“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.”
―
Back in 2012, I participated in a WordPress Photo Challenge that asked what inspires me to blog. Here is my response. I am still inspired by all these things: caring for family (now it’s my mother who is in hospice with lung cancer), Nature (it still demands my maturity every day, especially with climate change dangers tangibly around me), grieving my husband’s death and caring for our children (which prompted me to move to Oregon to be near them), compassion for Life and our common suffering (spiritual lessons of positive and negative space inspire me every day), and education (there is always so much to learn).
Today, in response to Tina’s challenge for the Lens-Artists this week, I revisit these inspirations.
Caregiving
“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”
―
Nature
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
―
My children
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
―
May
Compassion for Life
“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
―
April
Education
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
―
scillagrace 
Wonderful response to the theme (and I was wondering what Tina was going to pick and the “inspiration theme” sounds fun.
And a top takeaway was the hug photo – oh that is a special photo and it had more impact being down in the post and following that Vincent van Gogh quote about compassion…
Thank you for your visit! That hug photo is one of my favorites: my two youngest daughters are very close, they are “Angels of the Get-Through” to each other.
Oh how wonderful 😉
Great photos and inspiring words.
Thank you! I’m glad you came to visit.
🙂
Inspirational indeed Priscilla. Loved how your quotes matched so beautifully with your images. Each is spot on re the importance of the inspirational elements. A question. The gravestone you included for Black Elk. We share the same birthday – 11/13. That wasn’t your husband was it?
No, that gravestone is at Wounded Knee. Philip J. Black Elk’s death followed just a few months after the occupation of Pine Ridge Reservation during a murderous period of unrest, a tragic repercussion of the original Wounded Knee massacre. And thanks for tagging me in your post, Tina!
Ah – yes those were terrible stories. We always thought the indians were the bad guys. Clearly not, sigh. You’re very welcome, well deserved.
Excellent post, superb quotes! Love ‘The children’ series. Happiness cannot be masked or disguised.
Thanks, John! “Happiness cannot be masked”…I like that!
That is a great response then and now!
Thanks, Teresa!
Dear Priscilla…at last I have my cell phone working. Your latest message cheered me up so much. I saw photos of my beloved sister & cheered up after not seeing her for so long. Daughter Sarah also said that you or Dharma reported that Anne Louise is singing with the choir again…Alleluia!!! That was so reassuring to me. Love, Aunt Sandy PS…Sarah has bought me a new cellphone so I shall be communicating better now.
Hi, Aunt Sandy! Your Sarah most like reported that Dharam sings with a group called the Threshold Choir and works with hospice patients. Sarah also has friends in that group. Anne Louise is not singing, but she recites Compline with me by memory before bed. She is getting so many sweet cards from her fans and displaying them on the piano. She is well loved indeed!
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