real wealth

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

~Oscar Wilde

Photo: Bamboo Grove

O'ahu , Hawai'i

(c) Bruce Behnke2011

everything is related ii

Traveling

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves. 

~William Blake 

Traveller's Palm
(c) Bruce Behnke 2011.
The fan of the Traveler's Palm tends to grow in an east-west line, providing a compass to travelers.

Stop and breathe

With everything that's happening in the world today, sometimes we need to just stop and breathe.

Inspiration

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.     ~Pablo Picasso

Creativity

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.  ~Erich Fromm

Urban nature

Wind assembled pile of leaves on a Chinatown street.

Burst of tropical showers.

Bright Hawaiian sun.

This moment, my life.

A walk on the beach

 

Photos (c) Bruce Behnke 2011

Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Disaster Relief in Japan

This post is very different from anything else you will see in Photographer's Diary.  Due to the urgency of the situation in Japan, I hope you will read this in its entirety.

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, one of the world's most respected Buddhist disaster relief organizations, is rushing blankets and rice directly to disaster victims in Japan.


Tzu Chi has a sterling record of making certain donations go directly to relief efforts.  Their work in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake is but one example of their effectiveness.  For a progress report on Tzu Chi's efforts in Japan:

http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/other/k14092

If you would like to give a donation to the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation's efforts in Japan, please go to their website:

http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/other/donateCharity


More About Tzu Chi:

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, whose name means "compassion and relief," is an international humanitarian organization with a special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966, the group has nearly 10 million volunteers and supporters in 50 countries and has provided aid in 70 countries. Tzu Chi's work spans the fields of charity, medicine, education, environmental protection and disaster relief. It also established what is now the world's third largest bone marrow donor registry, and promotes humanistic values and community volunteerism. In 1984, Tzu Chi Foundation registered as a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization in California. In 1989, the first office in the U.S. was established in Alhambra, California. Since then, more than 80 offices and facilities have been established with over 120,000 volunteers and supporters working to make a difference in their local communities. For more information about Tzu Chi USA, please visit http://www.us.tzuchi.org/


Thank you very much for your compassionate consideration.   ~bb

Glimpses of infinity, glimpses of eternity

How many shells are on a beach?
Not an infinite number, but quite possibly uncountable and unknowable.
How many stars are in the sky?
Quite possibly an infinite number, and most certainly uncountable and unknowable.

Photo: North Shore O'ahu, Hawai'i

(c) Bruce Behnke, 2011

The Thief

The thief

Left it behind-

The moon at the window.

                      ~Ryōkan

Peace

Windward  O'ahu, Hawai'i

Clarity

North Shore O'ahu, Hawai'i

Everything Changes III

In nature nothing is lost, 

nothing is created, 

everything changes. 

~Lavoisier 

1789

Understanding

Gazed at in silence wordless

silence                 patient and receptive

silence

a photograph will come to life

                          come to image

and understanding

                             will be a revelation

~Minor White

Be still...

Be still with yourself

Until the object of your attention

Affirms your presence.

~ Minor White

Photographer

1908-1976

Storm coming