BEAUTY Archives - Page 29 of 56 -

Enter the Light

By Simone Lipscomb | September 29, 2016

Can’t recall ever having as much fun diving as I did the past four days. I was thinking….so many dives….over 600 in the past 15 years….but these last ones have been off-the-scale fun. Why is that?

I’ve done cave and cavern dives many times, have been to beautiful ocean destinations…what’s different this time?

Perhaps it was having the opportunity to be with one other person, a fantastic guide, and experience the freedom to play in the water–taking time with light beams or formations of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Nobody rushed me or pushed me to move if I was engrossed with something that captured my attention.

Before we began our diving, I told *Daniel that my goal was to have fun and take photographs. I wasn’t interested in anything else. Play was my objective.

More than once while diving I noted how fun it was to be underwater, underground and have my camera kit with me. Not a passing thought but a real fire of playfulness within that ignited passion for the work I do.

The mornings were filled with clear water, diving into cenotes filled with magical formations and ‘working’ to capture their beauty through the art of photography. The afternoons were filled with processing images and realizing that I was indeed capturing the beauty I so deeply love and appreciate. It was a celebratory atmosphere!

There were no distractions. It was me and the sea whispering sweet sounds as I worked and celebrated the success of my endeavors. I’m an ardent perfectionist but even that part of my personality was deeply pleased with my efforts. Did hell just freeze over?

Connecting with the beauty of nature is why I get up in the morning. Through the arts of writing and photography I find the expressive pathway to share the magnificence of nature….of our water planet. The way I decide where to go is to simply listen with my heart. It always guides me true.

My heart always guides me to enter the light.

*Daniel Ortega Moran is based in Tulum, Mexico and is a wonderful person and dive guide. He’s a cave instructor as well…if you’re interested in learning more about diving underground.

Dream Gate

By Simone Lipscomb | September 26, 2016

The gently rolling waves put me into a trance and I find it difficult to come back to waking consciousness. But rather than roam the reefs of the sea, I float–in my half-sleeping state–among formations of Mother Earth that defy description. In reality, I was there only hours ago hovering weightless in water so clear it was as if I was flying through a dry cave filled with magical earthen structures.

It was a new cave for me, one never-before-visited during five or six weeks of cave diving I’ve done here in Akumal, Mexico. It was pristine with no noticeable damage from ill-timed fin movement. The only ‘damage’ I saw was where someone stood up and left an imprint of fins beside a lacy rock.

During both dives I found myself laughing joyfully at the outrageous beauty, shaking my head in wonder and immersing myself completely in the experience. Nothing else existed in those moments of geological excursion.

When I’m diving in caves such as these it changes me. I find myself moving deeper and deeper through time and space until I meet some other me that might have walked in wonder in the caves when they were dry, among these embodiments of ever-so-slow drippings of mineral-laden water, the artistry of time and gravity.

The Owl

By Simone Lipscomb | September 22, 2016

Buddy and I begin our walk at dusk–that time when darkness starts to overtake light, when the mysteries of night begin to unfold. I glance ahead and see The Owl. She’s on the ground picking at some morsel. When she lifts off, her wingspan fills the air with silent majesty.

We know her. She lives and hunts in the trees surrounding our home. She has watched us before as we amble under green branches reaching toward the heavens. We have watched her.

She is more tolerant of us this day and flies onto a nearby limb. We move forward slowly, Buddy responding to my ‘shuuuu’ and finger to lips by crouching down and freezing. It’s a move we often practice with squirrels and birds.

We creep up and see her looking into the woods. We freeze. She turns and looks our way and then makes eye contact with me and is unashamed to stare–with her big, round, dark eyes–straight through me, to the other side.

She glances back to the woods, unconcerned about the black and white canine and his human.

Several rounds of watching for dinner and watching us occur until she sees something of interest and flies to the ground, grabs it and eats it. A large insect perhaps. Then she lifts those massive, sturdy wings once more and finds another branch on which to perch.

Buddy follows her with his eyes, then looks at me. We crouch down and slowly move forward. This time we are much closer to her chosen tree. More staring at me, my soul…making eye contact with her eyes that appear as pools of black liquid…gateways into the Unknown.

The intense, heart-opening yoga practice I just completed has opened me and I let her in, expose the vulnerable core. She doesn’t look away…for a very long time. Neither do I.

The moment eventually breaks. We turn and leave the woods to her and her hunt. Buddy wonders where his box turtle friend has been this week. I am hesitant to inform him that the turtle might have been a guest at the Owl’s banquet. Years ago I came upon a red-tailed hawk eating a turtle. I thought that was impossible.

Birds of prey remind me that everything is possible when my intention is strong and I am willing to see into the darkness to seek the light.

Yes, You!

By Simone Lipscomb | September 21, 2016

I have struggled for a very long time with acknowledging the value of the work coming through me. People say, “Wow…love your work!” and I’m like….What work?

Over the past ten years I haven’t held a regular job…you know where I punch a clock and sit at a desk and fade until Friday. Since young adulthood I promised that if circumstance allowed, I would give myself completely to the work that wanted to come through me. I would do it and forgo the ‘security’ of a regular paycheck. And then it happened.

A land sale gave me the opportunity and I leapt into the Unknown, following up on that promise. Yet I have struggled with the value of the efforts put forth. There’s not a lot of financial payoff and so I find myself stumbling with it at times. But not always. There are moments of complete clarity and I release the fear and ego’s cynical voice and surrender…and walk forward….fly forward on wings of light.

We are so conditioned in our culture to assign value to work based on money. It has been a struggle to continue creating books, photographs and paintings, not because I don’t want to but I wonder….am I wasting resources by following my wild heart? Many other questions arise that lead me to doubt the Vision that calls me forward in perfect trust and love. Sometimes there’s doubt. Other times….those wings of light grow bigger.

Today a story popped up on my Facebook feed from my friend Christiane Pelmas. She so eloquently writes about value of who we are and what we bring to this wounded world. Here’s a bit of what she shared:

“How do we become people who perceive a greater story unfolding, of which we are an inextricable part? In order to see the web of wholeness and healing, we must have the capacity to acknowledge our value. If we cannot, or do not, acknowledge our value, we walk around like the living dead…..We all must know our value, our important and humble place in the order of things. We must know that we matter to a larger story. If we do not acknowledge that we matter, we throw a wrench in the whole extraordinary process, that relies, so very simply, on the fact that all things exists, and thrive, in healthy relation and relevance to each other.” Christiane Pelmas.

The next time you wonder if you make a difference on this planet, stop and know….You! Yes, YOU! are part of the greater whole and like Christiane reminds us, “we thrive in healthy relation and relevance to each other.”

YES!

Go Gently

By Simone Lipscomb | August 31, 2016

So great is the darkness the only way I can see the hatchlings is to rest on my hands and knees. The moist sand, illuminated with phosphorescence, mirrors bright stars overhead.

The waves are rolling long. Just as two baby loggerheads find water, a wave washes far, far on to the beach and envelopes me with warm, salty water. I freeze, watching carefully for the tiny beings, small dark spots on this dark night. They find their way to the sea and I relax and feel myself connected….with all life.

Working with sea turtles brings me back to rhythms of sea and shore, light and darkness. They challenge me to find balance within myself, with nature…the cosmos.

Go gently little ones….go gently.