I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I watched the sun rise this morning, I delighted in seeing how the rays illuminated each cloud in a pinkish-orange hue, until the individual clouds become a beautiful interwoven tapestry for the brilliant sun to finally peak through.

I began humming “you are the wind beneath my wings”
– my heart filled with joy – as I realized how fortunate I am to have all of you so I can share this creative outlet, my love for the simple, quiet beauty in life, and the amazing words, impressions, philosophy and quotes that humanity has expressed over the centuries. read more

“Time is a healer. Every new day brings the light of hope and the promise of renewal.”
~ Mae Marie

I opened my laptop to Facebook this morning, to find this quote, so I’m passing it along. More hope 🙂

Yesterday was a bit rough. A close friend of the family passed away in her sleep at the young age of 37. She had been suffering with lupus, and had called the ambulance earlier that day because she really just didn’t feel well. They took her vitals, and said everything was normal, and left her. In this tragedy is the message that we MUST learn to trust our inner guidance over all else. God lies within, and when we practice being still in quietness, we can be in this powerful stream of consciousness. The joy and comfort that exists there is for all of us to connect with. May my friend Andy Woodruff Robinson be at peace. read more

Hope is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

~ Emily Dickinson

Hope sure has filled my thoughts over the past couple of days …

I lost a dear friend to heart disease a few years back. Pam would have been 52 this month. She found the above poem painted underneath a bridge outside of the hospital where she was receiving treatments. Her husband sent it to me, and said it gave her much comfort. read more

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest …
a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it’s beauty.”
~ Einstein read more

“The illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time,
rolling, rushing on, swift, silent,
like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the universe swim …
like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not …”
~ Thomas Carlyle

The sun has begun it’s march Northward, and it’s rising will slowly creep down from 6:55AM today to 5:45AM in June.

Can you believe that I have lived here, watching this sunrise since 2000; Yet only in 2009, when I began to photograph it, did I come into full realization that it moved and changed ?!? read more

“The rainbow is always in the clouds, you just have to look from the right angle.”

Move to the other side of the house, and look what you have 🙂 We can miss out on so much in life, when we get caught up in our own little routines LOL …

Thanks Spencer!

All I kept thinking this morning, as the sun peaked through the thick layer of clouds is “Hope is on the horizon”!

William Makepeace Thackeray writes:

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal;
It will always be ahead of you.

I like that 🙂

“I find hope in the darkest of days,
and focus in the brightest.
I do not judge the universe.”
~ Dalai Lama

Our overcast skies sure were a surprise this morning!?!

It would be a wonderful day to stay home, to create. I sense the clouds as a big billowy blanket, inviting one to be absorbed into all that is …. I love the universe’s way of being expansive and contractive …

In yesterday’s expansiveness, there was doubt being expressed by many that I came in contact with on the web. read more

“The sweetness of a life well lived can only be savored when our life has a great purpose. That purpose, that goal, is our own. There is no need to compare ourselves to others. We should choose our own goal and move forward toward achieving it in our own distinct way.”
~ http://www.ikedaquotes.org/life

Spencer suggested that I share the name of each individual island, that as a group, make up my sunrise photo each morning.  Just like our own individual dreams, wouldn’t it be tragic if one of these islands disappeared from the landscape … read more

“What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it is supposed to be.”

I’ll be honest, I was feeling a sense of disappointment, knowing that today’s sunrise couldn’t possibly rival yesterday’s showing. I even googled “let down” to see what nifty quotes came up. And you know what ?!? This is exactly what the author of yesterday’s quote was trying to get across.

It’s not about finding WOW is the spectacular. It’s about finding WOW in the everyday. read more