Tag: Nature Photography
The Door is Open

The Door is Open

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My hound often sits outside the pet door and barks to come inside….when the door has the solid panel removed. I’ll say, “Come on Vernon, the door is open!” And after a few minutes of thought, or something akin to thought, he comes through and climbs into his purple leather recliner. 

This morning, one of my cats did Vernon’s version of ‘the door is locked and I can’t get in.’ So I told her, “The door is open!” And she came inside.

This was an unusual behavior as Tawanda is super-smart (not saying Vernon isn’t super-smart…his nose is beyond intelligent). Any time something unusual happens, I stop and pay attention. Especially after the contemplation I had this morning.

I kept hearing: The door is open. Walk through! So I wrote it down and put the paper beside my computer. As I begin the work day, the paper kept staring at me and I remembered a story I shared at a book event this weekend.

I was hiking with a friend up Alum Cave trail to LeConte Lodge. There is a point where the trail flattens out after nearly five miles of climbing. The higher altitude forest opens up and it’s pure magic. Thick carpets of green moss, the smell of balsam fir, beautiful spruce and fir trees create a wonderland of beauty. On our way back from the lodge, I stopped and pulled out a flute and stood in the forest and said… ‘this is for you…thank you.’ 

As I played the melody, I felt my heart open and then a rush of energy move through me that brought me to tears. There was such connection with the forest. I felt it on a cellular level. 

As we hiked down, I contemplated the experience and realized the only thing keeping us from being in such profound harmony with life is ourselves. The forest is always there…open, strong, beautiful. We simply have to open our hearts to feel that Oneness.

In the book event with my friend and writer, Thomas Rain Crowe, I described the forest and flute moment and how I realized that the only thing keeping us from experiencing Oneness was ourselves. And the ‘fix’ is to open our hearts. 

To be in Oneness, to feel love and connection, we simply have to open ourselves. We’ve spent years building walls of protection and it was smart to do that when we were kids and trying to grow up and find our way. But as adults, those walls keep us from connecting. We can become addicted to adding to and stabilizing those walls, reinforcing them, to keep ourselves safe. But then, our world becomes smaller and scarier because we’re repeating our fears over and over. The way out of that fear cycle is to find ways to open again. For me, it’s with animals and forests…rivers, the night sky. When I dare to open my heart and listen to the forest, the rivers, wild animals and my own four-legged kiddos, I find I hear again and again, “The Door is open! Walk through!”

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Misery is found in our self-created prison. 

We sit inside the cell and carve days into walls of stone

As the rusted, open door of iron bars silently waits.

A beam of light illuminates the opening

And we marvel at the beauty of it sparkling 

In the dungeon of our shadows.

It whispers, The Door is open. Walk through.

By the magic of grace, we walk through the open door

Of our heart and know freedom.

The Door is open. Walk through!
Star Dust

Star Dust

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Stardust drifted down and I’m pretty sure I felt it lightly kiss my cheeks as I stood face-to- pre-dawn-sky with a wild look that only a blue-white meteor streaking across the sky gives me. My scream of delight echoed down the mountain and across the valley. A coyote might have howled in answer.

The massive fireball seemed to slow time and even now, as I sit pondering it, the meteor seems suspended in space and time. Forever etched in my mind, I see it.

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I returned from Waterrock Knob last evening of imaging the comets…two of them…and visiting with other night sky lovers. I didn’t expect to awaken so early, but meteors call. And the Orion Nebula…I’ve missed it. A lot. It’s a part of my life since it shared some of its mystery last winter. It felt like a dear friend returning to my life.

We’ve had so many cloudy nights for months, with only one or two mostly clear nights. Last night’s viewing was near perfection with no moon, clear skies, two comets, a meteor shower…a star gazer’s dream.

Stars open me to the vastness of Infinity and are a key to unlocking my inner infinity. Being under their blanket of swirling, twirling light grounds me in the present moment and reminds me that human problems and politics and all of that are simply a tiny blip in time  and space. Madmen leave a mark, but a very tiny and insignificant one in the eons of existence. May I remember this truth.

When weather and celestial events come together like they did last night and this morning, I find my inner constellations glowing bright again and my heart beating strong with the beauty of the Universe. 
The Infinite

The Infinite

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Earlier this week, I gave myself an assignment to contemplate the Infinite…the Cosmic Soup…the Universe. All through the week, simply to envision pure, unlimited potential in my life.

Only a few days later, and the shift is amazing. Mostly due to getting circulating thoughts, that form neural grooves in my brain, halted and replaced with something bountiful and immense—the Infinite. 

I started by mentally listing possibilities in given circumstances and this helped me realize how limiting my thoughts really were, even the positive ones. In a given situation, I’d conjure up as many possibilities as I could think of and come up with only five or six…out of a Universe filled with possibilities. I’d laugh and then imagine the vast night sky or a massive cauldron of stars and planets and galaxies pouring onto me and filling me with massive potential.

The results have been amazing…unexpected money arriving, me advocating for a raise for myself in a new grant, musical creativity rising. But most important, a sense of openness to life, energy, and clarity has arisen within me. My entire body feels more electric, more alive.

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It’s easy to become trapped in the physical manifestation of life; however, most of the ‘physical’ is space…energy vibrating. The form we see is the smallest result of the creative process. Imagine that for a moment. Everything we see with our eyes is just a fraction of what’s really there. Like the neural grooves that form in our brains from repetitive thoughts, our lives become smaller when we limit ourselves to the physical manifestation of the creative process.

To simplify, imagine that you are in outer space in a spaceship. Stars, planets, nebula extend in all directions endlessly, yet you only see the contents of the spaceship and don’t realize how vast the world really is. You limit yourself to a very small existence. 

So, how do we change our limiting thoughts? Imagine something more, but without limits. Whatever your process is, begin to contemplate the Infinite, or the Great Cosmic Soup as I call It. All possibilities, unlimited potential. This then is freeing the mind, a powerful tool, especially when combined with the energy of the heart. 

(Thanks, Pam Wooten, for the photograph)

It’s not about how the rest of the world sees me…or how the world sees you. It’s how we see ourselves. Are we limiting ourselves, seeing only the small spaceship? Or are we seeing the unlimited Universe? Are we willing to dip our ladle into the Cosmic Cauldron and drink from it? Or pour it over our heads, filling ourselves with boundless potential, unlimited possibilities.

Do I limit my world to inside my home? Or, do I step outside and see the beauty, that is Infinite?

The Grating Expanse of Stillness

The Grating Expanse of Stillness

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I set my alarm for 4.30am so I could go hike my favorite trail today. I had mixed feelings because it’s busy on a regular summer day, but the 4th of July weekend…I wasn’t sure.

Then, I woke up at 1.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so turned off the alarm and decided if I woke up early enough to get a parking space, I’d go and if not, I’d just stay home and skip the stress of the throngs of people.

I finally went back to sleep and slept until 6.09am, about the time I needed to be pulling into a parking space at the trail head. Whatever. I didn’t want to be around a ga-zillon people anyway and drive through the park with the insanity of traffic on this busy weekend.

But I miss the trail and miss the full day it takes to hike it….considering the day starts at 4.30 when I wake and then the hour long drive to the trail head, the 3 hours up and 2.5 hours down and then trying to pull out on the highway that runs through the park and the inevitable stoppage of traffic if someone takes a curve too fast. Two…three hours waiting for wreckers, rangers, and ambulances isn’t that unusual. So…gardening for me today.

I’m an active person who finds hiking in these mountains a wonderful way to engage with Nature and burn off my inner crazy. Stillness isn’t easy for me…at least on a meditation cushion. 

I enjoy stillness through yoga…a sort of moving stillness that is at the same time grounding and expansive. But perhaps my most still moments are when I’m hiking the steep trails through upper elevation forests of fir and spruce trees. I’m physically exerting myself significantly, yet the trees and rocks and moss ground me deeply into their place so I can soar.

Traditionally we think of stillness as sitting and ‘doing nothing’ and letting our mind still. My mind is at its stillest point when I am in Nature, connecting viscerally with everything around me. That’s when everything aligns and calms within me. But sit me on a cushion and tell me to be still and silent and my mind screams at the grating expanse of stillness. 
Breaking Free

Breaking Free

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A primeval-feeling forest of red spruce and Fraser fir trees lined the trail. I had just turned off the Appalachian Trail onto a less traveled trail and was enjoying solitude.  A few minutes prior I had put out a request to the Universe to help me learn how to regain emotional sovereignty during these times of intense turmoil in the world. I asked to be shown a key to understanding how to regain my joy amidst the insanity of the times.

I hadn’t gone but maybe a quarter mile up the trail when I saw a beautiful owl feather laying perfectly positioned beside the trail. As I touched it, I heard…  ‘so you can fly without noise.’ I always think of the ability to see in the dark as being owl’s greatest gift, but noiseless flight was what Owl presented.

I recalled a large owl flying within a few feet of me and not making one sound…not a whoosh, or swish….totally silent flight. Decades have passed and I still vividly remember that experience. 

As I continued up the trail, I pondered the answer that Owl brought to me. Two miles I walked, down 1000 feet of elevation and back up 1000 feet of elevation, allowing my mind to piece together the answer to my question….how can I gain emotional sovereignty during these trying times.

I thought of the quality of owl feathers, their softness and velvety texture.  I also thought of using inner vision to fly within myself to see in the dark, but with gentleness and softness…like owl feathers…. not a wrecking ball of clearing uncomfortable emotions. As I imagined the gentle, soundless flight into myself, a surge of emotion arose within me and tears came. Along with the clarity I had asked for in my earlier request.

I’m only a victim as long as I am willing to allow the chaos of the world to make its way into me and ‘plug’ into me. Victimization happens when we allow what’s happening around us to determine how we feel, think, and act. Freedom comes from unplugging from the chaos outside ourself, to regain a sense of personal power.

It isn’t only claiming sovereignty—personal power—over my emotional triggers. It’s also about having agency…knowing that I have the capacity to act independently and to exercise free will. And therein lies the key to freedom from victimization. 

I have a choice in how much I allow what’s happening outside of me to influence what’s happening within me. One way of looking at this is like a loving and strong inner guardian setting boundaries that keeps harmful bullies from hurting me. This guardian doesn’t block everything from touching me, only the hate, the meanness and everything that goes with those intentions.

After retracing my steps, I turned back onto the Appalachian Trail and within a few minutes saw a beautiful doe grazing on ferns, just off the trail. She looked up at me as I paused. Deer brings gentleness into our lives. She was a reminder to be gentle with myself, to be soft in my inner explorations, and to know that I have choice. I can choose to be free.

And a closing thought….colonizers, dictators, and authoritarians try to take away sovereignty by limiting rights and freedoms, and they try to take away agency as well. They don’t want the people they are trying to control to think they have the ability to act independently and exercise free will. We will do well to remember that nobody can take away our power over ourselves and our ability to think, feel, and act independently of anyone’s approval. We always have choice with our inner freedoms.