Silent Sunday
Tag: Weeklyphotochallenge
Silent Sunday
What’s Inside?
Every block of stone
has a statue inside it
and it is the task of the sculptor
to discover it.
— Michelangelo
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside.
Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Promise
Beauty
is the promise
of happiness.
— Edmund Burke
Another one for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Nolstalgic.
Silent Sunday
A Shadow Fleeting
Beauty is ever to the lonely mind
a shadow fleeting;
she is never plain.
She is a visitor who leaves behind
the gift of grief,
the souvenir of pain.
— Christopher Morley
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting
No Dogs Dancing?
Life is one big road with lots of signs.
So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind.
Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy.
Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality.
Wake Up and Live!
– Bob Marley
The Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says. Well, I’ve always wondered about this one…
In the Background
Just an untidy picture, right?
Do you the “nana”?
Or the haughty man with the sharp nose?
The chinwag?
And the shadow?
What do you see here?
Let a man get up and say,
Behold, this is the truth,
and instantly I perceive a sandy cat
filching a piece of fish in the background.
Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.
– Virginia Woolf
Looking at a rather untidy photo I was suddenly struck by the shapes made by the space around the flowers and the shadows.
The Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background.
Doors to Freedom
Elegant…
…charming…
…ostentatious…
…artsy…
…decorative…
…whimsical…
… or stylish.
Look on every exit
as being an entrance
somewhere else.
― Tom Stoppard
All big cities have their special features, and in Paris it’s the ironwork. Art déco, art nouveau, classical or modern: every taste is catered for. Which door would you choose?
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape.
Art Is Pattern
A Myriad Blossoms
Break open a cherry tree
and there are no flowers,
but the spring breeze
brings forth myriad blossoms.
– Ikkyu Sojun
Some kind of Rosaceae, but what kind? Cherry? If any one knows, do leave a comment. Else I’ll have to wait for the fruit.
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Up. Once I started snapping it was hard to stop…
Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Details
The true secret of happiness
lies in taking a genuine interest
in all the details of daily life.
– William Morris
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details
Embrace the Future
The future
belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.
– Eleanor Roosevelt
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward.
Home
Home is where the heart is.
– Proverb
Outside my window in my parents’ house. The Weekly Photo Challenge: Home.
Unique
Human beings,
who are almost unique
in having the ability to learn from the experience of others,
are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so.
– Douglas Adams
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique.
Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Illumination
Illumination,
enlightening the understanding
by the sun of reason
which will dispell the clouds
of superstition and of prejudice.
– Adam Weishaupt
The Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination. Playing with the filters on my new camera 🙂
Why Hate Hurts
A single flower can be my garden,
a single friend my world.
– Leo Buscaglia
In Embracing fear I discussed the importance of accepting our emotions as they are. Yet our emotions do not come about entirely by chance.
Our reality is an inner stage representing the real world. We can see the glass as half-full or half-empty: one will tend to make us happy, the other anxious. I’m not talking about positive thinking, or trying to keep an unrealistically bright view of the world, but about thinking positively or looking on the bright side. Looking at the photo I can see a sorry excuse for a garden or someone’s personal little paradise – my choice.
This is especially important when we think about our relationships with others. The same interactions can be viewed in many different ways. Two people may have widely different ideas about their relationship with one another.
When I think about a person and our relationship, I am envisioning two little avatars on my own inner stage: a little “me” and a little “them”. All the thoughts and feelings I have about that person are messages in my brain, transmitters flooding my synapses, hormones coursing through my veins.
When I hate someone, I may do something to hurt or even kill them, but feeling the hatred makes me suffer, not them. By nourishing angry or hateful thoughts I am poisoning my own life. Why on earth would I want to do that? Conversely, when I feel kindness or compassion towards someone, endorphins flood my system.
Viewing our relationships with others through rose-tinted glasses would only create unrealistic expectations of their behaviour. But it’s a good idea to avoid nourishing grievances (Heresy n°2 helps) and to accept a share of the responsibility in a conflict. Not only can we then approach the other person more compassionately, we can also focus our attention the part in the relationship we have the power to change: our own. Denying responsibility always makes us powerless.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
– Eph. 4:26 KJV
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
– The Dalai Lama
Throughout history, spiritual teachers have advocated practicing compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, and gratitude. Not because of any moral imperatives, not because we “should”, but because doing so will make us happier.
Inside
What lies behind you
and what lies in front of you,
pales in comparison
to what lies inside of you.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fleeting Moment
The wise sceptic
does not teach doubt,
but how to look
for the permanent
in the mutable
and fleeting.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stray Thoughts 