Author: brenda

autumn remains

Seeing our finger,

hearing a frog jump into the water,

experiencing the sunrise,

washing one’s face in the early morning –

anything will serve as a medium of realization if the mind is serene ~ Robert Aitken, A Zen Wave

autumn remains

If you stay at a place where a feeling of loneliness

[or sadness, detachment, voidness] comes,

the contemplative absorption arises in us ~Paltrul Rimpoche

Weekly Photo Challenge: kiss

Kiss. There are a lot of ways to capture a kiss, between two people – lovers, family, friends; two animals, or even just the sending or receiving of a kiss. I captured this kiss between two storks in Morocco. I felt lucky to have captured this moment.

In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means KISS to you!

kiss

accompany you home

leaf waterfall

Dear Larry,

as the winter winds travel across Wyoming’s landscape

the swirling snow releases its memories of you, lost upon Casper Mountain

its frigid touch awakens me to imagine your

aloneness in that wilderness of blinding snow

cries, deafened by the river of winds,

calling out in hope for

a human form to emerge out of the whiteness

the warmth of a human hand

the sound of a voice, comforting you

to accompany you home.

as I become lost within this winter’s swirling thoughts

the river winds tear into my soul

releasing tears arising from

the darkness of grief’s aloneness, seeking

a knowing to emerge out of ignorance’s darkness

you found peace

within a loving presence

that embraced you

and accompanied you home –

until then may refuge be found within the nature of things.

toddler shoe laces

thrift store1sign

toddler shoes in an antique store

Touching the present moment, we come to know the past created the present and together the future is being created. ~ Unknown

thrift store 2sign

shoe lace I

Just as you unreel the thread from a spool,

I want the past to become present.

thrift store 3sign

shoe lace II

The wife of Yoshitsune, a famous warrior in medieval Japan, wrote this farewell poem shortly after her spouse was deployed to the northern provinces where he later died.  She offers to us our creative ability to mentally bring the past alive and into the present.

thrift store 4sign

shoe lace III

… “Time goes from present to past.”  This is not true in our logical mind, but it is in the actual experience of making past time present.  There we have poetry, and there we have human life.

~ cited in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki

thrift store 5sign

shoe lace IV

weekly photo challenge: illumination

IN A NEW POST CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PICTURE THAT MEANS ILLUMINATION TO YOU.

Roget’s International Thesaurus: applying color, explanation, learning, lighting, ornamentation, painting, picture, radiation, teaching

how colorless, now–

fields where I took bush clover

for my garden ~Satomura Genjo

winter’s slumber before January’s snow

winter's slumber

winter’s slumber