Journies

I hope your journey in 2010
was a good one.


As the last hours of the year dwindle, please consider how you can create a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.


Intention is a powerful force.






"At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you."
      ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Take the leap.

If you want to be given everything, give everything up.


                                                                          ~from the Dao De Jing (道德經)

An American Winter

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape- the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

~Andrew Wyeth

Photo: American Winter

Bruce Behnke

2010

Need a miracle?

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child--our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Miracle of Mindfulness"

Photo: Wild Orchid Among Ohia Lehua

Ko'olau Mountains, Oahu, Hawaii

Bruce Behnke, 2010

Peace to all

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.

~the Dalai Lama

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

~Buddha

Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.

~Robert Fulghum

Peace to all of you.

Imagination

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination.                       ~ John Keats

You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.                         ~Mary Oliver

Extraterrestrial

A night flight view of small towns, scattered like gems across the snowy great plains, the drama of the illuminated grid that is Chicago, the sublime sounds of a concert of strings, piano and voice... the experiences of the past 24 hours had a certain quality so beautiful that they seemed to be almost not of this world.  Extraterrestrial?

Pay Attention VI

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.      ~Tagore




.

Watching the Geminids

The Geminids meteor shower provided some quietly beautiful sights across Hawaiian skies this early morning.  I pulled a chair out into the middle of my garden at about 3am, leaned back, and was soon treated to long, silver streaks coursing across the sky in various directions.


There is something profound yet peace-inducing about looking at the night sky.  The Geminids are an added reward.


You can see the Geminid meteor shower for the next several nights, after the moon has set.  As an enticement, this photo of the Geminids shower is from Discover Magazine's blog:

Sunset somewhere over North America

First Snow Chicago