Celestial

Celestial ... 2008

Greenrise

Greenrise ... 2008

Animals

Animals ... 2008

Dreaming Hand

Dreaming Hand ... 2008

Light Now

Light Now ... 2008

A Bride Married to Amazement

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver

(The beautiful photograph of Mary Oliver is the work of the wonderful photograper Don Shewey.)

The Pure Principle

Star Rise ... 2008

Quakers have no creeds yet these words say it all for me.

There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath different names; it is, however, pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion nor excluded from any where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren.

John Woolman, 1762

Window

Window ... 2008

Vessel

Vessel ... 2008

Mandala #2

Mandala #2 ... 2008

Mandala #1

Mandala #1 ... 2008

Vivienne Goes Far

Vivienne Goes Far ... 2008

Bird with Stars

Bird with Stars ... 2008

Prickly Pair

Prickly Pair ... 2008

Landscape 4

Landscape 4 ... 2008

Cory

Cory... 2007

We are two clouds, forenoons and afternoons, driving overhead;
We are seas mingling—we are two of those cheerful waves, rolling over each other, and interwetting each other;
We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious:
We are snow, rain, cold, darkness—we are each product and influence of the globe;
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again—we two have;
We have voided all but freedom, and all but our own joy. Walt Whitman ... 1819-1892

Little Owl Face

Little Owl Face ... 2008

Love Me

Love Me ... 2008

Ambulatory Vehicle

Ambulatory Vehicle ... 2008

Door

Door ... 2008

Little Critter

Little Critter with Clouds...2008

'Because it was him...'

In the friendship which I am talking about, souls are mingled and confounded in so universal a blending that they efface the seam which joins them together, so that it cannot be found. If you press me to say why I loved him, I feel that it cannot be expressed except by replying: 'Because it was him: because it was me.' Mediating this union there was, beyond all my reasoning, beyond all that I can say specifically about it, some inexplicable force of destiny.

Essay 28 ... On Affectionate Relationship

Michel de Montaigne

The Shortness of LIfe

Can anything be sillier than the point of view of certain people—I mean those who boast of their foresight? They keep themselves very busily engaged in order that they may be able to live better; they spend life in making ready to live! They form their purposes with a view to the distant future; yet postponement is the greatest waste of life; it deprives them of each day as it comes, it snatches from them the present by promising something hereafter. The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day. You dispose of that which lies in the hands of Fortune, you let go that which lies in your own. Whither do you look? At what goal do you aim? All things that are still to come lie in uncertainty; live straightway!

Seneca the Younger (4BC to AD65)

Kything

Proginoskes looked at her with two, ringed owl-like eyes.

"You're beginning to learn how to kythe."
"To what?"
"Kythe. It's how cherubim talk. It's talking without words, just the same way that I can be myself and not be enfleshed."
"But I have to be enfleshed and I need words."
"I know Meg," he replied gently, "and I will keep things worded for you. But it will help if you will remember that cherubim kythe without words among each other. For a human creature you show a distinct talent for kything."
Meg blushed slightly at the compliment...


A Wind in the Door (1973) ... Madeleine L'Engle

Hut-Spirit

Everything seems to have its own spirit. Plants, insects, rocks even the firewood. This hut also has a spirit, a different kind, one that has been nourished by the thoughts of previous hermits. This hut-spirit tends the local mice and the chipmunks. It sets tasks for the human beings who spend their time here. I was moved to, fix a window, and mend other odds and ends. This spirit also has a splendid sense of humor. I like it very much.

David A. C Cooper (Entering the Sacred Mountain)

The Seas of God

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

Walt Whitman ... 1819 - 1892

Threshold

Threshold ... 2007

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek...2006

Abandoned Games, Forgotten Toys

Abandoned Games, Forgotten Toys...2006

Song of the Seraphim

Song of the Seraphim...2006