This retreat inspired me! Visit my photo gallery Seeing Beyond Seeing to view the images I made.
These ideas and quotes shared by Brad Berglund richly blessed me:
Psalm 145:1-7
I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
A graced eye at its fullest is a gift from God.-Tilden Edwards
Evanescence - the ever changing quality of reality; impermanence
Be with what is in life.
Contemplation - Finding God in all things. Awareness. Being both absorbed and amazed. Hanging by God's thread of pure love. Seeing through the exterior of things and seeing God in them. A long loving look at the real.
But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3: 16-18
"I will always remember, " Ansel Adams wrote the older man (Alfred Stiglets) in the fall of 1933, "what you said about the quality of tenderness .... in things of art -- a sort of elastic appropriation of the essence of things into the essence of yourself ... giving of yourself without asking too many intellectual questions, to the resultant combination of essences."
As with all art, the photographer's objective is not the duplication of visual reality.... Photography is an investigation of both the outer and the inner worlds.... The first experiences with the camera involve looking at the world beyond the lens, trusting the instrument will 'capture' something 'seen.' The terms shoot and take are not accidental; they represent an attitude of conquest and appropriation. Only when the photographer grows into perception and creative impulse does the term make define a condition of empathy between the external and the internal events. [Alfred] Stieglitz told me: 'When I make a photograph, I make love'.
From PBS Video, The American Experience: Ansel Adams Ch. 5
Some photographers take reality... and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation. -Ansel Adams
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed. -Ansel Adams
The best camera we have is our mind.
Suggestion: To nurture creativity, add a variety of play to your life.
Celebrate what's right in the world! DeWitt Jones inspired us through his video Celebrate What's Right with the World. Thoughts to ponder:
- Believe it and you'll see it.
- Recognize abundance.
- Look for possibilities.
- Unleash your energy to fix what's wrong.
- Ride the changes.
- Take yourself to your edge.
- Be your best for the world.
- The opposite of scarcity is not abundance, but possibility.
The heart knows things that the mind will never understand.
Let intellect put you in the place of most potential. Let intuition attune you to what wants to happen. Don't forget to turn around, look up, and look down. Move to gain a different perspective. Soak in both the scene and the worlds within the world.
Concrete ways to pay attention:
- Be present in the moment...really present. Trust God.
- Listen. Don't respond. Don't think. Don't take over the conversation or the moment.
- Listen to my heart. Center.
- Listen to the Holy Spirit.
- Listen in prayer.
- Capture my thought life. Surrender it to God.
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:24-34
It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment or the courage, to pay the price...One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.
-Morris L. West in the Shoes of the Fisherman
Prospective Immigrants Please Note
-by Adrienne Rich
Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.
If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.
Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.
If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily
to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely
but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?
The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.
Blessing:
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
hide me under the shadow of your wings.
Preserve us, O Lord, while waking,
and guard us while sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ
and asleep we may rest in peace.
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