Contact Me
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Everything
Everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty. - Rumi
(Photo taken at Denver's Botanic Gardens)
Labels: photography, Rumi
posted by Carol at 4:16 PM
2 comments
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Giving Myself Away
As snow melted off the roof of my cabin, it kerplunked down onto a bed of ice below."Today our special is a cool drop of water served on a bed of ice."
A quote: "We have to choose between risk and risk. We run the risk of sleeping through life, of never waking up at all or else we wakefully rise to the risk of life, facing the challenge of life, of love."
In this book, Steindl-Rast spoke of how often we use the word "take" as opposed to "give". Take an exam, take a vacation, take a nap. But we really are giving ourselves to these things. We will try to take a nap until we realize that we won't fall asleep until we GIVE ourselves to the nap.
We all know that feeling. The feeling of giving ourselves fully to sleep. Giving ourselves to whatever we are doing. I also know the feeling of doing what I'm doing while holding a big part of myself back. I think I have done that a lot in my life. Not fully committing because I'm scared, because I'm not sure that what I'm doing is what I want to be doing, because I'm embarrassed to admit that this is who I am. It's like I'm trying to skate through life between the risk of sleeping through it and the risk of living. Staying in the "safe" zone (that doesn't really exist). What a joke, though. We're either the snow on the roof or the drop as it freely falls. The drop can't hold on to the shingles and safety. Once you're a drop, you gotta do what drops do.
When I prepared for my first vision quest, I wasn't afraid of being alone in the desert. I was afraid of sleeping with no tent to give me a sense of protection. The thought of sleeping out there where any animal could just come upon me was unnerving.
But when as our group arrived at the desert, one of the quest leaders - a woman - stated: "This is the place where I feel the safest in the world." For some reason, I believed her. I believed that it was safe out there, so having no tent was no longer a problem. And I gave myself to the desert. I did a free-fall into it and reaped the joy of it.
Birds make great sky-circles
Of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
They're given wings.
- Rumi
Of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
They're given wings.
- Rumi
Labels: Brother David Steindl-Rast, photography, Post-retreat, Rumi
posted by Carol at 11:40 PM
2 comments
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Be Melting Snow
Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing, you come to see me.
Is someone here? I ask.
The moon. The full moon is inside your house.
My friends and I go running out into the street.
I'm in here, comes a voice from the house, but we aren't listening.
We're looking up at the sky.
My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.
Ringdoves scatter with small cries, Where, Where.
It's midnight. The whole neighborhood is up and out
in the street thinking, The cat burglar has come back.
The actual thief is there too, saying out loud,
Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd.
No one pays attention.
Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.
- Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
Labels: photography, Rumi
posted by Carol at 11:47 AM
2 comments
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Do you ever wonder why Love takes the time to paint beauty all around us?
In the grayest days, Love's gentle breath still leaves its evidence everywhere.
In the grayest days, Love's gentle breath still leaves its evidence everywhere.
Let your teacher be love itself. - Rumi
Labels: love, photography, Rumi
posted by Carol at 4:08 PM
0 comments