Reality

Reality is not only stranger than we suppose but stranger than we can suppose. J. B. S. Haldane

The View

I am presently living in my temporary home (is anything not temporary in my life right now?) in a beautiful part of Scottsdale. This is the view. I have discovered that no matter what I am going through, simply having the opportunity to gaze upon something beautiful makes a huge difference in my state of mind.

Here are some quail I saw when I was out for a walk a couple of days ago.

And some cactus: also so interesting and beautiful.

What a magical, colorful world this place is!

Uncertainty

She had been willing to inhabit uncertainty, to remain on the threshold where she didn't know what the outcome of her journey would be. Sally Kempton

Flowers

It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. Osho

Life

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Kahlil Gibran

The Present

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. Henry David Thoreau

Happiness

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.

Francesca Reigler

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

Prayer

Grow flowers of gratitude in the soil of prayer. Verbena Woods

Circular

The perfect journey is circular. Dino Basli

Opportunity

We are continually faced with great opportunities

which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.

Margaret Mead

Calm

I go to nature to be soothed and healed,

and to have my senses put in order.

John Burroughs

Butterflies

Butterflies are self propelled flowers. R.H. Heinlein

Balance and Beauty

Yesterday, I received an unexpected and welcome phone call from a friend asking if I wanted to go hiking north of Carefree. With a blue sky and temps in the upper seventies, I set my work aside and put on my hiking shoes.

This time of year is especially beautiful and, because of winter rains, the wildflowers are blooming almost everywhere you look. Delicate orange poppies cover the desert mountains and butterflies and bees are out in force admiring and pollinating the lovely blossoms.

The hiking trail led us to the top of a mountain where Indian ruins remain. The view was spectacular and it is not hard to imagine these people from not so long ago enjoying the same scenery: the valley below, the distant mountain ranges, the unusual rock formations and the red tail hawks circling above. There is a particular stillness at this elevation that adds to the majesty.

I am so grateful to live in a place where I can put down my work and so quickly be in this environment. The balance between work and play, between activity and stillness, and between close up and far away is so easily created.

Happiness

Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness overflow. Monica Edwards

Friendship

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Aristotle

Do it!

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh

Slow down

It is important from time to time to slow down, to go away by yourself, and simply be.

Eileen Caddy

Color

As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life. John Lubbock

Opening up

We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Andre Gide

I was thinking of the above quote this morning because I am in the midst of a part of my life, self-induced, where I have no idea what the next part of my life will look like. I'm not even exactly sure what the next few weeks will produce! I am living in a friend's home for six weeks until my next furnished rental is available in the middle of April. I'll have that place until sometime in November.

At a time in my life when many people are settled in their lives and ways, I have thrown open a big wide open net. I love Arizona, my new home and am happy with my choice to be here. And, I am looking forward to what this time in my life produces -- what ever that may be.

In the meantime, I am presenting astrology lectures: one for a fantastic organization here in AZ called Spirit of the Senses (http://www.spiritofthesenses.org/) and another for UAC, the international astrology conference taking place in Denver in May (http://www.uacastrology.com/), which is going to be the biggest meeting of astrologers and students of astrology in years.

I am also back into giving my Receive courses (http://www.receiveandmanifest.com/) and working, once again, on my manuscript.

So, life is good. And I have definitely let go of the shore.

Life

is not a race.

Possibilities

In the sky
an infinitude of hope,
a canvas of glory
all possibilities mine.
Neroli Lambent

Hope

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all.

Emily Dickinson

Fly

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway. Mary Kay Ash

Unconditional

My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am.

Author Unknown

I took this photo when I was in Redmond, Washington last May. This woman and her dog were looking out over a beautiful lake that had ducks and turtles as well as eagles flying overhead.

I was thinking about my dog this morning. Joline, an Australian Shepard, died many years ago but I still think about her and miss her. There is simply nothing like a relationship with a dog as anyone who has ever had one knows.

I found the above quote in quotegarden.com, a good place to find quotes, when I went looking for a quote that captured this special relationship.

What would it be like to live in the world with the enthusiasm and love that a dog so naturally possesses? Living in the present is so dog-like perhaps all seekers should give themselves an assignment of observing and playing with dogs.

Today I am going to be on the lookout for dogs and spend time watching them. If I am lucky, I'll get the chance to pet one.

Togetherness

No man is an island, entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent.

John Donne

Perception

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Joy

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.

Iris Murdoch

Journey

Going through my books last night I found a book of poems by one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver. If you are unfamiliar with her, gift yourself with one of her many books of poems. Below is one of my favorites.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver

Commitment

At the moment of commitment,

the universe conspires to assist you.

Goethe

Experiment

I have a habit of taking photos of a section, piece or part of something that catches my interest when I go somewhere and then I don't end up with photos that really show where I've been. The above photo is from my recent trip to Tuscon. Not that you can tell :-)

When my mom was visiting recently, we went to see a high school friend of hers, Patricia. Patricia's home is spectacular. Her husband Kim has a cactus garden with cactus from all over the world. Quite beautiful.

One of the things I loved about their home was the use of color. Walls, inside and out, were painted with vivid blues, yellows, and even a deep purple. Having lived for the last twenty years on the east coast, where colors tend to be more muted and dark, it's fun to see how people in the southwest use color.

So, I guess the theme for today's posting, from close-up shots to different ways to use color, is about looking at the world in different, unexpected and sometimes surprising ways. I'm going to pay attention to this theme today and see where it leads me.