Holy Ghost

Holy Ghoooost... Holy Ghoooost...

Soul-Shaping Choices

"The outer path we take is public knowledge, but the path with heart is an inner one. The two come together when who we are that is seen in the world coincides with who we deeply are. As we grow wiser, we become aware that the important forks in the road are usually not about choices that will show up on any public record; they are decisions and struggles to do with choosing love or fear; anger or forgiveness; pride or humility. 

They are soul-shaping choices."

~Jean Shinoda Bolen

Moving Forward

"You must proceed there, where today you are least at home."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

All In A Day's Work

 

Here's a few of the wonderful people

I photographed on Saturday.

...all in a day's work.  

:-)

Joy and Sorrow

Joy and sorrow are inseparable...

together they come 

and when one sits alone with you...

remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

~Kahlil Gibran

Yesterday In Austin

 

I remember at one point many years ago

someone suggesting to me that I should

investigate journalistic photography.

I remembered this yesterday.

Yesterday in Austin

an extremely troubled soul

flew his plane into a building

not ten minutes from where I live.

A best friend once worked in the very building,

and I once interviewed for a job one building over.

I thought of firing off a few photos.

I drove past the building

on my way elsewhere last night

and the energy surrounding it

was so very thick and sad.

And to think of the greater tragedies
in other places of the world...

A Course In Miracles

proposes that all attack is a cry for love.

It's a very radical idea.

Personally,

Looking at that building and moving through

the sensationalism, anger, opinion and outrage

I found a profoundly painful, sad, image and feeling.
A cry for love.

I remember at one point many years ago

someone suggesting to me that I should

investigate journalistic photography.

I couldn't possibly do it.

Imagine what you like in the
white square above
but if you will, make it a loving image, please.

*****************************************

"Regardless of what our senses report,

or how things seem,
we remain rooted in Eternal Love.
People, institutions and structures

maybe subject to limitations, but
Eternal Love, expressing itself 

in every dimension and time, is unfailing.
We know that all things are in divine order.
In consciousness, we focus our attention

beyond circumstances and situations.
We share the Light with all People. "

Forbidden Peace

Sometimes I love a picture so much,

I have to take a picture of it. 

Trash

Trash has given us an appetite for art.

~Pauline Kael

Embrace It All

This is a photo of a quote (on a quilt, natch).

Two in one today.

This is a piece done by

Joan Howes  

Joan does beautiful work

and is the founder of the church I attend.

The passage is one of my favorites.

And if one has some resistance to the

precepts and proverbs of The Bible

perhaps a Note From The Universe would serve as well:

"What if funky, confusing, gray, lonely days 
were just part of a "system" 
that, in turn, created bright, rich, happy, friendly days?

What if they were just meant 
to give deeper elements of your creativity a rest?

What if they were deliberately crafted holidays, of a sort, 
devised by your inner psyche to relieve you 
from the pressure of artificial expectations?

Would you still bemoan them, 
wonder what's wrong with you, 
or fear that they'll never end? 
Or, would they kind of tickle you pink?

You party animal, you -
    The Universe"

Embrace It All.

Valentine's Day - Mind, Body and Soul

 

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind"

~William Shakespeare

"I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."

~Crash Davis, "Bull Durham" 


What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved
Will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions -

Like Hafiz.

~Hafiz

Darkness And Light

"The ingredients of both darkness and light
are equally present in all of us,...

The madness of this planet is largely a result
of the human being's difficulty

in coming to virtuous balance with himself. "

~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Happy Birthday Mom

When I'm sad, she comes to me
With a thousand smiles, she gives to me free
It's alright she says it's alright
Take anything you want from me,
Anything.
    Jimi Hendrix  Little Wing

The Human Condition

"There must be possible a fiction which,
leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists,
can arrive at the truth about the human condition,
here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale."

~Ralph Ellison

The Circus

The circus came to town

How magic and dazzle lit the world

Enticing, exciting, enrapturing

Cheated by illusion

In mourning mist she found herself alone

Remnants of glitter, dust and dirt behind mesmerizing enchantment

Cuckolded by the Clown

Undone

She grieved.

God Drew A Circle In The Sand

"But I was always coming here.

I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems,

which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand

exactly around the spot where you are standing right now.

I was never not coming here.

This was never not going to happen. "

~Elizabeth Gilbert

Even In Winter

"To find the universal elements enough;
to find the air and the water exhilarating;
to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter;
to be thrilled by the stars at night;
to be elated over a bird's nest or
a wildflower in spring -
these are some of the rewards of the simple life."
~John Burroughs 

A Golden Compass

  

  

Forget every idea of right and wrong
Any classroom ever taught you

Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
Unkindness, jealousy and fear

Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!

Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.

Come, join the honest company
Of the King's beggars -
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
And those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.

Come, join the courageous
Who have no choice
But to bet their entire world
That indeed,
Indeed, God is Real.

I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,
Those playful royal rogues -
The ones you can trust for true guidance -
Who can aid you
In this Blessed Calamity of life.

Hafiz,
Look at the Perfect One
At the Circle's Center:

He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
Beyond all that is Rational,

To show this dear world

That Everything,
Everything in Existence
Does point to God.

~Hafiz