words and pictures....
March 23, 2012
Trees purify the air; they also purify the mind . . . if you want to save your world, you must save the trees. – The Trees of Endor, J.R.R. Tolkien
(Photo: Scrub Pine at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
March 6, 2012
“I welcome the chance to learn from every person with whom my life interacts. I recognize that I am green as the new leaves that grow upon the trees, and in my learning I too will grow.” ~~ Pamela J. Leavey
(Photo: Shades of Spring Leaves ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)
February 24, 2012
I ran across this yesterday on Facebook from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It’s a marvelous nibble of Food For Thought on the topic of seduction. Enjoy…
“If you’ve ever hung over the railing of a bridge looking down at the water passing, sometimes you feel a little vertigo as though you are being pulled to maybe jump in and be taken by the current. This is true of seduction also.
There can be a pull that is unexplainable, a desire to just fall forward, jump in for a fabulous destruction of self by which i mean a ‘take down’ of… the overly egotistical psyche. This positive deconstruction can be liberating for it shakes out all detritus and wholeness rises thus…
but there’s also detrimental destruction of self via seduction …by a blue bearded woman or a blue bearded man who claims they cannot do without… who whilst wheedling, wheeling and dealing, holds aces up the sleeve that you… do not know about. And you wonder why they always pull so compellingly on your tripes (gut) and you always seem to lose one more pound of flesh.
Make sure you know which kind of seduction you’re facing… within yourself, and with others. And if its the kind to throw you into a rapids you cannot survive… step away, step away from the railing… and walk to solid, non-moving ground. Find a tree. Lean forehead against it’s bark.” ~~ from The Contemplari manuscript, ©2000, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, all rights reserved.
And heed the advice if need be… we can be seduced on so many levels by so many things. We live in a technological world that feeds our temptations everyday, with an explosion of images and words and things we feel we must have. It’s always so important to stand your ground, when something doesn’t feel right.
(Photo: Tree on the Merrimack River ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
February 13, 2012
Sometimes in life you step out of your comfort zone and take a chance… Stepping out on a limb, you trust the universe to keep you safe.
But then, the tree shakes because maybe it’s not strong enough to bear your weight and you plummet to the ground.
So you ask the tree, why did you let me down, but the tree doesn’t respond, it just looks at you and shakes, leaving you filled with uncertainty and pain.
There is heartbreak in losing trust. There is grief in what you may think of as your own failure to recognize, that the tree wasn’t as strong and powerful as it appeared.
Illusions can get shattered like the glass in a mirror. In time with reflection you move past the heartbreak and grief and find your bearings once again. Healing takes time.
(Photo: Tree at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
February 7, 2012
Through the web of the bare branches of the trees and the electrical wires, this sky was such a gift to watch outside of my desk windows a few nights ago…
I am always grateful for the ever-changing canvas that is the sky.
(Photo: My Evening Sky at Point Shore ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
February 1, 2012
This quote caught my eye earlier today…
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy. ~~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge, 1943
Reflecting on the subject of taking delight in something “while we have it,” I think back to times of great joy. We know instinctively in the midst of sheer joy, that that joy will not last forever, but we still revel in it while it is happening.
And then, is that joy not our solace, when we slip down into a period of the dark nights of soul. It is there, lost in the dark nights of soul, that we reflect deepest sometimes. And that reflection at first can appear messy, like the reflection of the clouds amidst the winter trees in the marshes.
Difficult as the path may seem, it is taking the journey through the dark nights of the soul that clears our hearts and allows us to find strength in the notion that “nothing in the world is permanent.”
(Photo: Reflection In Hellcat Swamp ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)
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