Presence

Tower of Power (2013, 6.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     ... whatever
     returns from oblivion returns
     to find a voice.

        Louise Glück,
        The Wild Iris

Light

Light 1 (2013, 6.19), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

However vast the darkness, 

we must supply our own light. 

Stanley Kubrick

Earth

Tree, SMC, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We won't save a place we don't love;

we can't love a place we don't know;

and we can't know a place we haven't learned.

Ched Myers

Blessings

Bloor & Avenue #1 (2012,11.7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Like a star should your love be constant.

Like a stone should your love be firm.

Be close, yet not too close.

Possess one another, yet be understanding.

Have patience each with the other.

For storms will come but they will go quickly.

Be free in giving of affection and warmth.

Have no fear and let not the ways of words

Of the unenlightened give you unease.

For the spirit is with you.

Now and always.

Source unknown,

Courage to Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Community, edited by Geoffrey Duncan

Artist

RIC_9059-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Not everyone can become a great artist,
     but a great artist can come from everywhere. 

        Anton Ego, Ratatouille (movie by Pixar)

Abyss

Cloudy Day 7, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


If you gaze long enough into an abyss,
the abyss gazes into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Gratitude

RCC_0925, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Poverty taught me that all was not well under the sun
but the sun taught me that poverty was not everything.

Albert Camus

Find your soul

RIC_2400-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you do not find your soul, 

the world is unreal to you.

Kabir

Students & Teachers

RIC_1307-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Those who wake are the students.

     Those who stay awake are the teachers.

       Mark Nepo

Love and Honesty

RIC_2046, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

    If you did not truly love another 

   and feel confident that the love

   was returned, one could never be

   completely honest. 

     Quoting her friend Lucy Grealy,

     Ann Patchett, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

Every Moment

RIC_9711_edited-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Cancer changed the way I ate, slept, and most
     importantly the way I live. Before cancer I was like most
     folks, just cruising along. It was during my treatment,
     when starting to discover what cancer could give to me —
     the ability to absorb every moment as if each one were
     my whole life.


       Eric Smith, Live Now: Artful Messages of Hope, Happiness & Healing

Dare to be oneself

RIC_9757-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We have to dare to be be ourselves,

however frightening or strange

that self may prove to be.

May Sarton

Life

DSC_6591, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Life is a journey of approaching a horizon that we never arrive at. 

Mark Nepo,

Facing the Lion Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives,

Dive again and again

DSC_6597, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

There are pearls in the deep sea,

but one must hazard all to find them.

If diving once does not bring you pearls,

you need not conclude that the sea is without them.

Dive again and again.

Ramakrishna

Love poems

RIC_3507, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

So tell me what it takes to write a love poem.
     A generous spirit and a willingness to make a fool of yourself.

It takes those to love, too.
     That’s love.

Conversation between Bill Moyers and Nikki Giovanni, Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues

Carrying a sun

RIC_9957
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Hasta el más pequeño de los seres lleva un sol en los ojos.

Even the smallest of creatures carries a sun in its eyes.

Antonia Porchia, Voices, translated by W.S. Merwin

Alone

RIC_0479
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Alone, I have seen many marvelous things, none of which were true.

African proverb

Beauty

RCC_6681
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Today like every other day we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Rumi, The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

Goal of the Voyager

RCC_9209
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The goal of the voyager is to find the universality in recognizable terms.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Municipal Mind: Manisfestos for the Creative City

Eternity

RCC_8914
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Eternity is not infinity.
It is not a long time.
It does not begin at the end of time.
It does not run parallel to time.
In its entirety it always was.
In its entirety it will always be.
It is entirely present always.

Wendell Berry, XIII, Sabbaths 2005