September 2010

Last week’s Gerber Daisies and Letting Go of Attachments issue of Picture to Ponder generated a greater than usual response on the blog with some very poignant and creative statements, including two poems. I encourage you check them out at DAISY COMMENTS.

Note that if you are interested in replying or initiating your own comments, I have added a “Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail”. Simply check the box and you will get an email whenever anyone, including me, comments on the particular post you’ve left a comment.

Also, if you are one who enjoyed the daisies, I have a “smashing” photo of a yellow Gerber Daisy on several products in my gift shop. See the section after today’s Queries for that image and opportunities.

Lastly for this section, I will probably be mentioning this during the next month, I am excited about participating in CREATE THE IMPOSSIBLE, a 30-day program set-up by Michael Neill, author of YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING YOU WANT, a book I’m thoroughly enjoying. If the thought of “Creating the Impossible” intrigues you, you can find more information at the above link. Click on UPCOMING EVENTS in the black horizontal menu bar near the top of that page for details.

Today’s Featured Photos

Multi-colore candle burning in a pot

lit candle with triangular shapes

Top photo is a fat candle in a ceramic dish in a pot. I love the colors and feeling of it. The lower photo is an originally small, square candle in a ceramic dish on a brass table.

Today’s Photos Story
Last week in one of the smaller groups set up in Adela Rubio’s Conscious Business Tribe program of which I am a member, Dianne led a visualization around a “sacred fire” for honoring the Autumn Equinox.

The exercise included imagining writing on a piece of paper one thing we would like we’d like to let go of in this next quarter and on another, one thing we would like to magnetize to ourselves in the next. This was to be tossed into the visualized fire in the middle of a circle of people, then watched as it burned, each with a different result; the first as it was it was “cleansed” and moved up “into the ethers.”

(Note – Dianne has a wonderful voice and may soon be having audio meditations on her website, Stone Haven Wellness. In the meantime if you contact her from site, she might provide you with the transcript for the meditation and definitely more details on it.)

After the exercise several of the group members were talking about ceremonial fires they done, including creating a small fire within a deep pot in the home. I was yearning to participate and I suddenly remembered a pot in my garage that hadn’t made it to the recycling center. “Deep pot, all well and good,” thought I before the fear of a possible fire set in for me.

I then recalled a fat candle, given to me as a gift years ago, that I’d occasionally lit. It was in a ceramic dish I had made and obviously wasn’t going to get too hot or burn anything other than itself. I decided since the pot was quite deep and the paper pieces small they were not likely to result in a flame that would go beyond the containers. I thus “went for it.”

After simply “being” with the candle and the experience for a while, I became absorbed with what was happening with the papers, not disintegrating (obviously the melting wax was holding them), and the changes in the candle, which had been completely round when I started. Not surprisingly, I went for my camera and started videoing the flame as well as taking still shots. (You can see more photos, next day included, and the video on the blog.)

Intrigued with candles now, the next day I decided to light a different candle, planning to sit quietly with it and meditate. I picked up, smaller candle, as seen in the lower photo, thinking I would not be distracted. It too was in a different ceramic dish which I placed on a small brass patio table near me.

This candle had already been burned a few times and was melted down in the center leaving the four peaks that we see. As I sat with it, I became intrigued with the repetition of the shapes in both the candle and the flame. Thus I went for the camera again, this time planning to share the imagery with you.


Self-Reflecting Queries
Part of today’s story relates to distractions, fears and adjusting. The candles’ story above demonstrates how easily I become distracted with things I suddenly see, tintilated by the awareness of them. Thus I’m often jumping into reactive mode, many times shifting and moving into new, oftentimes creative activities.

I invite you to look at yourself and your patterns. Can you stay focussed? Is it natural, or have you set sytems in place to keep you on track?

And, if you jump, as I do, can you claim the benefits that are there for you?

In the story, I also mentioned fear and my way of coming up with an alternative solution. When you feel a fear, how do you handle it?

I’m still looking for solutions for simply “being”. I started adding the word “patiently” to that and realized that adding anything would not be “simply being.” How about you?

Additional Photos

The top candle in the pot

41 Second video of flaming candle – Note the two paper strips

Large candle the next day. Note how the wax has filled the bowl.


As always, you are welcome to share your responses in the COMMENTS section below.  Note the new “Notify me…. ” option so you can get emails when others comment. Looking forward to our connecting there. Thank you so much.

(Note – This post has two affiliate links. Should you enroll in programs presented though them, I may derive a small commission.)

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Today I am pretty much going to leave up to you the words for the Gerber Daisy photographs below. Each image has an expression of its own. I simply suggest that you be with each for a moment or two and experience the feelings. Then move to the Self-Reflecting Queries.

I also invite you to check out the information I have below on my mentor Julie Jordan Scott’s open, no fee writing program. Included is also a link to the “breathing of my heart” writing I did today.

Today’s Featured Photos

Wilting pink Gerber Daisy

Wilted pink gerber daisy 2

3 small gerber daisies standing erect

Today’s Photos Story
It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired to buy flowers to have in my home for enjoyment and/or photographing . Then with my holidays a couple of weeks ago, I made the shift and actually bought three bunches and combined them.

These small Gerber Daisies became the main subject/variety that I followed. I was surprised, then disappointed, that they did not last as long as the larger sized ones had in the past.

When it came to sharing them with you, I had quite an internal struggle over which to feature, if at all. Were they even “good enough”, “interesting enough,” and more, to publish – all those small, yet so large, “voices” with which we often barrage ourselves.

Finally, I selected the three above, planning to choose only one from the top two; then left my computer for several hours.

When I came back I was moved by all of them, each in a different way. Thus I am presenting all three for you also to appreciate in whatever way you will.

Self-Reflecting Queries
Did you respond to my invitation at the top to simply be with and feel each of the images individually? If so, what did you experience with each?

Where else in your life might you have had, or be having, similar experiences?

Also, in my story above, I indicated that when I finally let go of the attachment to being “right” or “perfect” (in my choice of photos to present) it all fell into place. Feelings of “freedom”, peace and satisfaction emerged.

Are there places in your life where you may be feeling a strong attachment to an outcome, where you’re sure you want something to be a certain way? If so, I invite you to attempt to let that go, be in the unknown, allowing whatever happens to be okay.

Walk away, literally or figuratively, if you can, and when you come back be open to the possibility of something refreshingly new.

As always, you are welcome to share your responses in the COMMENTS section below.


For those who enjoy writing
This morning I was moved to join a call facilitated by Julie Jordan Scott, whom I’ve often mentioned here. The call was one in her current 49-day daily writing program, AND NOW, YOU WRITE.

I’ve been a participant in countless calls and programs that Julie has offered over the past eight or more years that I have known her. She is a truly authentic, loving, sharing, caring, generous human being. I consider her one of my mentors and know that always something will open up for me out of being in her presence.

If you are interested in writing and/or being comfortable in expressing yourself, I strongly recommend you check out Julie’s AND NOW, YOU WRITE Virtual Writing Camp.

The prompt for today was “I fill the paper with the breathing of my heart” and in the subsequent five minutes of free-flow writing time. You can read what I wrote on my WRITING FOR HEALING blog.

PHOTO in RESPONSE to COMMENTS below.  See Julie Jordan Scott’s comment.

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Today’s photo, for me, has a beauty, power and majesty, in and of itself. Yesterday we used it for a writing prompt n the writers’ group of which I am a member. Unique and powerful writing developed in four minutes. The caption in the title here “Pungent Power” came out of one of the member’s writing.

In the Picture to Ponder mailing of this issue I did not include further words about the photo other than explain that it was garlic.

I thus wrote:

Today’s Featured Photo


Probably obvious to you, two segments of a garlic bulb.

Today’s Photo Story
Again, I do not want to affect your experience of the image, so I’m adding nothing here in the ezine regarding the photo, other than what’s above.

I am posting other views with comments on possibilities of differing responses to changes in perspectives. You can check that out on the BLOG.  More photos are after the Queries.

Self-Reflecting Queries
If this photo evoked a particular response or responses to you, I invite you to explore, in writing, whatever that was.

And, if you did notice something are there other places in your life where that shows up?

Does whatever you saw empower you?

If not, can you reframe it so it does?

OTHER VIEWS of the same image –

Very elegant and by “herself”, the “Garlic Lady”.

Seeming to be the Yin and the Yang of oneself, below are the same as the initial image shown from different angles.

Does this angle evoke a different response in you?  If so, remember this at other times… the power of changing perspective.

The above is the original angle from which I shot the photo.  I turned it to be vertical for the presentation I wanted to make.  Does it have a different feel for you?

The garlic skin honors and applauds your participation  The “feelings” were important here, so the fact that there is no “head” in this image, matters not.

As always, you are invited to share your responses in the COMMENTS section below.

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Huge Mushrooms and the Unexplained

by Sheila Finkelstein on September 7, 2010

There are times I “go with my gut” in the photos I feature in Picture to Ponder. Today’s photos are indicative of that. Not especially beautiful or, necessarily, compelling they kept coming up for me, getting in the way of making other choices.

Given, I am currently in a program focused on becoming attuned to my intuition, I decided to let them be. Perhaps they will have meaning for one or more of our subscribers. Please let me know if this fits for you in some way.

In a different conversation, my friend Ellen Britt has put together a program chock full of information from six experts in the field of Social Media Marketing. I suggest checking it out if you are seeking more knowledge on effectively using any of the following for increasing business – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Cleverly presented, with the investment escalating over a period of 6 days, Ellen has titled it Ice Cream Social Media Sale. See Social Media. And, in another food family (though not edible given they are wild) here are

Today’s Featured Photos

Mushrooms on a lawn from a distance

mushroom from side

front view of mushroom on its side

Today’s Photos

The top photo is an overview of the four mushrooms (see below) that caught my eye, one of which were twins. The three other photos are different views of the same plant.

Today’s Photo Story –
I probably could make up a lot of stories around these mushrooms and bottom line I pretty much said it all above. Two days ago I happened to look out my window at the lawn on the side of the house across the street from me and noticed the very large mushrooms, almost looking like something had “landed” there.

I grabbed my camera, went out, and took several pictures. Because of the lines and the patterns, the overall rhythm, I think, the one that was on its side most appealed to me. At first, I thought it had “fallen over”. When I attempted lifting it off the ground to take further pictures, I found that it was firmly rooted in the ground and was growing that way.

Self-Reflecting Queries
Has anything caught your attention lately, visually or otherwise, and left you wondering why?

When this happens, does it stay with you for dwelling on? Do you look for and add meaning or does it seem to find you?

Do today’s mushrooms, or the circumstances of them, have any particular meaning for you?

If so, especially because of my intuition exploration, I’d appreciate your writing about them in the COMMENTS section below.

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Today’s issue of Picture to Ponder is a slightly different “take” on one of our recurring themes that of “paying attention.” I admit the photos certainly appear to be an odd combination. On the other hand, I hope they bring you the same smiles that I get when I snapped and then reviewed them. More below.

Today’s Featured Photos

Whistling duck face only - profilesFor more photos and the story – [click to continue…]

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