The whole world is self

Don’t disregard your life.  It is too precious.  This moment, right now, is the only life you will ever have.  You can’t store it up for the ideal time.  When you walk, walk with your whole body and mind joining the floor.  Place your eyes in the soles of your feet, walking as if the floor were a dear friend.  This is intimacy with all things, where the whole world is self, where there is no ‘outside’ or other.

~ Pat Phelan

Walking into the here and now

Life is available only in the present.  That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and now.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

green earth

The miracle is not to walk on water.  The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Ceaseless search

To seek the living manifestation of spiritual and ethical values themselves, regardless of the label they come under, is to discover unexpected kinship…  In this view, faith is no longer a matter of an allegiance to a specific community or identity, but a ceaseless search for the beautiful ways to realize the human potential in every given age and place.

~ Mohja Kahf

Enchanted

It’s quite possible to leave your home for a walk in the early morning air and return a different person — beguiled, enchanted.

~ Mary Chase

Destiny

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

~ William Jennings Bryan

Winding path

The more zigzag the way, the deeper the scenery.  The winding path approaches the secluded and peaceful place.

~ Huang Binhong

A mirror

(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

Paying attention

(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.

Not too difficult

(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.