Coming Back From Nature

After ten days in Yellowstone and Great Tetons National Parks, and seeing and experiencing nature, wildlife and dirt, it shocks me how easy it is to disassociate myself from that experience. Back to traffic, back to bad air, and back to rushing to gain one minute of free time. Yet, it seems that the majority of us humans are moving into cities. Why is it?

Only a few days ago I was admiring bald eagles and elk, and watching men and women indulge in a quiet moment of... fly fishing over emerald-looking waters.

How can we live an existence of concrete, asphalt and recurrent urgencies?

Letters to a Young Poet

"… I think that you will not have to remain without a solution if you trust in Things that are like the ones my eyes are now resting upon. If you trust in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which staggers behind, marveling, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge. You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to LIVE everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer…"

By Rainer Maria Rilke
from Letter 4 of Letters to a Young Poet

Rosa 'Mme. Plantier'

I am told that like other Albas, 'Mme Plantier' is shade tolerant. They are supremely hardy of all old garden roses; doing well in adverse conditions, survives with some neglect, thrives well with poor soil and resists desease and other problems, at least in my San Fernando Valley home.

The fragrance is exquisite, one hundred percent old garden rose fragrance - intoxicating. If I continue to immerse myself in its fragrance who knows what could happen... write a book, travel around the world, love everyone.

Learned Helplessness

Author Paulo Coelho talks in his Blog about the issue of "Learned Helplessness," which seems a very fascinating subject.

For example, a person should be able to quit an abusive relationship or a stressful job, but a psychological condition known as Learned Helplessness may cause a person to feel totally powerless to change these circumstances.

The elderly may also express Learned Helplessness as they age and become passive towards life's circumstances, such as aging and illness.

This condition seems also very apparent when expressed by youth who are unable to cope with life and become unresponsive to their circumstances. For example, gang members, or those in extreme poverty who do nothing to overcome their life's circumstance, and instead accept it to their detriment. It is a very sad condition indeed, and it makes me pause, and become more compassionate towards individuals going through these challenges.

Old Victorian

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> If these walls could talk?
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> So sad looking at this house. Wondering what could have been. Instead of patched walls and a tar-covered garden.
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Underwraps

Oreos on Mono

Made this for The American Iris Society (The tall bearded irises are OREO, floating on Mono Lake, CA.)

In Silence

"Sometimes your nearness takes my breath away; and all the things I want to say can find no voice. Then, in silence, I can only hope my eyes will speak my heart."

~ Robert Sexton

Friendship

"Friendship is a gift. Treat it well as it goes where it is invited and stays where it is well treated." ~ Neera Verma

Love

‎"Love is the only flower that grows and blossoms, without the aid of the seasons." ~ Kahlil Gibran

Clematis

Touch, Squeeze and Kiss

"I like to have someone I can touch and squeeze and kiss."

~ Cher

Accept New Challenges

"Think for yourself, not the way you've been told to think. Accept new challenges." ~ Deepak Chopra

The room

When love beckons to you

"When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses
your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots
and shake them in their clinging to the earth."

~ Khalil Gibran

My Art

‎"People discuss my art and pretend to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love." ~ Claude Monet

Be Yourself

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken." ~ Oscar Wilde

Reflection

There's no doubt we will be happy

‎"As long as we observe love for others and respect for their rights and dignity in our daily lives, then whether we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in the Buddha or God, follow some religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy." ~ Dalai Lama

Gardens

"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade."

~ Rudyard Kipling