Inside Out

Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inner half of every cloud
Is bright and shining:
I therefore turn my clouds about
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.

~© Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler~

The Forerunner

You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.

And I too am my own forerunner, for the long shadow stretching before me at sunrise shall gather under my feet at the noon hour. Yet another sunrise shall lay another shadow before me, and that also shall be gathered at another noon.

Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed. We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.

When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there a wandering desire. Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born. And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.

And when you were a silent word upon life's quivering lips, I too was there, another silent word. Then life uttered us and we came down the years throbbing with memories of yesterday and with longing for tomorrow, for yesterday was death conquered and tomorrow was birth pursued.

And now we are in God's hands. You are a sun in His right hand and I an earth in His left hand. Yet you are not more, shining, than I, shone upon.

And we, sun and earth, are but the beginning of a greater sun and a greater earth. And always shall we be the beginning.

You are your own forerunner, you the stranger passing by the gate of my garden.

And I too am my own forerunner, though I sit in the shadows of my trees and seem motionless.

~© Kahlil Gibran~

Strength

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

~© Marcus Aurelius~

Imagination

Those who fear the imagination condemn it:
Something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten.
Not all of us dream awake,
But those of us who do, have no choice.

~© Patricia McKillip~

The Importance Of Photography

The camera can photograph thought.
~© Dirk Bogarde~


When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
~© Ansel Adams~


The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer.
~© Author Unknown~


A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.
~© Ansel Adams~


The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
~© Dorothea Lang~


The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.
~© Brooks Anderson~


I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.
~© Ruth Bernhard~


A Ming vase can be well-designed and well-made and is beautiful for that reason alone. I don't think this can be true for photography. Unless there is something a little incomplete and a little strange, it will simply look like a copy of something pretty. We won't take an interest in it.
~© John Loengard~


Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.
~© Edward Steichen~


Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

~© Henri Cartier-Bresson~


If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.
~© Lewis Hine~


All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.
~© John Berger~


I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.
~© Wynn Bullock~

Scattered Clouds

When scattered clouds are resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one might climb into the heavenly region, earth being so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed into it.

~© Nathaniel Hawthorne~

My Kingdom

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.

~© Louisa May Alcott~

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen, to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky; to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon; to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one by one, and the myriads that no man can count, and lo! the universe is white with them; and you and I are here.

~© Marco Morrow~


There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.

~© Ralph H. Blum~


Life is huge! Rejoice about the sun, moon, flowers, and sky. Rejoice about the food you have to eat. Rejoice about the body that houses your spirit. Rejoice about the fact that you can be a positive force in the world around you. Rejoice about the love that is around you. If you want to be happy, commit to making your life one of rejoicing.

~© Author Unknown~

One Year Today...

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

~© Auguste Rodin~

Absence

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.

~© Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld~

The Dream Begins

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth.'

~© Dan Rather~

The Doors

I offer images- I conjure memories of freedom that can still be reached- like the doors, right? But we can only open the doors, we can't drag people through. I can't free them unless they want to be free. Maybe primitive people have less bullshit to let go of, to give up. A person has to be willing to give up everything- not just wealth. All the bullshit that he's been taught- all society's brainwashing. You have to let go of all that to get to the other side. Most people aren't willing to do that.

~© Jim Morrison~

...And Silly People

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.

~© Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Necessity

The mere sight of the Sun
instantly reignites the fire
within my soul,
flooding the hollow darkness
that has crept inside.

His warm radiance
dissipates each
of the dreary, dark clouds
which have taken residence
in my grey matter.

As necessary
as oxygen is to the body,
so is your light
to my innermost being,
great Sun.

Break through
the thick, grey clouds
which stand between us,
and grace me
with your presence.

I beg of you...
find your way
to where I am.
Lay your healing powers
upon my heart.

~© Alis Volat Propiis~

Snow Broken

When night still stars dangle
Skies open
moon faints and
sun births

She flashes into darkness
Her shadow dreams

Wolves bare the forest away
all the clear cold moon long

Fiery mouth
breath freezes then
trickles in dawn air

Golden time lets her play
She dances nakedly
in the white snow white

Silver birds croon lullabies
She waltzes all the sun long
laughs sky blue

Snow twirls to air
then lies like broken angels on forest ground

Time holds her ignorant
She slides into the
wind winter grey
Sun sets

~© Celine Berghmans~

The More I Think About It

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

~© Vincent Van Gogh~

Truly...

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.

~© The Holy Bible~

Thought

As fletchers make their arrows straight,
the wise make straight their wavering and unsteady thought,
which is difficult to guard and difficult to restrain.
Like a fish taken from its watery home
and thrown on the dry ground,
our thought quivers all over
in order to escape the dominion of Mara.

It is good to control the mind,
which is difficult to restrain, fickle, and wandering.
A tamed mind brings happiness.
Let the wise guard their thoughts,
which are difficult to perceive, tricky, and wandering.
Thoughts well guarded bring happiness.
Those who restrain their mind,
which travels far alone without a body, hiding in a cave,
will be free from the restrictions of death.

If a person's mind is unsteady,
if it does not know the true path,
if one's peace of mind is troubled,
wisdom is not perfected.

There is no fear for the one whose thought is untroubled,
whose mind is not confused,
who has ceased to think of good and bad,
who is aware.

Knowing that this body is like a jar,
and making one's thought strong as a fortress,
attack Mara with the weapon of wisdom,
protect what is conquered and stay always aware.
Before long, unfortunately, this body will lie on the earth,
rejected, without consciousness, like a useless log.

Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,
or a hater to a hater,
a wrongly directed mind will do greater harm.
Neither a mother nor a father
nor any other relative will do so much;
a well-directed mind will do us greater service.

~© Buddha~

Everything Is Determined

Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance.

~© Albert Einstein~

All That We Are

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

~© Harlan Ellison~

My Heart

Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches,
And here is my heart which beats only for you.

~© Paul Verlaine~

To Correct Natural Indifference

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn't everything.

~© Albert Camus~

Be Humble

Be humble, be big in mind and soul, be kindly; you will like yourself that way and so will other people.

~© Norman Vincent Peale~