings — feelings I couldn’t put into words — on my blogs.
I was going through my collection of sunflower pictures when I came across this one, in a possibly-rejects file (the “possibly-rejects” are those photos I couldn’t make a decision about in regards to saving or deleting). I don’t know why I didn’t like it at the time or why I suddenly see something in it now that I didn’t then, but I’m glad I saved it. It was, for me, worth another look.
(The kitchen table. Robbins Crossing. November 2009.)
We inherit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted — our names, the color of our eyes and the texture of our hair, the unfolding of varied abilities and interests in different subjects . . . Each of us contains within our fragile vessels of skin and bones and cells this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise. Only when we recognize that we are heirs can we truly be pioneers.
~ Edward C. Sellner
Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.
~ Simone Weil
Bountiful Healing 