Dawn

Sunrise 2 (2013, 8.13), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I arise in the morning torn between a desire 
     to save the world and a desire to savour the world.
     This makes it hard to plan the day. 

        E. B. White

Letting Go

RIC_0335-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Living now is nakedness of heart;
Dying – just another letting go.

Pat Schneider, Letting Go

Who Am I?

RIC_0475-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Now that I am free to be myself, who am I? 

Mary Oliver, Blue Iris

Passion

RIC_6902-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

There can be no truly great creation without passion. 

Gertrude Stein

Blessing

Ghost Ranch 8 (2013, 7.24), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

May the stars light your way

and may you find the interior road.

Forward!

Traditional Irish Farewell

Intensity

RIC_6456-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Genuine creativity is characterized by an intensity of awareness, 
a heightened consciousness. 

Rollo May

Primary Medium

Ghost Ranch 16 (2013, 7.30), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     We are the primary medium of the creative act – 
     not film or clay, paints or words. Learning to see, 
     learning to be, and learning to come into
     accord with the deeper sources within and 
     without – these are, undoubtedly the greatest 
     challenges given us, the most potent test of our 
     creative aspirations and capabilities. 

        David Ulrich, The Widening Stream

Mindfulness

Uyede Home 1 (2013, 8.5), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Mindfulness is a practice of being present 
with the truth of this moment.

Mary Grace Orr

Advice

Ghost Ranch 10 (2013, 7.24), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Stranger, 

Pass by what you do not love.

Advice to medieval travelers, René Daumal

Pilgrimage

Ghost Ranch 6 (2013, 7.29), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Making a pilgrimage is a way to prove your faith 
and find answers to your deepest questions. 

Ahmet, Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage

No Way

RIC_5889-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The beauty of the Way is that there is no "Way." 

Loy Ching-Yuen, 

The Book of the Heart

Unknown

Ghost Ranch 1 (2013, 7.24), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, 
there is no such thing. 
Making your unknown known is the important thing. 

Georgia O'Keeffe

Live!

Sunrise, Ghost Ranch 8 (2013, 7.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Go confidently in the direction of dreams - 

live the life you've imagined. 

Henry David Thoreau

Courage

RIC_2691-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

e. e. cummings

Creativity

Ghost Ranch 1 (2013, 7.30), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     
     One of the many paradoxes of creativity is that 
     we cannot know it fully, yet we can deeply experience it 
     within ourselves. 

        David Ulrich, The Widening Stream: the Seven Stages of Creativity

To Love

Tiger Lily 1 (2013, 7.7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


To love. To be loved. 
To never forget your own insignificance. 
To never get used to the unspeakable violence 
and the vulgar disparity of life around you. 
To seek joy in the saddest places. 
To pursue beauty to its lair. 
To never simplify what is complicated 
or complicate what is simple. 
To respect strength, never power. 
Above all, to watch. 
To try and understand. 
To never look away. 
And never, never, to forget. 

Arundhati Roy

Light

Ghost Ranch (2013, 7.), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Is it true that our destiny

Is to turn into Light 

Itself?

Hafiz

Perception

RIC_5430-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


If you perceive the universe as being 
a universe of abundance, then it will be. 
If you think of the universe 
as one of scarcity, then it will be. 

Milton Glaser

Silence

Santa Fe 26 (2013, 7.17), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Let silence take you to the core of life.

Rumi

Simile & Metaphor

Northrop Frye 2 (2013, 3.5), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The poet, however, uses these two crude,
     primitive, archaic forms of thought (simile and
     metaphor) in the most uninhibited way,
     because his job is not to describe nature,
     but to show you a world completely absorbed
     and possessed by the human mind.

        Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

Observation

Lamp 1 (2013, 7.1), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

You can observe a lot by watching.

Yogi Berra

Truth

RIC_9225-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth,
     but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

        Leo Tolstoy

Surprise

RIC_0032-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.

Alice Walker

Future Present

Road Closed, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Railing against the past will not heal us. History has happened. 
     It's over and done with. All we can do is to change its course by            encouraging what we love instead of destroying what we don't.

        Arundhati Roy

Moment

Santa Fe 48 (2013, 7.17), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you miss the moment,

you miss your life.

John Daido Loori

Teachers

Mississauga Chinatown 6 (2013, 6.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I have learned silence from the talkative,
     toleration from the intolerant, 
     and kindness from the unkind; 
     yet strange, 
     I am ungrateful to those teachers.

        Kahlil Gibran

Untold Story

Labyrinth, St. James UC, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

Stories

Santa Fe 23 (2013, 7.17), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The stories you have are

the stories you have to tell. 

Alex Eddington

Wonder

RIC_7777-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder. 

E. B. White

Becoming

Ghost Ranch (2013, 7.17) 1, Abiquiu, NM, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Tell me the place to which you are drawn

and I'll tell you who you are becoming.

Beldon C. lane

One Earth

RIC_8612-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


One of my biggest images is that we are all in this together. ... There is one earth and human family. 
The challenge before us is how to we share the resources of Mother Earth in ways that uphold the dignity and well-being of every child of God, and in ways that are respectful of the whole environment.

Bishop Susan Johnson, 
2013 Joint Assembly of Anglican Church of Canada and 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Wisdom

RCC_0767, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Bury your secret in the chamber of your heart.

Your unknown desire will burgeon.

Drop seeds to the bowels of the earth,

And the garden will spring beyond belief.

Rumi

World

RIC_7741-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The garden of the world has no limits except in your mind.

Its presence is more beautiful than the stars,

With more clarity

Than the polished mirror of your heart.

Rumi

Why I write

Shadow 1 (2013, 6.18), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I write because I seek to re-order all that comes 
     to me through my physical senses, my emotions, 
     my spirit, my intuition, onto a page so that I 
     might learn to experience it with integrity, 
     respect and honour.

        Richard Wagamese

Mythology & Religion

RCC_0798, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Mythology may, in a real sense, 

be defined as other people’s religion. 

And religion may, in a real sense, 

be understood as a popular misunderstanding of mythology.

Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That

Truth

RIC_7937-2 , a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Truth lifts the heart,
Like water refreshes thirst.

Rumi

Rooted in Love

Tree 3 (2013, 2.23), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Although much of our life is rooted in the anxiety of our time, 
in other words the fear of death, the continuity of knowledge 
and wisdom that has brought us here together is rooted in love, 
the love that is not only as strong as death, but able to cast out 
its fear. 

Northrop Frye

Wonder

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

Always on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

E. B. White

Humanity

RIC_9750-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


People are of two types, they are either your brothers in faith 
or your equals in humanity.

Ali ibn Abi Talib

Ordinary

RIC_4773-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Anyone can love a rose,
     but it takes a lot to love a leaf.
     It's ordinary to love the beautiful,
     but it's beautiful to love the ordinary.

        Unknown

Dream worth having

Richmond Hill United Church 15 (2013, 7.9), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The only dream worth having ... 
is to dream that you will live while you're alive, 
and die only when you're dead. 

Arundhati Roy

Truth

RIC_4769-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
     Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real.

        Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone

Remain Radiant

RCC_0788, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Let the world be as it is
and learn to rock with the waves.

Remain 'radiant,'
as Joyce put it,
in the filth of the world.

Joseph Campbell,
A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Stories

Construction on Kingston Road 1 (2013, 6.27), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Stories are our way of coping, 

of creating shape out of mess. 

Sarah Polley

Seeing

Hands (2013, 6.23), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Blessed are they who see beautiful things 
in humble places where other people see nothing. 

Camille Pissarro

On Human Condition

Mississauga Chinatown 5 (2013, 6.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom,
     decrees of damnation pronounced by society, 
     artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, 
     and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; 
     so long as the three great problems of the century - 
     the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption 
     of woman through hunger, the crippling of children 
     through lack of light—are unsolved; 
     so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world; 
     in other words, and with a still wider significance, 
     so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, 
     books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use.

        Victor Hugo, Preface to Les Misérables

What you see

Sky 1 (2013, 6.25), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

It's not what you look at that matters, 

it's what you see. 

Henry David Thoreau

Your role

Calling Lakes Centre 7 (2013, 6.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     It's important to know your role, 
     but it's important to know, too, 
     that it's only a role. 

        Gish Jen, Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Interdependent Self

Poetry

Eye of the Tiger, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


In the very essence of poetry
there is something indecent;
A thing brought forth 
that we didn't know we had in us,
So we blink our eyes, 
as if a tiger had sprung out
And stood in the light, 
lashing his tail.

Czeslaw Milosz, Ars Poetica?

Writer

Regina 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The writer is nothing but a questioner.

Grace Paley