I awake each morning
Smile into the day
Soak in each moment.
Pause
Find calm
Let calm find me
Amidst the turbulence.
Tag Archives: photography
Transform
Since arriving home, it has been a slow process. I resist the routine or rut I was in when we left for Spokane. It is hard work, but one thing I noted today, I am not alone in my travails. It seems universal and I am glad for company. As I went through blogs I recognized transformation is a patient process, a slow process, and a personally purposeful process. I looked at the pictures we took on our travels and for all of nature’s ability to change rapidly, most change is slow and transformational.
I wait
Often impatient
Desire for something better
Lean into my steps
Transform
Slow, patient, with purpose
Without plan
An invisible blueprint.
Journey
With one’s self
Often with companions
Break bread together.
Trust
Moments of devotion
To each another
Change together.
Embrace
No need to explain
Words sometimes fail
A smile assures.
Turn back
A worn path emerges
Look ahead
Share paths.
Sabbath and Haiku Haven
I am unsure whether I will be back today. We are sorting out our home Internet issues. We think the router blew up in a recent storm. This was good, because it was an unplanned daily Sabbath for me.
On a routine morning drive, I observed the sun rising in my rear view mirror with the moon still visible. It was early in the school year and I had just returned from BC. I began that morning’s haiku class with poems which described phenomena I took for granted most days. I try to emphasize for students poetry is the routinely observed. Poetry lifts it to the extraordinary nature of things often taken for granted. I try model this through poetry chosen and shared i.e. Pablo Neruda and Mary Oliver and I write poetry on what I observe in life.
Majestically,
Touching endless sky above
Roots firmly grounded.
Greeting and adieu
Sun and moon share the one sky
Guide our daily drive.
The Woodcarver
When I walk in nature and see the panoramic creation, I recall this is a gift. Each day I am present and stop to meet what is there, is a day I move beyond my ego. I am grateful for simply being . It is the greatest gift.
The Woodcarver
Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
“What is your secret?”
***
Khing replied: “I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
***
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.
***
“By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.
***
“Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand it also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
And begin.
***
“If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.
“What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work.
Which you ascribe to the spirits.”
***
Palmer, P. J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Parker Palmer attributed his source as The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton and published by The Abbey of Gethsemani in 1965.
Metamorphosis
I struggled today. Starbucks’ Internet was intermittent and my day was cleaved in half with an appointment. I reflected on what my blogging and there has been a substantial change in the tone and voice of the blogger. When I began, I was doing it for all the wrong reasons and was driven from ego. Transformation is about my self and not about what goes on outside me.
I influence the world and as Gandhi wisely said, “Be the change you want to see in the world” is important.
Change
Occupies an idle mind.
Denies, oppresses
Another self.
Transform
Inner terrain.
Who is this self?
What life does this self live?
Mature
Through life.
Define
the self who lives this life.
Emerge
from chrysalis each day.
Present
A thoughtful gift
Transform my self.
Reveal through selfless acts
Flourish beyond rhetoric
Beyond fad.
Journey with others
Appreciate
Valorize.
Driftwood’s Wisdom
Kathy took this picture while we walked along Waterton Lake’s beach. She thought it would inspire me. I wondered what might emerge. Last night, I scribbled ideas into my journal about wisdom and its sources. I enjoy and enjoyed listening to stories told by my parents, Kathy’s parents, our grandparents about life in past generations, and many others I come in contact with each day.
Flotsam on the shore
Washed up and unusable
Life’s wisdom wasted.
Polished piece of wood
Fine tuned by life’s travails
Reveals the wisdom.
Life within a Panorama
Kathy took these panoramic pictures the first day we drove to Waterton. I often wonder about making sense of life without a fuller view. It is the stepping back that might allow the ‘hole in the whole’ to fade and show a panoramic view of life. Even at that, the life’s complexity creates mystery of and allows the ‘holes to make sense in the whole.’
Life
Still shot
One image at a time
Parsed and fits my definition.
Life
A broad view
Weaves a web without design
Fuller, richer, yet indefinable.
Reflection
Quilts life whole
Bound together moment by moment
Paradox of ragged and seamless.
Shared
Without losing self
Bound together by our commonness
Adhere disparate parts into one.
Oki from Crowsnest Pass
Oki is the Niitsítapi word that approximates hello. It recognizes the humanness of each other in greeting and is like Ubuntu used in several African languages.
Yesterday, we headed back to the Crowsnest Pass and revisited the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre. We were there Thursday, but soggy weather and low clouds prevented a hike through the slide area and good picture-taking of Turtle Mountain. The weather was better and we joined a group tour led by a geologist, Dr. Wilhelm, who brought the hike to life. We hiked for almost 2.5 hours instead of the hour the hike normally takes
This is Turtle Mountain’s north face where the 1903 slide occurred. The resulting slide is the deadliest rock slide in Canadian history with over 82 million tonnes of rock burying part of the town of Frank and killing over 100 people. The mountain is still unstable and the question is not if there will be another slide but when.
We saw this rock during the 1.5 km walk through the slide area. It is about the size of the cab of semi-truck. Most of the rock in the area is limestone, but there is also granite, feldspar, and quartz.
We had a great view to the west through the pass part way through the walk. This is Mount Tecumseh.
This picture is Crowsnest Mountain as you look west through the pass.
This is the Back to God Chapel and seats about 12 people.
This is the Burmis Tree and is the most photographed tree in Alberta. It is at the east entrance to the Crowsnest Pass. It is a Limber Pine which died in about 1978 and it was 300 to 700 years old when it died. The town of Burmis, like the tree, is dead. It was a coal town and, when the coal expired, so did the town.
Waterfalls! Waterfalls!
I disconnected yesterday as the Internet was unavailable. It was a dreary day, but we toured parts of the Crowsnest Pass. One stop was Lundbreck Falls. It is a stop you can easily miss, even though it is just off the main highway and visible from the secondary road. I liked it because I was able to get up, close and, personal. My fear of heights did not intervene too much.
This is a spectacular sight, but within 50 metres there is a pool at the base of the rock cliff where fly casting is possible.
Kathy took this shot from above the falls. I did not go on the overview platform.
Waterton has many waterfalls. Cameron Falls is on the outskirts of the town site and I was able to see it from below and climbed a bit to see it from above.
The red in the rock is from iron oxide deposits. The view below is from a stairway that goes up the hill along the falls.
Some waterfalls in Waterton are less accessible. Kathy took these pictures on the walk around Cameron Lake. The mountain, on the Montana side of the lake, is Mount Custer. It is named for a surveyor, Henry Custer, who worked in the area.
The source of the waterfalls is the snow pack on the mountain.
We hiked into Blakiston Falls which are bridal veil falls as they resemble a bride’s veil. I saw the falls from a distance and Kathy, the mountain goat she is, was able to get closer. This was my view and I was sitting on the ground.
Kathy took this picture from the platform almost directly above the falls.
Platform at bridal falls
The terror drains energy
View through others eyes.
Have a great August 3 wherever you are.
Another Day in Paradise
It was a less eventful day today with no bear sightings. We saw some deer late in the day, but they were in a hurry to get somewhere so did stop for pictures. What I have are some pictures of the natural beauty of Waterton Lakes National Park.
As we drove south from Pincher Creek, this is the view of the mountains before a person drives into them. The sign says, “Where prairie meets the mountains” and they do.
This was a similar view, without the bales, later the same day just before sunset.
And, if you give it a few minutes, this is what it looks like.
Sun embraces mountains
The sky in peaceful fury
Signals the day’s end.
This is the view from the beach at the town site of Mount Vimy. Can you imagine waking up to this every day? It would be pretty intense, but 88 people do everyday. According to Stats Can that is the official year round population of Waterton.
This is a view from the boat of the approach to the American side of Waterton Lake.
This is at Kootenai Lake which was at the end of our hike into Glacier National. The ramparts are spectacular.
Rise above it all
Magnificent natural ramparts
We feel safe below.
This is across Kootenai Lake. We waited but the moose did not show himself. He was there five minutes before we arrived.
At the end of the day, just before we left the town site, the moon appeared above Vimy.
Fair maiden appears
Light for evening’s journey
Keep us safe til morn.
Have a great August 1.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 