Yesterday I splurged on a bouquet of peonies and proceeded to fall completely in love with them when I got home. I have never before spent so much time gazing at and inhaling the scent of these splendid flowers. I cultivated my new love through the lens of my camera. Some days the abundance I find in words and images is enough to break my heart wide open. What has broken your heart open this day? -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts
What a gathering-the purple tongues of iris licking out at spikes of lupine, the orange crepe skirts of poppies lifting over buttercup and daisy. Who can be grim in the face of such abundance? There is nothing to compare, no need for beauty to compete. The voluptuous rhododendron and the plain grass are equally filled with themselves, equally declare the miracles of color and form. This is what community looks like- this vibrant jostle, stem by stem declaring the marvelous joining. This is the face of communion, the incarnation once more gracefully resurrected from winter. Hold these things together
Love Poems to God, II, 22 You are the future, the red sky before sunrise over the fields of time. You are the cock’s crow when night is done, you are the dew and the bells of matins, maiden, stranger, mother, death. You create yourself in ever-changing shapes that rise from the stuff of our days— unsung, unmourned, undescribed, like a forest we never knew. You are the deep innerness of all things, the last word that can never be spoken. To each of us you reveal yourself differently: to the ship as coastline, to the shore as a ship.
Summer in the Methow Purged from the hive, she hovers, then dives into the stamen’s glow. Spring gold A whirling dervish on the Nootka rose I want work like that! Work that makes me dizzy Makes me drunk on sweet nectar finds me dancing across the plush, pink petals of all that I love. -Kathy Heffernan I was riding the route 14 bus last Thursday toward downtown and gazed up at the words and images posted overhead. My eyes were of course drawn to the poem in the midst of all the advertising. The Methow is a valley in the North
Lately I have been receiving several requests for prints of various photos found on my blog which I am happy to offer, so I am formally adding this option to my Offerings page. If you are ever interested in receiving a print of any photos I take here please let me know the image and size and I can send you a Paypal invoice for credit card payment. I have been taking a Digital Photography course this spring, learning more about the manual features of my camera, stretching myself with the assignments, and working with Photoshop (I finally broke down and
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Sunrise to sunrise, prayerful rhythm of the day. Will we be awake? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ -Haiku by Antony Hanson at Coming to the Quiet / photo is mine taken on Saltspring Island
I have returned home from my time of retreat. I love Saltspring Island with its miles of farmland and sheep grazing, its community of working artists, its forested coastline. Last Friday was a brilliant day, sun shining, baby geese everywhere, the world feeling so full of possibility. On the drive up I was listening to David Whyte’s CD set called Clear Mind, Wild Heart which I have borrowed from the library a half dozen times and finally made it through all six of the CD’s. He talks about how we are both creatures of belonging as well as creatures of exile
