Category Archives: Philosophy

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Hopeful

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“Hope is a dimension of the soul … an orientation of the spirit,
an orientation of the heart. It transcends the
world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. … It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty
that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.”
― Vaclav Havel

Mahalia Jackson statue in Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans

In this time of systemic and environmental collapse, which some call “unprecedented”, HOPEFULness is a very hot topic. Thank you, Patti, for having the courage to put it out there as our challenge this week! (See her interpretation HERE.)

My illustrations of Hopefulness were all gleaned from my very first trip to New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) last weekend. NOLA is a city with a unique history, a colorful layering of cultures and suffering and community awareness. I visited during the annual Jazz Festival with nine other members of my family. Humanity was evident everywhere! And the stories of relationships were palpable in the streets: indigenous, Creole, French, Spanish, African, and American people interacting in every way.

“It isn’t outcomes that matter. It’s our relationships
that give meaning to our struggles. If we free
ourselves from hope and fear, from having to
succeed, we discover that it becomes easier to love.”
― Margaret J. Wheatley (author of Warriors for the Human Spirit)

JAMNOLA (Joy, Art, Music – New Orleans, LA) Wall of Intentions

Traveling with my sisters, and my adult children and their partners was a heart-filling intergenerational experience. We are all unique individuals, and we are all family. We value our own choices, and we value each other.

“We’ve learned that no matter how despairing the circumstance, it is our relationships that offer us solace, guidance, and joy. As long as we’re together, as long as we feel others supporting us, we can persevere.” ― Margaret J. Wheatley

I was struck by the stories of the Mardi Gras or Carnivale parade traditions in New Orleans. I suppose I had assumed they were about debauchery, hedonism, or self-aggrandizement. I now have learned that they are also about honoring the human spirit and community support. The African-American “krews” who make and parade in elaborate feather costumes in semblance of indigenous cultures are paying homage to the bravery of those tribal people who assisted slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad at the risk of their own lives. They raise their children in awareness of the price and practice of solidarity as they prepare annually for these parades as a family.

“…Only in the present moment, free from hope and fear, do we receive the gifts of clarity and resolve.
Freed also from anger, aggression, and urgency,
we are able to see the situation clearly, take it all in,
and discover what to do.” ― Margaret J. Wheatley

So, I suppose I am interested in discovering what might lie beyond Hopefulness and fear. I am interested in building supportive relationships based on what is needed, on what is most important for the good of the whole community. May we all be able to support each other so that all may thrive.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Abstracts

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“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” ― Pablo Picasso

“Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space”
― Jackson Pollock

“But nobody is visually naive any longer. We are cluttered with images, and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the divine.”
― Dominique De Menil

I imagine the gift of abstract art is the nudge toward seeing things in a completely different way. Our attachment to “reality” is often a symptom of fear. When we are propelled away from the familiar, we have the opportunity for new discoveries, new wonders, new experiences of the divine creativity of the Universe. We risk being changed forever.

Thank you to Ritva for this invitation to explore abstracts! Click HERE to see her amazing examples.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Rock Your World!

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Respect and reverence for the natural world seems to me a fundamental response to the age-old human questions, “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?” We are elementally Earth Beings, located in space, looking to orient our lives in some sustainable balance. Traditions that honor the Four Directions speak of Rock or Earth as the element to the North.

“There is stability here, the ground of our being. The north represents the place that holds us, that allows us time and space to heal and grow, to feel nurtured and respected. It is also the place of embodiment, of connecting with our physical self, with the concrete, tangible world around us. The north calls to you if you are seeking balance, the deep wisdom that lives in your bones, a place of rest and recovery.” – Julia Hamilton

Inaugural Poem (excerpt) – Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.

The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.

I will give you no more hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.

Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.

Thank you to Donna of Wind Kisses for inviting perspectives on how to Rock Your World. May you be grounded today, in balance and peace.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Last Chance

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Winter Solstice 2023 – my last post of this year. Where I live in the Northern Hemisphere, there will be more than 15 hours of darkness tonight. It is a time to gather inwardly, to reflect on the shadows of what has been, to practice being comfortable with uncertainty, and to hope bravely for the coming light.

I came upon a phrase today from a campaign to protect wild buffalo herds. “Place-based coexistence”. It makes me think of the place where I live, the forest that I see from my window every day and the life that is sustained here – the flora and fauna, the lichen and moss. We are all to be plunged into darkness tonight. We all breathe the same air, soak up the rain, turn our faces to the light. I want to be mindful of all that is turning together in the Earth’s orbit. I want to celebrate our interdependence.

I think about the relatedness of all Beings in this web of existence and reflect on my actions. Have I been kind, gracious, patient? I think of the quiet days of coexistence that passed while I gained the trust of two cats I was tending for a friend. After days of being stared at from the safety of the bedroom closet, I earned the company of a purring furry friend beside me in front of the woodstove while I read a novel. This has been a long year of waiting and hoping for relationships to heal and grow. I have spent more time in deep observation and reflection and learning than I ever have before, I think. I am grateful for that.

I think of the positive actions I have taken, the aspirational direction of my thoughts, the building, creating, and rising to which I have challenged myself – physically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. During this dark time, I want to gather the energy to do more of that.

Finally, I remember that these moments of my life that add up to a year are as ephemeral as soap bubbles. Although they glisten with a rainbow of colors and take my breath away in their flight, they do not endure. They may instruct me, but they must not enchant me and lure me from attending to the present. This is a very difficult lesson for me. I have a photographic memory (as I’m sure many Lens-Artists do), and I find it easy to slip into my mind and out of reality. When I find myself doing this, I can choose to focus on the breath that comes to me, new, every minute. With this breath, and this awareness, I can create new glimmering bubbles of love and light, a gift in real time.

I wish you the warmth of Love and the light of Hope in this dark night. Thank you, friends and followers, for journeying around the Sun with me this year. I look forward to another trip! Special thanks to Tina for the inspiration and leadership her post provides for this year end challenge. Please visit her blog HERE.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Magical

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You might describe something as “magical” when it fills you with a sense of awe. Like that light that comes from the sun rising over the mountain and filtering through fog and frost to create diamond sparkles on every tiny filament of life – in the trees, on a spider’s web, on the rocks lining the river bank.

I recently heard a talk on the subject of Awe. Awe is a heart reaction to an encounter with the vast Mystery that we don’t understand. It pulls us out of our Egos, out of our selves and our realm of control, and surprises us in a moment. It is a fleeting and powerful emotion. The speaker quoted from a book by Dacher Keltner called Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. The author describes neurobiological findings caused by an awesome experience (including an increase in strength, a decrease in inflammation, and a kinder behavioral response to people) and catalogues the main sources of Awe in a study of 26 different cultures. The primary source of Awe in this study was not a beautiful sunset or the birth of a baby. It was Moral Beauty – experiencing other peoples’ courage, kindness, or strength in overcoming hard situations.

The second source on the list was Collective Effervescence: the feeling you might get at a wedding, or a concert, or a sporting event when you are part of a crowd of humanity in the throes of joy.

The third source is Nature, outside of us or within us.

The fourth source is Music; the fifth is Visual Design, for example in architecture or landscape.

The catalogue of sources of Awe goes on to list Spiritual Experiences; Life Experiences of Birth and Death; and Moments of Epiphany. Of course, none of these sources is really “magic” or supernatural. They’re all absolutely natural. We really don’t need anything other than the real Life around us and within us and our own Willingness in order to be lifted up into Awe.

Maybe Awe is the magic that we need to transform our world into a place of strength, resilience, kindness, and joy. I believe that magic is available at any time.

Please visit our host Ann-Christine’s beautiful post to view the magic through her lens. Click HERE.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Empty Spaces

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“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form” states the Heart Sutra, one of the best known ancient Buddhist texts. The essence of all things is emptiness.”
― Eckhart Tolle

The space between atoms. The space between stars. So much of the Universe is made up of distance and empty space…at least in one perception. But perhaps our Big Brains can turn that around and imagine that spaciousness is a thing that something can be full of. Vastness. Expanse. Capacity. Potential.

I have been silent on this blog for a few weeks. I have been doing some Grief work and spending more time in the company of humans than in the company of my camera. I went to visit my brother at his new home on the coast yesterday. I had Patti’s Challenge in my mind as I walked from his house to the beach, and I brought my camera along.

If you’ve ever spent time along the shores of an ocean on a completely cloudless day, you will have had a glimpse into the spaciousness of our position in the Universe. No matter how much you may have filled your immediate environment with Stuff (things, people, thoughts), there is still empty space available to contemplate. There is still an expansiveness available. I find a hopefulness in that, and it feels natural and healing. Especially in a time of catastrophic chaos and dire predictions.

I wish you Peace, Lens-Artists, and the Beauty of seeing possibility through your lenses.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: On the Edge

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I have to admit that I am on the edge of exhaustion and barely hanging on. I am currently helping with two family members’ moves, planning a Retreat for my spiritual community, and preparing for a house guest. My body aches, my mind is running in circles.

I am also on the edge of complete excitement and hopefulness as all of these events bring opportunity, new life, and joy.

So, I will give my best effort, keep showing up and put one foot in front of the other.

I don’t want to fear the edges. There’s a lot of growth and beauty there, and a lot of learning potential.

Thanks, Patti, for the invitation to be curious about the edges! See her post HERE.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Recharge

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The guest host for this week, Egidio, creates a very relatable and inspiring challenge showing how he feels Recharged by being in Nature. I completely agree, shouting “Yes!” to every quote, every landscape, every story in his beautiful post (do visit and see for yourself!). Nature is my first choice for re-connection to Life Force. But when I’m really depleted, especially by all the busy-ness of the hamster wheel that is my brain, I not only have to be in Nature, I have to be in my Body.

My first approach to getting into my Body in order to Recharge is meditation and yoga. My breath reminds me of the gift of Life and focuses my attention on the renewal that is available every minute of the day.

photo credit: Dharam Kaur Khalsa

I gaze at the forest outside my bedroom window and enter into the time warp of slow breathing and mindfulness, becoming aware of every part of my body as I stretch and balance on the mat.

When I am ready for a full-body Recharge, it’s time to step up to more input from Nature and sensory stimuli. Kick off the shoes, run barefoot in the cool ocean water, breathe in the salt spray, be dazzled by the sunlight on the water, and when possible, bring along a Friend.

To be honest, though, I am not a runner. My full-body, joyful, sweaty exercise is Dancing. I go to a couple of Ecstatic Dances each month so that I can be immersed in a musical journey of my own movement and rhythmic response. I feel music in my body in the most instinctual way, having had only a smattering of dance teaching but enough observation to imagine worlds of cultures emanating from my imagination through my arms and hips and feet. My over-worked brain lets go of logic and embraces mood, emotion, attitude, and community bonding. In this freedom, I am Recharged, Reborn, Re-imagined. At the end of the night, though my feet are throbbing, my “batteries” are full and pulsating with Life.

I don’t have ANY photographs of Ecstatic Dance. My hands and eyes and imagination are focused on being in the Moment, alive and active and engaged. I am not the observer with a lens. I am the Art in Motion. You’ll have to imagine the cosmic lighting, the moving bodies, the charged atmosphere of angles and surprise that might create a visual image. Better yet, go find some dancers who are welcoming and JOIN IN! You may get a battery jolt you’ve never experienced before.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Fences

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Rustic or posh, a fence is a statement of cultures that value ownership and control. They say, “Mine, not yours”, “Here, not there”, “Out, not in”.

Perimeter fence of cemetery at Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Are those interfaces places of conflict? Have you seen statements of protest placed on fences or boundaries? Or perhaps statements of love? (I don’t have any images of padlocks with lovers’ messages, but I know they’re out there.)

Imagine the choice we have in planting fences or flying without boundaries.

Thank you, Dawn Miller of Lingering Visions, for inspiring this challenge.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Simplicity

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“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

The presence of water.

A healthy diversity of insects.

Plants that produce food.

Yesterday, I went walking with a friend who writes biology curriculum for Montessori schools. We went to Iron Mountain in the Cascade range, one of my favorite places to climb for a stunning view of volcanic peaks. However, we didn’t climb much. We walked quite slowly, noticing the incredible biodiversity of plant life. She identified orchids smaller than my pinkie nail (Twayblade orchid), and we took lots of photos.

“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein

I often think of Life as incredibly complex – this great, interconnected web of diversity and specialization. However, when I slow down and sit with it, Life is as simple as being breathed. We are as we are.

And that’s what I might say to a six-year-old.

Many thanks to Mr. Philo of Philosophy Through Photography for this challenge. May we live simply and simply live.