more joy of fishes....

Northwoods Waterfall by C H Paquette


Water rushes around my feet. I am anchored to earth by the sheer weight of me and all the thoughts I carry in my head. The strength of the current demands I leave those thoughts behind and give all my concentration to the river. I am not as strong as the boulders just upstream – for they do not tremble in the swift current as I do. But at this moment, as I lose my worries and cares, I am balanced and equal to the water.

Fly casting is a way of meditation for me. Watching the water slip over the boulders, slide down the rock chute and into the pool puts me into a trance. The water as it glides over the rocks – is a sheet of movement – yet fixed in shape. I always shake myself a bit and remind myself to look beyond the water for the fish, hiding inside.

So it is with life. I must learn to lay down my troubles and pay attention to the beauty around me, and be sure it is joy which anchors me to this world, instead of anxiety and fear. I am not as strong as the boulders in the river, yet they too can give way if the current becomes too swift. Doubts and anger dislodge progress and happiness, just as easy as the water dislodges the boulders. I remind myself to look beyond the chaos and see "my fish" hiding inside.

-Story submitted by MitMoi , a writer and blogger and good friend from North Carolina

endings and beginnings...

Plant #1 by Moonchild1111

Nothing in the garden is ever complete or finished. Today I did the annual post-harvest clean up of the vegetable garden, pulling up all the dead and withered plants and putting them in the compost pile. They will decay and create new energy for next year's plants and the cycle will continue...

This photograph was taken by Moonchild1111 with a Hasselblad... simply gorgeous.

The Joy of Fishes....

Chuang Tzu and Hui Tzu
Were crossing Hao River
By the dam.

Chuang said:
"See how free
The fishes leap and dart:
That is their happiness."

Hui replied:
"Since you are not a fish
How do you know
What makes fishes happy?"

Chuang said:
"I know the joy of fishes
In the river
Through my own joy, as I go walking
Along the same river."

(from The Way of Chuang Tzu)

I want to know....

Trapped by bvshort

Another gorgeous discovery by bvshort and here is the poem she selected to go with it...


The Invitation by Oriah

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls
away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like
the company you keep in the empty moments.

phantoms...

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

Tao Te Ching

new day....

Untitled by Yuki

There is always something brewing.... Yuki's photo, taken with a Yashica TLR, reminds me that my Rollei is sitting on the shelf, loaded with film, just begging to be taken outside. I love square format photography and the subtle colors of this photo just put me in a good place.

disappointment...

Birds Before the Thunderstorm by J Lee


Disappointments are to the soul
what the thunderstorm is to the air.
Friedrich von Schiller

I feel every rejection as a failure and a disappointment.
I trust that they are cleansing my soul and creating new
opportunities....but it does not feel that way.

failure and opportunity....

Scar Tree by C H Paquette


From the Tao Te Ching...

Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master
fulfills his own obligations
and corrects his own mistakes.
He does what he needs to do
and demands nothing of others.



From Confucius...

In the archer there is a resemblance to the mature person.
When he misses the mark, he turns and seeks the reason
for his failure in himself.

Book of the Week...

The Education of a Photographer
Edited by Charles H Traub, Steven Heller, Adam B Bell
(2006 Allworth Press, New York)

The best photography book I read this year....a collection of writings from a diverse group of photographers and writers discussing what it means to be a photographer.

One of my favorite essays is The Camera Mind and Eye...by Minor White

A mind specially blank-how can we describe it to one who has not experienced it? "Sensitive" is one word. "Sensitized" is better, because there is not only a sensitive mind at work but there is effort on the part of the photographer to reach such a condition. "Sympathetic" is fair, if we mean by it an openness of mind which in turn leads to comprehending, understanding everything seen.

first snow....

First Snow by Linear Edges

The first snow of the year is always exciting to me. Even if it is only a couple flakes. The photographer Linear Edges took this photo of the first snow of the year, which was also his daughter's very first snow ever. I guess we don't remember our first first snow, and we probably do not realize the moment when we are seeing our last first snow... maybe it's important to notice the first snow of every year, and feel it's joy.

First white snow of fall
Just enough to bend
The leaves
Of faded daffodils.

Basho

suddenly

Berry Patch by patty cake melting

You turn and suddenly
there in purpling
Autumn sky...
bright red berry patch.

Onitsura

the bones....

Falling Through by girl.x

Autumn.... your skeleton is beginning to show through.

girl.x has a beautiful way of creating art from the everyday roadside of life. She has a special talent with Polaroid film, titles, and music selections.

Yellow Cow of Autumn...

Got Ginko? by Karen Breitenbach

Have you noticed that Autumn is like a yellow cow?
.... Karen has!

Karen Breitenbach loves to wander and explore the abandoned ruins of rust belt city buildings and institutions, and in these places she finds artistic beauty. She has a remarkable eye for detail and composition.

Book of the Week

The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda
(Copper Canyon Press 1991)

Have you noticed that Autumn
is like a yellow cow?

And how later the Autumnal beast
is a dark skeleton?

And how Winter collects
so many layers of blue?

And who asked Springtime
for it's kingdom of clear air?

lilac wine

I Drink History Like Wine by Durruti Column

This image immediately reminded me of the Jeff Buckley version of the song Lilac Wine

Durruti Column lives in Montreal. I have been fascinated by his work for almost a year now.... his crisp minimalist photography and his haunting off-focus nudes....not to mention we share a love of Pablo Neruda poetry.

meander....

November Woods by J Randall Updegrove

I love this photo for many reasons... technically for the composition and the light. The way the back light streams through the trees in bands across the grasses. Emotionally it speaks of places I have walked in the Fall. This was taken in Montana, but it could just as easily be Pennsylvania or Minnesota or New England. Walking and meandering... stopping to call for the dog.... to take in the scene...and bathe in the color and light of Autumn.

mondays...

Untitled by tony soko

Swallows Flying South...
My House Too
Of Sticks and Paper
Only a Stopping Place
Kyorai

Book of the Week

Tao of Photography by Tom Ang
(Amphoto Book; New York 2000)

A wonderful book that explores the ways in which Taoist concepts can breathe new life into our photography.

Autumn....

Autumn Bells by Rana Pipiens

It finally feels like true Autumn here in the Mid-Atlantic section of the United States.... we are having our first dose of killing frost these past few nights, and the last of my Basil plants will soon turn black and die off. It was a good long growing season for my veggie and herb garden and now I need to get moving on preparing the beds for winter.

When I first saw this photograph by Rana Pipiens I assumed it was a leftover photo from the Spring until I read the title as Autumn Bells.
I have never seen this plant before. Such a lovely flower for this time of year, and a wonderful photograph.

radical domestic imperfection.....

I love that concept! I first read those words in the New York Times on 11.1.07 and they have stuck with me. This is about stepping back and doing without for the sake of the family and the environment.

Here is an excellent essay written by Shannon Hayes that describes her journey towards radical domestic imperfection....

Homespun Mom Comes Unraveled

Adirondack Semester

From a New York Times article on 11.7.07....
Living The Wild Life at College

St. Lawrence University students can spend an entire 16 week semester in the Adirondack wilderness, living in a Yurt village. The students take classes in nature writing, the ecology of the Adirondacks and woodworking, as well as a crash course in outdoor survival prior to the actual outdoor living experience. University professors make the one hour drive from campus for classes, canoeing across the lake to the student's site.
They hold classes outdoors or, in bad weather, in a yurt outfitted with a wood stove.

miracles

raindrop vision by C.H.Paquette


sometimes it's our darkest and rainiest days that show us clarity and reason

things noticed...

tiny treasure by bvshort

How often do we rush through life without noticing the small beautiful details? Even on a walk in the woods I can be in a rush or preoccupied with worries and so I miss the small miracles around me. bvshort is a photographer who captures the small wonders that surround her. Her nature photographs are intimate portraits... capturing flowers and animals as someone would photograph a loved one.

Book of the Week

In The Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander (Sierra Club Books; 1991)

The natural world is really slow. Save for the waving of trees in the wind, or the occasional animal movement, things barely happen at all. To experience nature, to feel it's subtleties, requires human perceptual ability that is capable of slowness. It requires that human beings approach the experience with patience and calm.
(page 86)

I love this book, as well as Mander's other classic Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. Although I have many Luddite tendencies, I still watch TV, love my Blackberry, and couldn't survive without my computer and the internet.
While this book focuses mostly on Television... the internet, instant messaging, and Blackberry technology didn't exist as we know it today when the book was written...Mander's arguments and warnings are even more pertinent in today's world.

localism....

Cherry Tomatoes by C H Paquette


..hardly a month goes by without another urbanite declaring his intention to eat locally in order to save his family and the planet (and write a pastoral memoir and secure a book deal).
Penelope Green (On the Farm; New York Times; 11/1/07)

I'm all for the Buy Local movement... it just makes me wonder how many people (retailers and consumers) are using it as just another way to soothe their eco-conscience. Whole Foods allows a few local vendors to set up farm stands out in the parking lot a couple hours a week so that Mom can manage to buy a few tomatoes from the local farm stand and now everybody feels better...

As we come to the end of this year's growing season, why not start planning to grow your own produce next year. It could be as simple as one tomato plant in a container, or an entire backyard mini farm. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the discovery that the finest tasting veggies are the ones you pick from your own backyard, and that there is no better sense of community than walking across the street to give your neighbor a basket of goodies you just plucked from the soil.

Those of us who are long time vegetable gardeners have always participated in the Buy Local philosophy...

In a healthy town every family can grow vegetables for itself. The time is past to think of this as a hobby for enthusiasts; it is a fundamental part of human life.
Christopher Alexander (A Pattern Language; 1977)

favorite things....

Portrait by tonysoko

I did not bother to read the description to this photograph the first time I saw it, I just immediately loved it. It must have been something that touched me on a subconscious level. I went back to look at it again later and only then did I realize that this is a portrait of two of tonysoko's
most recent acquisitions.... a vintage Polaroid 100 and a copy of The Polaroid Book. Look closely and you will see them.



tonysoko has a very unique vision and talent as a photographer, and his Polaroid work has a wonderful meditative quality to it. He also has excellent taste in books and cameras!