A New Beginning

“This is a new year. A new beginning. 

And things will change.” 

~ Taylor Swift

Just Let Awareness

"Just let awareness have its way with you completely."

~ Scott Morrison

Creation of Beauty

"Love of beauty is Taste. 

The creation of beauty is Art."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I live on a mountain top. This is how I see the world. Everything is simple, really. Glow. We all glow.

Peace With Ourselves

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world 

until we make peace with ourselves."

 ~ The Dalai Lama

Manifest the Divinity Within You

"Manifest the divinity within you 

and everything will be harmoniously arranged around it."

~ Swami Vivekananda

We Are Joy

"A joy that is shared is a joy made double."

~ English Proverb

First-Rate Intelligence

33º

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” 

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Even when overcast, without a proper sunrise, the sky still shares such beauty.

Love All Beings

34°

"Love all beings; that is enough."

~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba

We All Shine On

 

 

 

7:17 AM

"We all shine on,

Like the moon and the stars and the sun."

~ John Lennon

Instant Karma (We All Shine On)

All Knowledge

"All knowledge begins with a question."

~ Neil Postman

Love Is Our True Destiny

"Love is our true destiny. 

We do not find the meaning of life 

by ourselves alone - 

we find it with another."

~ Thomas Merton

6:58 AM Today I will give my smile to everyone I meet.

7:00 AM: I will try to remember that my small light touches and changes everything. 

O Sunlight

“O, Sunlight! 

The most precious gold 

to be found on Earth.” 

~ Roman Payne

Rarest Thing in the World

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. 

Most people exist, that is all.” 

~ Oscar Wilde

Absolutely Free

“There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, 

and they're absolutely free. 

Don't miss so many of them.”

~ Jo Walton

What Our Senses Take In

"We become in part what our senses take in."

~ Eknath Easwaran

Practice Shots

19°F

"An inventor fails 999 times, 

and if he succeeds once, he's in. 

He treats his failures simply as practice shots."

~ Charles F. Kettering

Chilly Saturday morning in Asheville, but still a wonderful sunrise. It is cozy here on the ridge and I have been working, with deep satisfaction, on dailycelebrations.com.  I just married an Instagram sunrise photo with my tagline. What do you think? I love the power of the Internet and social media.

My Father

“My father gave me the greatest gift 

anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” 

~ Jim Valvano

The sun crested the ridge this morning, then was swallowed up by the clouds.

Had my Dad lived, he would have turned 80 today. I miss him very much, of course. 

But if you look closely at this photo of today's sky, the light that breaks through the clouds is shaped like a heart.

Love never dies. It lives on forever.

Love Feels Free

“You must love in such a way 

that the person you love feels free.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Do Not Grieve

7:50 AM

"Do not grieve. 

Anything you lose comes round in another form."

 ~Jalaluddin Rumi

7:50 AM

Anybody At Any Time

“Love is like a virus. 

It can happen to anybody at any time.”

~ Maya Angelou

The Kingdom Of Hope

"In the kingdom of hope there is no winter."

~ Russian Proverb

Looking out into this new morning, the sky whispers, "hope." The last colors of autumn seem to reflect in the sky. And the fine mist gently kisses the mountains. Peace with what is. Hope for what can be.

Time Touches Eternity

"The present is the point at which time touches eternity."

~ C. S. Lewis

Autumn dwindles. The air is cooler now, but still the sun rises, glows, and fills me with warmth. In this small moment, I touch eternity.

Do Anything

"Do anything, but let it produce joy."

~ Walt Whitman

The sun rises and I sit here and watch. I have seen enough sunrises to know what is coming. Rays of light, so perfect and pure. Warmth. The joy I feel this morning is a lingering friend. Sweet and silent. I breathe the sun in, I breathe the sun out.

The air is full of golden sunlight. Sitting here feels like Peace-- intimate, yet universal. From my head to my bare toes the wonder of today resonates. And I am awash with gratitude for this new morning, my spirit shines with light and love.

Soft White Damn

7:39 AM

"The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches."

~ e.e. cummings

7:52 AM

Human Temptation

"The biggest human temptation 

is to settle for too little."

~ Thomas Merton

Fountain of Gladness

"A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, 

making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles."

~ Washington Irving

Every morning, I am snapping photos as I wait for the sunrise. I just can't help but observe my world this way. My camera and I have a special relationship with the morning sky. My awareness grows with the emerging light.  I believe we all share this light.

I don't always have time to post my photos, my archive is large. But I think when I do finally share, sometimes even wordlessly, my intimate narrative shines through.

Sending smiles of love to the world...

God in Everything

"A state of mind that sees God in everything

 is evidence of growth in grace and a thankful heart."

~ Charles G. Finney

Coherent Understanding

Fall is a coherent understanding
of life

glorious.

This morning, looking into the cove, just as the sun crests, I feel the sounds of peace. It wraps me in a blanket of calm. I look, hear, smell, touch the sunlight, the chilly mixed with warmth and fire. The colors vibrate.

Longing of the Soul

"Prayer is not asking. 

It is a longing of the soul. 

It is daily admission of one's weakness. 

It is better in prayer to have a heart without words 

than words without a heart."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

The sunrise photograph this morning was taken with my iPad2. I am giving my device some attention since I will soon be replacing this three year old friend when the new iPad Air2 is released on October 26.

In charming response to my attention, my iPad2 captured two hearts in the clouds. I gladly transformed the photo into a watercolor, using my Waterlogue application. 

Thanks to the heart clouds, I found the Mahatma Gandhi quote about prayer and things flowed and fit.

Prayer is a longing of the heart. And the wordless prayers say the most.

Promise of Happiness

7:39 AM

"Beauty is the promise of happiness."
~ Marie Henri Beyle

Playing Out Your Dreams

"Writing a story is like playing out your dreams 

while you are awake."

~ Haruki Murakami 

An Individual Creation

"A joyful life is an individual creation

 that cannot be copied from a recipe."

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Just As You Are

7:23 AM. Bird is singing sweetly. Rooster responds in the cove. Another bird. More colors. 

"You are more powerful than you know; 

you are beautiful just as you are."

~ Melissa Etheridge

How wonderful, the sky, this moment. These thoughts.

My sunrise companion