The power of the heart

Opening to the day.

I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts. All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn.

~ Melody Beattie

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A Friday walk around the ranch

I don’t know how this photo happened. It’s as if the clouds went swooping by, in a hurry to be somewhere.  It created a double exposure look without any editing on my part.

Sometimes I think there are only two instructions we need to follow to develop and deepen our spiritual life: slow down and let go.

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The 79th National Folk Festival

Sign of things to come. (On a sidewalk in Salisbury, MD)

If Music is a Place — then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a Temple.

~ Vera Nazarian

Yet our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom and they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry.
We can stop them if we try.

~ Phil Ochs, Power and Glory (1960’s folk/protest song)

Brighter day

The roses glow on dark and stormy days.  (Shot through the window while the rain was coming down in sheets.)

Patience from a Buddhist perspective is not a “wait and see” attitude, but rather one of “just be there”… Patience can also be based on not expecting anything. Think of patience as an act of being open to whatever comes your way. When you begin to solidify expectations, you get frustrated because they are not met in the way you had hoped… With no set idea of how something is supposed to be, it is hard to get stuck on things not happening in the time frame you desired. Instead, you are just being there, open to the possibilities of your life.

~ Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks Into A Bar…

Waiting for Dorian

Scene from a bike ride on Labor Day.

Whatever we are waiting for — peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance — it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and graceful heart.

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.

~ Morris West

A Tuesday ramble

At the edge of dawn.

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.

~ Wendell Berry

The grace that is the health of creatures can only be held in common.
In healing the scattered members come together.
In health the flesh is graced, the holy enters the world.

~ Wendell Berry, excerpt from What Are People For?: Essays (you can read more here)

All aboard

It will soon be time to board car 172.

I remember in ’37 when trolley cars were so big in New York.  It was five cents for a ride… There used to be open-air buses, and you could go up a spiral staircase and sit up on top.  Those were great, great days.

~ Tiny Tim