Category Archives: Photography

Photo Friday: Facing Our Fears

Posted on February 24, 2015 by ivonprefontaine

What do I fear? I think frequently what I fear is not the matter in front of me, but the idea that something I face and faces me is different and there is potential for change I cannot control.

We separate from the world in ways that allow us to think as spectators. As Renate suggested, once we remove the medium through which we view the world, in this case a spider, it moves closer to us.

Yet, we cannot escape danger. We face it each day, perhaps each moment in some ways unknown to us and that presents a danger itself. We lose sight of the world we live in.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, photography, Rabindranath Tagore, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Lighthouses

Posted on February 21, 2015 by ivonprefontaine

Lighthouses.

Bill provides a quote from Anne Lamott. I began to read her work recently and found it humorous and inspiring.

When we have principles and are grounded, there is no need to run around trying to impress. We stand as beacons casting a light all around us inviting the world into us and joining the world as full participants.

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Posted in Leadership, Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged Anne Lamott, community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

First Nations

Posted on February 17, 2015 by ivonprefontaine

First Nations.

In Canada, indigenous peoples are referred to as First Nations. Their art work is incredible with deep connections to Nature. The link is a collection of photographs displaying ‘graffiti’ on Winnipeg buildings. I use the word graffiti in a positive way here. It reflects the work of an artist and adds to the city scape rather than defacing property.

Winnipeg is a city with a deep First Nations’ history. Along with Métis and Inuit peoples, the province of Manitoba is home to people with indigenous roots.

When I was quite young, my grandmother, who lived in northern Manitoba, gave me a pair of beaded moccasins. An elder in the local community had made them from hand and I could still smell the smoke on them. I regret not having kept them over the years.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments and tagged Art, community, creativity, First Nations, graffiti, Inuit, Métis, photography, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Pursue Only Those Things That Capture Your Heart

Posted on February 12, 2015 by ivonprefontaine

Pursue Only Those Things That Capture Your Heart.

The wisdom shared at the post reminded me about a comment made in a class several years ago. A colleague mentioned in ancient Hebrew the concept of catching one’s eye was almost literal. When we see something, it reaches out and takes hold of us in ways that are not explainable in words.

When something goes beyond the eye and finds the heart, it stays with us and we find meaning in that event. When we are mindful and attentive to those things which touch our hearts and catch our eyes, the world lights up and the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

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Gnarly

Posted on December 12, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Gnarly.

When I was still teaching, students would throw around their favourite slang, usually in proper ways. Gnarly was a favourite word of one of the young men I taught for five years.

A young woman used beast. The first time I heard her say that I was unsure what she meant, but it described her play as the Michael Jordan of her basketball league.

Mike photographed a tree and entitled the post Gnarly. It is cool which is what the young man meant when he used gnarly. It is cool there is wisdom in that tree as it does its work. It is also cool to find wisdom in the everyday world of words.

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Posted in 21st Century Education, Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Poetry, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, education, Michael Jordan, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Old Habits

Posted on December 10, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Old Habits.

The picture at Kenne’s post drew me in with questions about old habits. What are the person’s old habits? Is he someone’s old habit?

We wear habits in a way. There is a corporal nature to them including ways we conduct ourselves, think about ourselves and the world. This corporeal nature, habitus, is connected to the word habitat. We inhabit habits and they inhabit us.

When we look in the mirror and see ourselves, perhaps we see the habits in a taken-for-granted way. They just are part of us. Or, do we have someone who is our mirror? Someone who helps us see who we are in clearer way with their honesty and candor?

In Buddhism, others can serve as mirrors. Sometimes, it is in their silence we find ourselves become clearer. Certainly, there is still a graininess to the image and a smokey filter but mirrors help dissipate the graininess and smokiness. The external ordering becomes a patient, compassionate internal ordering.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged Bertrand Russell, Buddhism, community, conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, habits, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

“Nature Has No Need Of Fortune”

Posted on November 22, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

“Nature Has No Need Of Fortune”.

The article linked has a wonderful and lengthy quote from Michel de Montaigne about character. Character is an aesthetic masterpiece words and deeds are expressing. It is reflected in and through living. We are painting a picture, writing a story, and becoming someone without knowing the next brush stroke, the next letter, and the next step fully.

When I looked at the accompanying image, I was struck by the space in the foreground and how the background was more cluttered. We move in the spaces provided in the immediacy of the moment without knowing for sure what is revealed. When we look further afield, we realize how the past is cluttered and the future uncertain.

It takes confidence to step into the unknown. Although the next step appears spacious, what will appear is not certain despite our best plans, our material resources, and our victories.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged character, conversational journey, creativity, de Montaigne, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, photography, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Explore, Dream, Discover

Posted on October 22, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Explore, Dream, Discover.

I enjoy Mark Twain. He had a way with words and wisdom. We live life to explore, dream, and discover. We can close our eyes and be transported to whatever place we want in the world, perhaps the banks of the Mississippi.

Marcel Proust said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Imagine opening your eyes and seeing the world afresh in each new experiencing. To see the extraordinary in the ordinary would be have new eyes, exploring and discovering the world anew. We should catch the trade winds and leave those safe harbours, if only in our imagination.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, photography, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN IMAGES: THE SIMPLEST THINGS IN LIFE

Posted on August 5, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN IMAGES: THE SIMPLEST THINGS IN LIFE.

I mention my favourite poets regularly i.e. Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry and want to mention my favourite prose writer Paulo Coehlo. This post begins with a quote from Manuscript Found in Accra asking we let the simplest things reveal there extraordinary nature. The photography underscores this point.

It is in the ordinary the extraordinary is revealed is one of my favourite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh. When I am mindful, present, and attentive, I sense the extraordinary I rush past in my haste to get to the next moment.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Manuscript Found in Accra, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Paulo Coehlo, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Thich Nhat Hanh, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

Of High Solitude

Posted on January 1, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

When surrounded by the busyness of life, this poem is a call to other things where I find solitude. Wilfrid Wilson Gibson suggested the way the soul can find solitude in even the busiest of moments. I can look in and find those spaces even when they are not physically available. In those moments, I am present to those things and people who are most important in life. They are framed like a flower against the backdrop of majestic mountains.

Eagles and isles and uncompanioned peaks,

The self-reliant isolated things

Release my soul, embrangled in the stress

Of all days’ crass and cluttered business:

Release my soul in song, and give it wings;

And even when the traffic roars and rings,

With senses stunned and beaten deaf and blind,

My soul withdraws into itself, and seeks

The peaks and isles and eagles of the mind.