This issue marks the 599th Picture to Ponder ezine!!! As I’ve been stating in the past few issues, I am transitioning title and branding from Picture to Ponder to the more pro-active Treasure Your Life Now. Treasuring our lives has actually been one of the indirect, unexpressed bottom line premises of Picture to Ponder over these past 8 years. So it seems quite fitting.
There are times when we may perceive life’s journey as a series of bumps in the road. As we go through changes, we have choices. We can focus on what is behind us, the bumps directly in front of us, or that which is beyond. [click to continue…]
The above Limpkin at sunset at Green Cay Wetlands is inviting you on a portion of walk as we see different perspectives of the sky and water. He and I are inviting you to experience the peacefulness of it. [click to continue…]
I continue to be so excited with my video desk-top discovery written about earlier today in my Orchid Light and Ocean Video post that I took a picture of a Word document surround by ocean energy as I worked.
The image you see is WORD open, on top of a QuickTime video paused where I wanted it. QuickTime is staying open throughout my work day. Again, see previous post for explanation how I’m using it on my desktop. Clicking on the icon in the lower right will open it full screen.
If you would like the download of the above video for any-time respite on your own desktop, simply fill in the form below.
And, if you would like to listen to the sounds of the ocean as you work, you can open my YouTube Sunrise-Sunset Ocean videos Playlist. The videos play one after another so you can have that going in the background while you work. Any time you need a visual respite, you can simply go back to that window. For best listening, lower your computer volume.
Clicking on YouTube in the video below will bring you directly into the full Playlist.
Though I did wish you a Happy New Year in the closing issue of Picture to Ponder for 2011, I’m moved to share the following photos and video for their light and aliveness.
Continuing the celebration, these orchids are spilling light and joy into the New Year. May it be a wondrous one, full of discovery and both old and the new that will empower you and your loved ones.
Discovering new things is one of the big passions in my life, especially exciting when they happen accidentally and totally unexpectedly. Be sure to continue reading, to see the possibility with videos.
Walking in Green Cay past sunset today I had the sudden thought that it would be a great idea to acknowledge the year’s end with the day’s end in the place from whence so many of our Picture to Ponder photos come.
Thus I grabbed my iPhone and set the video recorder to give me the opportunity to more directly thank you and wish you a Happy, Healthy New Year.
Today’s Photos are from sunrise, also at Green Cay Wetlands. [click to continue…]
Today’s Picture to Ponder photos certainly seem like a strange mix. At least they do on this end. I’ve been sitting on several moon photos for over a week, thinking I’d feature them in the last issue.
With a few possible queries and themes fighting each other in my head, I let it go and focused on the “light” message. Thus featured today are one of the moon photos and the glistening, sunlit golden water just past sunrise at the beach. New video clips also resulted.
To simplify this issue of Picture to Ponder, I posted the story of the moon on the blog, including the photographic processes and my discoveries. There you will see other full moon photos, including a brilliant orange one that I love, and Self-Reflecting Queries around “perfection”. See “Lessons From The Moon.“ Then clicking on the surf photo below will take you to a video of the waves gently washing in and rolling back on the surf.
Lastly before going further, if you are one who is an Internet Marketer, or interested in being one/learning more, be sure to check out the info after the SRQs on David Perdew’s new MyNAMS Membership program.
On the run, so a quick message this week. I was leaving Wakodahatchee Wetlands at dusk, recently, and from the distance noticed an interesting image in the rear window of the guard’s jeep parked in the lot. Coming closer, I saw it was a reflection of the outside environment rather than something in the jeep itself. When I noticed the imagery in motion as I walked, I grabbed my iPhone camera to video it. Thus, today’s photos.
Switching conversations for a moment, this is the same parking lot from which I photographed the “Caged Sunset” a couple of years ago. Those photos and queries make up one of the featured essays in the current issue of Buddha Chick Life. Included amongst the 11 other postings is a link for a podcast by SARK and a section on THE POWER OF SILENCE from Sara Avant Stover’s Book, The Way of the Happy Women: Living the Best Year of Your Life. There is also the opportunity to be the winner of a giveaway for the book. See Buddha Chick Life for it all.
The top photo is obviously reflections in the window of the side front. Though that’s not what grabbed my attention, it’s a more interesting photo than those I got on my camera of the rear window.
The lower photo is a screen shot of the first view in the video. Looking at the side rear window you can see the above-noted image.
Self-Reflecting Queries -
Today I invite you to look around you and find an object or scene that seems static. Then move passed it and around it if you can. Notice what shifts. Lights? Shadows? Shapes? Are you bringing new eyes to it?
Then, is there a situation in your life where you feel stuck? If so, I invite to look at that also, again, from different angles.
Some of the motion in the window image above came from its reflecting the leaves moving to the whispers of the wind as I stood still. Other movement in the “scene” was a result of the shifting of my camera and my body.
Back to your situation – Can you see any spaces for movement, perhaps from outside of it and you?
As always, have fun, and please share in the COMMENTS below what comes up for you.
Coming up on a holiday weekend here in the United States, today’s Picture to Ponder photos and videos are meant to offer you relaxation, as well as joy in experiencing Nature. Have a meaningful weekend, whatever you are up to.
Responding to comments Marifran Korb made on my last post, I thought I’d post the videos. The one above mirrors the first photo in the latter post. The one below is from further back.
Interestingly, the first time I responded to the scenes, the water motion had me feel quite calm and relaxed and wishing I had my camera. The second time, when I returned, I had a similar response. I intentionally videoed zooming in and again further back, intending that I would have a couple of videos I could use for meditation and relaxation. [click to continue…]
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 -
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.)
