“Journeys bring power and love
Back into you. If you can’t go somewhere,
Move in the passageways of the self.
They are like shafts of light,
Always changing, and you change
When you explore them.”
–Rumi
journey
Morning Trip (267)
“Hiking
Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws. He would have constructed our planet on the model of the simple cube, so that notion of circularity and consequently the wheel might never have arisen. He surely would not have made mountains.
There is something unnatural about walking. Especially walking uphill, which always seems to me not only unnatural but so unnecessary. That iron tug of gravitation should be all the reminder we need that in walking uphill we are violating a basic law of nature. Yet we persist in doing it. No one can explain why George H. Mallory’s asinine rationale for climbing a mountain–‘because it is there’–could easily be refuted with a few well-places hydrogen bombs. But our common sense continues to lag far behind the available technology.
There are some good things to say about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus, it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who’s always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and therefore more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated and anyone can transport himself anywhere, instantly. Big deal, Buckminster. To be everywhere at once, is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me. That’s God’s job, not ours.
The longest journey begins with a single step, not with a turn of the ignition key. That’s the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn’t matter whether you get where you’re going or not. You get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home. Right where you started.
Which reminds me of circles. Which reminds me of wheels. Which reminds me my old truck needs another front-end job. Any good mechanics out there wandering along through the smog?”
–Edward Abbey
Morning Trip (257)
“Good vs Evil is a prominent theme in Western culture. Our myths and popular entertainment are filled with it. Again and again we see two sides struggle for supremacy in some sort of final battle where the good emerges triumphant.
The trouble with applying this concept to life is that we naturally assume we must be the good guys and we must vanquish the other side, which must be evil.
In the meantime, the other side is thinking the exact same thing. Thus, both sides gear up for the final, climactic battle. There is no middle ground nor possibility of compromise.
It is time to try something different. Let go of the obsession with conflicts and replace it with a theme that promotes peace and collaboration.
Look at life not as a series of good vs evil battles, but simply as a journey of discovery. Look at other people not as your evil opponents, but simply as travel companions.
There is no titanic struggle for supremacy where one side emerges triumphant; there is only mutual assistance among friends…where everyone wins.
Examine the conflicts you experience or witness in your life. Are they truly necessary? To what extent are they caused by the pervasive tendency to see everything in terms of conflict? Notice the ones who are most lacking in harmony are also the ones who insist upon their moral certitude and goodness. Can you transcend this limiting mode of thought?
The sacred laws of hospitality bid us welcome the guest as a member of our own family: may all beings of good will who will come within the compass of my daily round today experience welcome and the hospitality of my heart.”
–Derek Lin
Winter at The Tree Place Series–December 8th
Hello! Today I felt full of…energy. It snowed last night with flakes as big as dinner plates I swear (as long as the plates were silver dollar sized)! The ground was covered! Then I thought, well how am I to take images when all I’ve got is plain white?
I got up this morning and did the morning thing. The clouds lifted to bright blue skies and sun! Drips and drops from melting snow and ice glittered in the sun. I remembered that I have the Sigma SD10 upstairs so I ran to fetch it and drove happily to the tree place, expecting to get some pictures. I rounded the corner and OMG! There sat an old train of passenger cars with a real caboose! In the other direction was electric green grass covered in spots by snow. The mountains had eerie shadows of light and cloud, changed by stark trees and snow. I didn’t have the right lens on the camera for the distance shots. I pulled to the side of the road, put on the flashers and flicked on the camera ecstatic to get images of this old train. Click…
…and then NOTHING.
This is first time that I had used this camera since it was given to me for keeps. I frowned and I looked down at it, it said….the battery was dead. Sigh. I burst into giggles and part of my brain began to panic at all of the beautiful shots within 20 feet of me that I would miss. I said to God, HA! Very funny! Though I’m glad for new image inspiration, I’d kinda actually like to get the image onto the camera Lord. He said…stoppit, breathe in! Take in this life, this moment that such thoughts brought you to this place to witness the light just so, the scent of the pines wafting up the road, the wind talking in the weeds. And I just smiled. I put up the image that I took on that first committed day of the tracks. The tracks where the special Christmas Train now sits. The one no one but I will see, because my cameras seem to want to say..no batteries. Maybe just showing up is what I needed, this recharges my own batteries.
Right in Your Face, Or Winter at The Tree Place Series, December 7th
Right in Your Face (Winter at The Tree Place Series---7)
Images are the property of Elisabeth Connelley and Purple Shoe Photography. They are offered in limited numbered prints.
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I have agonized all day about this one. I do not feel right. I am telling myself that no one cares. Just to post. But, I care. My intent on this project, I think–to the best of my abilities, is and was to get me out of the house and to The Tree Place. My intent was to attempt to move my personal tastes, perhaps to see and to view beauty in what was not. I thought to go out daily and get at least one image. The first day was amazing. I hadn’t gone for a bit. I was very pleased with the images and had a bit of trouble choosing just one. I was grateful for all of the visions granted to me to experience. I did not wish to diminish any of them. I felt some wonder while taking them. Wonderment that I could feel grounded and joyful just stopping along and taking images on purpose. For any who know me, energy strikes me, and I shoot. No energy, or no camera available, missed shot! I was excited that I went out on purpose looking for pictures and I actually got some.
I stopped, mid shoot, and I prayed and happy tears came, and I felt silly and glad. I held up the camera for a last amazing shot….and the battery light came on! I cursed and then I burst our laughing.
I cannot afford new ones for now. That part is fine. What bothers me is my own rules of commitment. I feel like I am cheating if I post shots from that glorious first day. I tried to convince me that it is all fine and that a shot a day is what I promised. But, I can’t lie to me. I’m glad for that. Though, it’s not good for a daily Winter at The Tree Place series.
In order to ‘fix’ this, I have decided to continue the Winter at The Tree Place series, doing my best. If my car is broken and I need to go out into the yard, I’ll tell you where I got the shot. I certainly can limit myself even by my own expectations. (facial expression that says I am aghast at this repeated ah ha moment)
PS. While choosing the image for today’s post, I was looking at it and noting that no matter how even when right in my face, I couldn’t get all of the object into focus all at the same time. Maybe the lesson might stick now? (ha!giggles)
My Experience with Earth Harmony Ritual
I began writing this as a comment back to Dana over at Southern Herbalist. OH MY GOODNESS GOSH! I didn’t realize I missed the link before now (wednesday nov. 30)
I wrote: ha!
I knew before I hit the post that you’d tell me to clear it all and then sit with each one, to talk to it…and wait till I could hear it 😛
we so fuuuuuuuuuuunny!!
And then, I typed what follows, and then I decided I should just blog about it. So, here it is, my traveling back to myself…
I cleared the table today, I was even moved to salt scrub the surface of the table AND the wood tray that held many of the items! Then I salted me! 😀
Then I said, in my meaningful combination of snark and really meaning it: Ok, You gave to me these things to help myself and then to help others. I am feeling stressed or ungrounded and I do not trust myself to choose what to do next. Please increase the energetic feeling of each so that I do not make a mistake that might harm myself or, in turn, others. (I had moved everything to the chair, washed the tray and put it outside to air dry. Scrubbed the abalone shells, with salt–which I never EVER do. Grabbed each item and got IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK! I didn’t feel broken. AND, I knew what to do with the things I needed to put out as having been finished or used up. I ground some, snapped some and put them all into the center of the cat-mint and wormwood bed and thanked them for their use, like I do with burned smudge. Daughter brought me home a giant chunk of stone with crystal and some forms of chalcedony inside–much like a geode, but without much hollow space. It’s on the table. Mason jar with dried bunches of lavender. I got these fresh over the summer wondering what possessed me to do so. I added a sprig from the junipers outside the front door and three sprigs of fresh rosemary. The candle came back. The selenite stayed too. The spent matches holder is full of cloves. The wands and other wood bits that very strongly said KEEP ME are now inside a basket with sweet-grass, sage, cedar and other such items. A tiny basket now holds all of my stones that I picked up and put all in one spot, to smudge, they seem happy there so I will see. Both baskets and feathers are on the cleaned tray!
House feels so much better kiddos shouted what are you doing to the house and they came down to SIT AT THAT TABLE!!!
Thanks for posting what you did Dana, I didn’t feel able or trusting me enough to take care of it without the impetus of your blog.
Elisa's Spot 