Spring

Did Spring outdo herself this year?

Or do I simply forget from year to year?

Walk in the Woods

Early spring in the deep sanctuary of the forest.
A shade of green only seen in March.
Tiny blossoms, towering trees.
Quiet whispers of 50 hikers who walk softly on sacred ground.
I will remember this day.

Hope-Love

"You don't have to invent it, or buy it, or borrow it, or steal it from a saint. You have already got it. It is in you, but it is covered so thickly that you don't suspect that your very nature is love, your very essence is kindness."

---Eknath Easwaran

Dallas Arboretum

If I were a poet, perhaps I could think of some words.

I'm not.

I can't.

It was simply too beautiful for words.

Will you be my friend?

I got all caught up in this Facebook thing and I'm beginning to see how we are all woven together in a million little threads. Ying in Seattle has a whole list of friends, and they have friends who have friends, and I'm a friend of Ying's, so her friends are my friends and my friends are her friends, and don't you see? If we continue that way, it's only logical that there is a tiny village in Africa and someone there is my friend.

Stop, Look, Listen

Sometimes it's better if I stop a moment...

and look at life from another perspective.

Valentines

Quiet and simple

or wild and crazy...

...

Happy Valentines Day!

...

You are loved.

Juarez Amor

We go to Juarez to build small, simple houses for families who have little.

She giggles and dances.

She hammers and saws.

She puts her hands in the wet concrete.

Together we build a house.

She steals our hearts.

Ice Chandelier

When I was growing up, we had a crystal chandelier in the living room. Every couple of years, we would get up on a ladder with vinegar water and rags and clean every facet of every crystal. The whole thing would sparkle and the little rainbows on the walls would seem brighter, more vibrant, grateful for the cleansing.
This morning Mother Winter stepped out in ice crystals so beautiful they stopped traffic and turned heads. Time slowed down in wonder. As the sun glistened off the ice drops on the treetops, tiny rainbows winked on and off.
This photo mandala celebrates memories of chandeliers and rainbows from childhood and chandeliers more magical and mystical in treetops.

How to make a photo mandala

Click on image to see it full size!

Wintry Day

A gray, drizzly winter day. All the leaves had not yet fallen from the tree outside my breakfast window. Tiny reflecting water drops lined the branches. It had stopped dripping - I can't really call it rain - so I grabbed my camera and went outside. I saw a mandala in the making.

I shot various angles from many different perspectives. One emphasized the leaves, another the shiny droplets, another focused on the uppermost branches bare against the gray sky. So many viewpoints.

But none of the photographs captured the serene mysterious mood. While one came close, it wasn't until I created the mandala that I felt again what I had felt that moment.

The last lingering leaves. The diamond droplets. This mandala draws me in much like the peaceful reverie of looking out my breakfast window on that gray, drizzly winter day.

Croc on the Beach

To some it was trash on the beach. A single shoe, washed up, left behind. To me it was a child's adventure. Shells, seaweed, little critters, sand and discovery.

It's all in where you focus.