New Year's resolutions

May my feet rest firmly on the ground
May my head touch the sky
May I see clearly
May I have the capacity to listen
May I be free to touch
May my words be true
May my heart and mind be open
May my hands be empty to fill the need
May my arms be open to others
May my gifts be revealed to me
So that I may return that which has been given.

The Terma Collective

Love

Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Rumi

Success

Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder.
Success comes to those who can weather the storm.
The I Ching

Cheerfulness

Resistance drains energy
Acceptance saves energy
Cheerfulness sustains energy
Amrit Desai

For more Amrit Desai quotes go to www.yogisays.com and click on the little yogi.

Letting Go

If you let it go,

it will let you go.

Amrit Desai

The Night Sky

You'll have to click on the photo to read the quote.

The recent Moon, Venus, Jupiter conjunction is shown here. Actually, I took this photograph in the evening of December 1st when the Moon had passed Venus and Jupiter.

Mystery

Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust - we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper. Albert Einstein

Time

Time on my side, a stowaway in the slipstream...

Jackson Browne

I have a dream

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quiet

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius

Hummingbird

From scarlet to powdered gold,

to blazing yellow,to the rare

ashen emerald,

to the orange and black velvet

of your shimmering corselet,

out to the tip

that like

an amber thorn

begins you,

small, superlative being,

you are a miracle,

and you blaze

From Ode to the Hummingbird

Pablo Neruda

Hummingbirds are everywhere here. I see them flitting outside among the butterflies all day long out in the patio garden. I took this photo though at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, and now that I am learning how to use Photoshop from Kristina, I am having fun working with my photographs. Check out her photos. She is a great teacher and an amazing photographer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinabrendel/

Stillness

Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity, the field of pure potentiality. Deepak Chopra

Sedona

You cannot manifest that which you cannot conceive.
Dattatreya Siva Baba

I am finally learning something about photoshop. This is one of my first attempts.

The Journey

It took me years to see

That I was but the river’s bend

The current flowing over me.
Bob Smith

I am still learning that...

Grasping brings less; letting go brings more.

Parker Palmer

Sky words

Words and clouds from Carefree, Arizona

Patience

A waiting person is a patient person.

The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.
Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.
Waiting, then, is not passive. It involves nurturing the moment, as a mother nurtures the child that is growing within her.

from Watch for the Light

Spacious Skies

The desert sometimes issues its own invitation. ‘Come! Enter into my silence, my uncluttered solitude, my stark beauty, and I will show you the depths of your own soul you never knew you had. Elizabeth J. Canham

Silence

Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. Pico Iyer

Endings and Beginings

I created a collage, or vision board as they are called these days. This is a photo of a section of it. Below is another. (BTW you can click on photos to see larger image). I have been so interested in the visual arts these days and I just signed up for a workshop at a multi-media art conference that takes place in Phoenix each year called Art Unraveled. Here's the link: www.artunraveled.com

Summer in the east

These are a few photos from my recent trip east and below them is one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets. Enjoy!

The Summer Day

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

The East

I covered three states in seven days on my trip back east: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. I am so acclimated to the uncluttered pastel desert landscape, that the curvy roads framed with overgrown green was quite noticeable to me on this trip and required extra attention while driving because the road ahead was not visible. Interesting metaphor. Out here in Arizona I can see for miles, which I have discovered is quite hopeful and relaxing.

Last fall I visited the Chanticleer Gardens in Pennsylvania. http://www.chanticleergarden.org/ I returned on this trip. All of these photos are from the gardens. If you go to my travel blog http://www.amandaowen.blogspot.com/ you can see photos from my last trip there. It is an amazing place. If you are anywhere in the area, make sure you check it out. I'll post more photos soon from my recent trip.

A little getaway

One of the great things about living in Arizona is that in very little time I can get to breathtakingly beautiful places like Sedona. The above photo is from the car on the way in. Although I just did an overnighter, I had time to have dinner at the Heartline Cafe, watch the sunset, go on a skywatch where, with three astronomers, I got to look through telescopes and see Saturn, Jupiter and four of its moons, a binary star system, the star Antares in the Scorpio constellation and many other stars. It was an amazing evening! The next morning I had breakfast at my favorite breakfast place, The Coffeepot.

Here is a link to the Heartline Cafe: http://www.heartlinecafe.com/

And here are more Sedona sights.

Looking ahead

Don’t stare at the doors closing behind you

or you'll miss the ones opening ahead.

Cyril Magnin

Slow down

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. Eddie Cantor

Birthday

My heart

Is an unset jewel

Upon the tender night

Yearning for its dear old friend

The Moon

Hafiz

My second birthday since moving to Arizona has arrived and I am amazed how quickly time has come and gone. When I moved here a year ago in May, life was as wide open as it can get. And now my life is established here in beautiful Arizona and I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. I am taking the next seven days to finish my book proposal on the Receive material and then will turn my attention to some exciting projects that are in the works.

I am itchy to travel and might even head up to Sedona for a couple of days. And then next month I will go to the east coast for a short visit to see family and friends. Life is good.

The Ribbon Road

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. Confucius

Love

I saw the ultimate chick flick Sex and the City last night. It was wonderful! I was surprised to see so many guys there. I went with Deborah, one of my new friends here in Scottsdale. After the movie, we sat outside at a lovely cafe that is by the movie theater and people-watched. The evening shows were sold out and the lines long. It's the perfect movie to watch with girlfriends. Now if only the love of my life would appear....then I wouldn't have birds as the photographic depiction of love :-)

Originality

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. Judy Garland

Beauty

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
Jawaharlal Nehru

Back Home!

Home is such a relative word. Some of you know that I have been living in furnished rental homes since I arrived in Arizona a year ago.

I just returned home from five days in Denver where I presented a lecture for the United Astrology Conference, which is the international astrology conference that occurs every four years or so. I'm still buzzing from all of the energy -- over 1500 people there! An international event like this is very cool for astrologers. We rarely get to see our colleagues -- such a solo profession. Plus I had the opportunity to see the people from astrology.com for the first time since I have been writing for them -- Linda, Jessica, Runa and Mark. So that was great!

I didn't bring my camera to the conference, so I don't have pictures. I'm going to rummage through my photos and pick one to post for you.

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing me about the photos. It's great to hear that you are enjoying them!

Curiosity

Curiosity is a door opener to the unknown. Instead of doing the same thing, thinking the same thoughts, feeling the familiar -- what would it be like if you approached your day with a curious mind and a willingness to let in the unexpected, the uninvited, the un-thought of?

I have a saying: receive everything; decide later, which reminds me to be open to possibilities instead of closing the doors too quickly before I've had the opportunity to sit with something new.

Today I will remind myself to be curious about what crosses my path. I'll save my assessments for tomorrow.

The Source

I was reading from the I-Ching last night and came across this beautifully worded thought in hexagram 48 titled The Source: This hexagram represents the deep, inexhaustible, divinely centered source of nourishment and meaning for mankind...It receives from the individual's experience and gives to the individual's nature.

What a lovely and inclusive way to think of reciprocity and the givingness of life. Do you ever think of how your personal nature and your experience sends a message that invites a larger universal response, with that response being in sync with you? Hmmm.

Am I being too esoteric here? Simply, I can think about where I would like to be and what I would like to have happen, but life meets me where I am. When you think about it, it is very honoring to meet someone where they are, instead of where you would like them to be or wish they were not.

I'm going to sit with that thought today and see where it leads me.

Back from Vacation

This photograph is taken from one of my favorite hiking trails on Pinnacle Peak. Besides hiking I have moved again recently as I mentioned in a previous posting. And I have been thinking about what to do with my blog (and my life -- but that's another discussion!)

I have received so many compliments about my photos and am thinking of doing something with them. For the time being I am going to put previous blogs postings in rotation while I figure this out.

I hope you continue to enjoy my blog and I want to thank you for letting me know when a particular posting has been meaningful to you. I appreciate the feedback!

Change

I ran across the following poem recently when going through my books as I was unpacking (once again!). I am back in the house I originally moved into when I first arrived in Arizona a year ago. I am very happy to be here! As I was rereading this poem, I reflected once again on how lovely it is to get a fresh start in a new location. There is something about it that helps me make more thoughtful choices.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
by Portia Nelson

I
I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in. I am lost ... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out.

II
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

III
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit. my eyes are open I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

IV
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

V
I walk down another street.

Anniversary

This landscape is so hopeful. In a desert everything blooms with optimism. Just like me.

It was one year ago today that I got in my car in Pennsylvania and headed west to Arizona where I have made my new home. A couple of days ago I hiked Pinnacle Peak, one of the lovely desert mountains around here, which is where I took the above photo. I've been reflecting a lot today on the changes in my life. It's been an incredible year. And here is the poem that has been with me for last several days. It is by one of my favorite poets.

In the Evening

The heads of the roses begin to droop.
The bee who has been hauling his gold
all day finds a hexagon in which to rest.

In the sky, traces of clouds,
the last few darting birds,
watercolors on the horizon.

The white cat sits facing a wall.
The horse in the field is asleep on its feet.

I light a candle on the wood table.
I take another sip of wine.
I pick up an onion and a knife.

And the past and the future?
Nothing but an only child with two different masks.

Billy Collins

Rest

Take a rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

Ovid