In the Dusk

"People live for the dream in their hearts. And I have yet to know anyone who has not some secret dream, some hope, however dim, some storied wall to look at in the dusk, some painted window leading to the soul."
~ Zane Grey

Rainy morning and dry afternoon... Sunset... we wait (and hope) for tomorrow's sunrise...

Outside Himself

"A person starts to live
when he can live outside himself."
~ Albert Einstein

Today is my baby brother's birthday... and Albert Einstein's birthday... Perched on this lanai, I'm on top of the world...Every sunrise glows promise, that no matter what, today will be better...

Barefoot, humming, reaching upward, outward, together with sky, clouds, light...Celebrate! Celebrate! Rattle dem bones. Smile and let the sun kiss your face.

Our spirit is stronger than steel...Light, like an angel, tickles the dark places. Erases pain...Why not believe that today will be the best day ever?

Golden Eternity

"Remember the golden eternity is yourself."
~ Jack Kerouac

Fog in valley, but ridge is golden orange... Well, that's pretty extraordinary. Fills my chest with love.

Play With Your Pain

"In order to laugh, you must be able
to play with your pain."
~ Annette Goodheart

Wall Between Two Gardens

"Sadness is but a wall between two gardens."
~ Kahlil Gibran

Oh, the sky is smeared orange this morning...Sometimes you need a new perspective, so I walked around the backyard for different vantage of sunrise...Looks like the bare branch from this tree is holding up the sun.

(Better understand sun's analemma, thanks to info sent by @jensaylor. Thank you!)

Genius of Women

"The special genius of women I believe
to be electrical in movement,
intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency."
~ Margaret Fuller

Oh, what magic 24K gold of a sun, cracking above the dense purple clouds... Quick change master. Now the sun's light blazes orange, glowing, promising the fulfillment of every dream, every possibility.

Into the Masterpiece

"You lose your grip,
and then you slip
Into the Masterpiece."

~ Leonard Cohen

Sitting between Asheville and Mt. Pisgah. Clear, startling visibility, freezing, sitting cross-legged. Waiting, with REM in ears, for the sun... Golden ridge. Clouds are white smears against baby blue. Snow cold. Half Moon to my right, a saucer. Need more coffee...

There... it...comes... Glorious gold...

Fingers frozen on netbook, Got Jackson Browne strumming Cohen in my ears & sun a fireball, rising. Wake up! Wake up! 1,000 Kisses deep.

Back inside. Can't feel my fingers or nose. THAT was spectacular. Please wait for photo. Wish you all were with me on ridge to see first hand.

Couldn't choose.

Singular Act

"Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit.
You are what you repeatedly do."
~ Shaquille O'Neal

Thousand Mysteries

"The thousand mysteries around us
would not trouble but interest us,
if only we had cheerful, happy hearts."
~ Friedrich W. Nietzsche

Light Gets In

"There is a crack in everything;
that's how the light gets in."
~ Leonard Cohen

It would be so nice if sun could break through that small gap in thick clouds and add colors to the beautiful white valley.

(Quote via @tinyquote. Music: Nina Simone - Here Comes The Sun via @joanne_cooper )

Pillar of the World

"The pillar of the world is hope."
~ Nigerian Proverb

Gray, everywhere I look, except toward Asheville, where the sky glows with orange hope.

Today

"Today is the only time we can possibly live."
~ Dale Carnegie

As we wait out the Tsunami Warning following this morning's Chilean earthquake, the sun continues to rise.

Together

"We’re all in this together if we’re in it at all."
~ Johnny Cash

Sun is bubbling orange clouds along ridge, turning gray into purple, light blue to gold.

Give Most Willingly

"Just take the music, the goodness,
because it's the very best,
and it's the part I give most willingly"
~ George Harrison

Snow dust on ground. Pastel sky and moving gray clouds. Cold and beautiful Thursday morning. Waiting for sun... It's snowing, softly. God's light radiates the clouds. Magic in Asheville. Wake up!

Little Ways

"Love is shown best in little ways."
~ Linda Thomson

Light through Splendid clouds. Warm enough to forget my shoes. Oh, sun's coming over ridge...Clouds & colors & crows... cinematic wonder...

Life Shrinks or Expands

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion
to one's courage."
~ Anais Nin

Another cloudless morning and the ridge glows again in orange and pink...Count eight jet vapor trails cutting through the perfect sky. People sleep, people travel...

Two small deer run through the brush of my back yard. The gnarling branches hide them, protect them. Odd how running through thorns protect... Wish I could identify the singing birds. The sound echos through the cove...Now comes the daunting task of choosing just one photograph.

Shine Like the Sun

"Our lives become brighter the more we express Love.
We can shine like the sun and,
when we are in our rightful place,
we can radiate love for all persons without exceptions."
~ John Marks Templeton

Stunning Silhouette against palette of silent gold. Street lights, like stars, dot the sleeping cove below. ...Amazing how light swallows up dark, makes sky pure & full of promise. New day, new dreams.

Ultimate Sophistication

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
~ Leonardo Da Vinci

New Light

"Low clouds reach to ridge
slender fingers of new light
Sun extends its heart"
~ Miriam Claire
(@miridunn )

Cry Later

"It doesn't hurt to be optimistic.
You can always cry later."
~ Lucimar Santos De Lima

Love glows. Faith renews. We are all connected by that light...The thought becomes concrete when you write it down...

Snowflakes on my eyelashes, the clouds are alive in colors of red, gold, and fire.

To Thine Own Self

"This above all to thine own self be true."
~ William Shakespeare

Look left, right, straight on. Beauty. Everywhere. On this most perfect of days, Today...Sun's daily gift. Right now: breathe in the chance to create something new. Heal. Forgive. Begin. Renew...

Waiting for sun to crest. There's a golden light beam, shooting from the ridge to the sky. Wonderful visual metaphor.

...Ho hum. Just another spectacular sunrise...

Creativity Is Inventing

"Creativity is inventing,
experimenting, growing,
taking risks, breaking rules,
making mistakes, and having fun."
~ Mary Lou Cook

Here is my ridge at noon...

Embroidered By Imagination

"Love is a canvas
furnished by Nature
and embroidered by imagination."
~ François Voltaire

Miracles

"As for me, I know of nothing else but Miracles."
~ Walt Whitman

Woke up to sheen of ice & snow on everything. Whiter than white. Colder than cold...Stunning gold light along ridge. Shoes on, sun's coming. Heart beating fast... Below, Reeves Cove, stunning winter wonderland. Tranquil beauty. Timelessness. Above, sky vibrant colors pushing sky...

Bare Feet & Ice

Note to self: Remember to put on shoes when going outside to watch the sunrise...

My Face to the Wind

"A handful of pine-seeds will cover mountains
with the green majesty of forests.
I too will set my face to the wind
and throw my handful of seed on high."
~ Fiona Macleod

Cold and wicked windy on ridge. Feels single digit... Brutal to walk in. Clouds moving quickly across beautiful pastel sky. Toward Asheville, skyline clear and mix of vibrant red & subtle blue-grays.

New Passions

"In the human heart new passions
are forever being born;
the overthrow of one almost always means
the rise of another."
~ La Rochefoucauld

oh.
After a week of waiting, the ridge glows red. The sun is coming... Splendid magnificence. Joy. Gratitude.

See All Sorts of Things

"Imagination makes you see all sorts of things."
~ Georgia O'Keefe

Damp, cold morning, ridge covered with an eerie mist. Strange beauty. Perfect setting for a mystery, a gothic tale... If you look close enough, you can see the ridge. If you imagine deep enough, you can feel the sun...

Reason Abounds

"In quiet places, reason abounds."
~ Adlai Stevenson

Mountains through the glass... Asheville is all slush, ice, snow, rain. Icee anyone? (I'll take mine with strawberry)

Amazingly, while I'm dreaming of shaved ice and sunsets on the North Shore, my Twitter friend Gene, @geneslens, would like some snow in Aiken, South Carolina. He wrote about it today in his blog Gene's Lens.

Hot Heads & Cold Hearts

"Hot heads and cold hearts
never solved anything."
~ Billy Graham

Fog swirls like smoke in the cove.

Grays and whites are colors of good morning.

The ridge, a wise father, curves with proud strength.

As true as time.

Protects those huddled on its slopes...

Feels like more snow coming.

Friendships Begin

"Friendships begin because,
even without words,
we understand how someone feels."
~ Joan Walsh Anglund

Misty morning. Snow still on the ground. Sky in shades of black, gray, and blue, waits for the sunrise. Another new day begins...All the crows are out this morning. Black on white squawks. Sky toward Asheville, glows orange-pink. Mine, gray clouds...And just when you're about to give up, the sun breaks through the clouds and dazzles you with light...

Where He Loves

"A man is not where he Lives, but where he Loves."
~ Latin Proverb

Somehow, whatever hurt I feel evaporates when I look at the sky.

Take the Opportunities

"I take the opportunities each day offers:
 if it is snowing, I work with snow, 
at leaf fall it will be with leaves; 
a blown over tree becomes 
a source of twigs and branches."
~ Andy Goldsworthy

This morning, a cold seat on the deck to watch my sunrise.

Change

"When we are no longer able
to change a situation...
We are challenged to change ourselves."
~ Victor Frankl

Sunday morning, white and cold...New day, bright possibilities...

Sky Sparkling

"We shall find peace.
We shall hear the angels,
we shall see the sky sparkling
with diamonds."
~ Anton Chekhov

The morning sky is a film of lavendar, pink, and gold. Smeared clouds with flecks of gold nuggets where the sun will soon be...Can there be that many shades of purple?

That's the 5th plane that's left Asheville airport to fly over me...Now the sky is gray with faint ribbons of gold... Where or where is sun? Alas, no sunrise. .. The sun has been swallowed up in gray. Still spectacular sky.

Need Each Other

"We all need each other."
~ Leo Buscaglia

Beautiful cold morning here in the mountains. Exhilarating crisp...Waiting on sun...Clouds, fire red glowing, hover along ridge. Anger, Passion, Creativity? Just enough room for the sun to rise...Red clouds transformed to golden wash: Brilliant light...

(Oh it is one of those sunrises where each photo is lovely. How do I choose?)

In the Clouds

"Life is in the clouds:
Great life, broad life, deep life, elevated life."
~ Hawaiian Proverb

No sunrise this morning. Just great, reckoning light... and deep clouds, crossed with dozens of jet vapor trails. A pensive gift of movement and promise?

Follow the Grain

"Follow the grain in your own wood."
~ Howard Thurman

Stillness. Waiting on the sun... Bare, cloudless ridge. Soft yellow light glows, anticipating main event. Mountain powerful pulse of golden glory. All systems go!

Bright sun and memories of Daddy's wood crafts. Beautiful woodwork discovered here: http://www.fableporchfurniture.com/ "All of our pieces are built one piece at a time start to finish. This gives each piece its own sense of uniqueness."

Because It Is Good

"Work for something because it is good,
not just because it stands a chance
to succeed."
~ Vaclav Havel

Thick cloud coverage, weighing heavy on the ridge this morning. Another day without a sunrise? ...Then, miraculously, as the rain began to fall, the sun broke through, with magnificent rays of love.

Passion and Hard Work

"Passion and hard work
makes a great player,
but the Courage to get up
every time you fall
is what makes a champion."
~ Jeanette Lee

Oh my, the clouds are red along the ridge and they quickly transform from red to orange to gold... Seconds matter when the sun decides to rise.

Everything Successful

"Integrity is the essence
of everything successful."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

On Surprise

"Expect nothing; live frugally on surprise."
~ Alice Walker

Clouds clothe ridge with light gray.

Mist settles in valley, branches, at my feet.

No sun, no drama, just rain, peace, and beauty...

Then, ridge reveals

Blue sky above,

gray clouds ahead,

rain, and moving mist.

Change so fast, you scream, "aha!"

With the crows cawing

At unexpected surprise...

Love Can Do That

"Hate cannot drive out hate.
Only love can do that."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Breathe wide open sky.

Touch light with face, hands, heart.

The clouds, a heartbeat: eternal love.

Overcome Adversity

"One who gains strength
by overcoming obstacles
possesses the only strength which can
overcome adversity."
~ Albert Schweitzer

The clouds this morning are like smeared pastels against the soft sky...Dawn's sweet Light makes the snow glow whiter than white...Thousands of trees, bare and strong, salute the light. A celebration of all that is good & holy & true...The sun is coming...

Something Good

"Leave something good in every day."
~ Dolly Parton

Face a Challenge

"Face a challenge and find joy
in the capacity to meet it."
~ Ayn Rand

The sky colors come and go so quickly. Each second, a breath-catch and revelation.

Time In a Bottle

"If I could save Time in a bottle,
The first thing that I'd like to do.
Is to save every day,
Till Eternity passes away,
Just to spend them with you."
~ Jim Croce

This morning, there's a beam of light connecting the sun to heaven... and snowflakes. Lots of snowflakes.

Habit

"Habit has a kind of poetry."
~ Simone de Beauvoir

Pre-dawn Asheville sky is indigo and cloudless...9˚ F in Enka, -5 with windchill... Sun's fire along the ridge and snow flurries tickling my tongue... Ahhhhhh...

Glowing New Metaphor

"The coldest Word
was once a glowing new metaphor."

~ Thomas Carlyle