Serenity. A marvelous theme. Placid water, still mind. Peacefulness, harmony. Keeping your surroundings still, small and simple. My partner, Steve, is working on a New Year’s resolution. So far, what I know he’s aiming at is maintaining more quiet in his life, perhaps returning to a practice of meditation and yoga.
scillagrace 
Perfect choices, Silla.
janet
Thanks!
Lovely images for the challenge.
Thank you!
Focusing on your serene images can help cultivate the quiet in our lives.
I hadn’t thought of that…thanks!
These are just wonderful. As I’ve aged, I’m learning that, for me, the most important factor in achieving serenity is acceptance…including acceptance of interruptions during my quiet time. I’ve spent too much time fight them.
On another note, I’m reading a book I think you would love if you haven;t already read it–The Last Season by Blehm. It’s about a back-country park ranger in the Kings and Sequoia National Park and his passionate love of the environment. It’s a true, but sad story but his poetic journal and photography are wonderful. He grew up in Yosemite and was friendly with Ansel Adams and Wallace Stegner.
Acceptance is definitely key to serenity. Amen there. I’ll ask Steve if he has that book in the inventory — sounds perfect for us!
Perfect choice for the challenge, each and every image a true gem.
Thank you, Dina!
Beautiful photos, Priscilla! I find my sweetest most quiet moments when I am working in the garden. I can hear the birds, and sometimes the laughter of kids playing down the street, but I am working my muscles, smelling the good earth, and making things grow–flowers for beauty, food for sustenance, and ideas–(processed Food For Thought.)
Sounds very grounding. Alas, I have no garden anymore in this rental space. I hope someday to have a particular place of land and grow a lasting relationship with it.
Hi Priscilla, I have my south side garden, but I also have a great kitchen garden on the deck right off the kitchen. It’s all in containers, but I have tulips right outside my windows, and by the time they are spent I can replant the bulbs in the yard and put in basil and tomatoes and sugar snap peas, hanging strawberry baskets, and sometimes, because it’s so beautiful, I put in rows of corn along the railing. If you have a bit of sun, you could do that just about anywhere.
Excellent choices. Serenity.
Thanks, Leya.
watching your pictures is how I cultivate my quiet times…
Thanks, Juls.
What a great collage.
Thanks! I’m glad you came to visit!
You are welcome. I am trying to visit all the people that enter this challenge and leaving a comment when I can. 🙂
Living in the concrete jungle that is New York City, there is inexplicable joy and peace in looking at your photographs and your commentary. It’s serene, yet inspiring.
I’m changing work offices today, in preparation for an overhaul of my employment. As I create a new (albeit temporary) space for myself, I will seek to create some of the peace, stillness, beauty and tranquility that your post conveys.
I’m glad you visited and liked what you saw. Maybe you can put some very simple bit of Nature’s stillness in your new work space…an open space with one rock or shell or seed, perhaps…as a reminder. Best wishes!
How lucky I am to have found your blog! How do I cultivate serenity? Mostly by reminding myself that my primary objective is to make peace in my life and, where I can, in the world. I’m grateful that you asked how we cultivate serenity, rather than how we live in it or with it, or be it, since I certainly cannot claim to have achieved it full time. Cultivating serenity is, as I am, a work in progress.
Meditation helps. Years ago, I discovered that just meditating five or ten minutes a day changes me, at least for that day, especially when I focus on peace as, well, not quite a mantra, but sort of–returning my thoughts to the word whenever they stray.
I’m enthralled with your snowy trees. Thank you for them, as well as the beautiful photographs on this page.
I’m so glad you came to visit, Kathryn Grace, and I’m sorry it took me so long to find your comment in this new format and reply. We are definitely a work in progress, a journey toward who we want to be. Returning to the breath, to an idea of peace, to some still point is a great way to cultivate serenity, to slow down, and to gain a different perspective. I hope you’ll come back for another visit soon! It’s nice to meet someone else with Grace as a middle name. 🙂
Thank you. Definitely, I’ll be back. If I did it right, I’m now following your blog.