Unknown's avatar

Cee’s Which Way Challenge

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. — Buddha

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path. — Buddha

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace – peace is the way. — Thich Nhat Hahn

 

 

 

Unknown's avatar

The Kiss

Forty years ago today, the Love of My Life kissed me for the first time.

Yesterday, I kissed our son goodbye before he moves with his wife to Oregon.

To new beginnings and continued love.

scillagrace's avatarscillagrace

A selection from my file marked “Widow’s Story”:

“I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I found out that he was in the same English class as my older sister, so I gave her a note to pass to him. I fastened it with a safety pin because I didn’t want her to read it. It was decorated with doodles and stuff, like a goofy schoolgirl with a crush would send. Basically, I offered to make him a cassette tape of my parents’ PDQ Bach album because I knew he was learning some of the madrigal pieces in choir and found them very funny. He sent me a note back, or spoke to me, and we agreed that I would give him that gift the next day before he got on the bus to go to the beach with the Senior class for Sneak Day. So, early on the morning of…

View original post 440 more words

Unknown's avatar

Final Weekly Photo Challenge: All-Time Favorites

FINAL? What? Wow. WordPress has been prompting and challenging us for 7 years. Now, I suppose it’s time to launch. Well, I will have to come up with my own motivation for posting now. Please keep watching this space! 

I have very much appreciated the WordPress team and their creative prodding. It’s been stimulating to play at word association and image association at the same time. I joined in the game on October 1, 2012 and have been participating ever since. The first WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge I posted was called “Mine”. I wrote: 

“What do we really possess? What possesses us? What is “me” all about? For years I called this place “my prairie”.  I do not own the land; I think it belongs to the village park district.  I cannot even claim to own land in the neighborhood any more, as I moved out of state almost 2 years ago. But I associate some of my deepest “me” moments with this place.  I walked into this prairie, with a feeling of reverence and retreat as if I were entering my personal sanctuary, on a regular basis while I was living nearby.  I was in the midst of  raising 4 children, nursing a dying husband, and striving to grow mature in those 20 years. My sense of identity, my sense of spirit and of sanctity and of God were all shaped by the time I spent here. I felt the place “talk” to me, as changes in weather, floral and fauna taught me to observe and ponder the significance of transience and transcendence.  I cannot say that anything here is “mine”, really, but much of me will always belong with this place.”

Which was my All-Time Favorite challenge? Scrolling through my archives, I found this one that I think is relevant and showcases some of my favorite images. The theme was “Temporary”. Which reminds me that even endings are temporary. As Thich Nhat Hahn points out, there really are no endings and beginnings, just continuations.

Blogging friends, may you all enjoy your continuations, and thank you for sharing!

All-Time Favorites

Unknown's avatar

In memory, in honor

May all beings be happy; may all beings be at peace.

May no distinction be made between Us and Them; may the UniverSe be ever US.

May my life honor ancestors, family, friends, lovers, animals, plants, places – all have birthed me and nourished me, all are in me and all embraced me. 

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twisted

A lot of things in life are twisted, naturally and unnaturally – like Jafar’s beard. (How many times did my kids watch that Disney Aladdin video? Too many, because that’s the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the word!)
In case you missed out on twisting last summer, here’s your chance to look at some twisty stuff both natural and man-made. 

Twisted

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Liquid

Liquid is a shapeshifter; it is diverse and can symbolize a million different things.  It permeates all of life and flows in our own bodies. Here are just a few examples of how I imagine LIQUID. 

Landscape is more than flat land covered by floodwater, the seeping of peat bogs, a river of liquid pewter viewed from a sentry tower. It’s an influence on what a person values, what she is willing to sacrifice or argue for. – Susan Vreeland

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” – Lao Tzu

Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That’s all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and I sigh. – W.B. Yeats

 
Liquid