“No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.” Al Paca
Advice from a Zen Master
It’s Hard
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
What about the Children?
“Though the rules of the road have been lodged, it’s only people’s games that you got to dodge. And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it.” Bob Dylan
61 Candles
“Don’t think of this as your first step or last step. Just be here as a piece of life. That is the best way to be. You are not a young man; you are not an old man. You are just a piece of life.” Sadhguru, Life and Death in One Breath
Time Enough at Last
“The trouble is, you think you have time.” Buddha’s Little Instruction Book
Postcards from the Edge
“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.” Philip Dick
Self-Isolation
“You have entered an abnormal, lonely, and unwelcome new world where you are nothing but an island of sadness.” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
The Dark Days
“There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.” Gandhi
Basic Stereotyping
“In this world of basic stereotyping, give a guy a big nose and some weird hair and he is capable of anything.” Frank Zappa
Teachings
Eckhart Tolle, in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment said to let the flowers teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem. Butt wait, there’s more.
Let them teach you about composition, aperture, exposure compensation and shutter speed. Let them teach you to not only keep a tripod in your car but to use it.
Let them teach you about light, wind gusts and patience. Let them teach you to pay attention to signs, and not get locked in the park overnight. Let them teach you about color and how to bring out their beauty in a photograph.
And finally, if it takes a while to learn all of that let them teach you to convert to black and white, and pretend that you feel color is distracting and that you were going for that aesthetic, artistic look.
