“Know the white, yet keep to the black; be a pattern for the world. If you are a pattern for the world, the Tao will be strong inside you and there will be nothing you can’t do.” Lao Tzu
Reflected Appraisal
August Rain
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” Sylvia Plath
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Benches
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
Shades of Gray
“Gray day. Everything is gray. I watch. But nothing moves today.” Dr. Seuss
Fear of Flying
“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real but fear is a choice.” Cypher Raige
Sunday Morning Sunflower
The Buddha (allegedly) said: “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” I figured yes, I’d like my whole life to change, so I took a few photos to study at home since it was already almost 80 degrees at dawn this morning.
Not only could I not see the miracle of the flower but was disappointed that after getting up early, waiting for the right light and using a tripod my photos were not the way I wanted them to be.
Charlotte Joko Beck, author of one of my favorite books Everyday Zen: Love and Work wrote: “If we can accept things just the way they are, we’re not going to be greatly upset by anything.” I’m pretty sure that doesn’t apply to photography but it’s probably better than driving myself crazy.
Crossing the Line
It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at that line for the rest of your life.
Consider the Lilies
“Consider the lilies of the field whose bloom is brief: We are as they; like them we fade away, as does a leaf.” Christina Rossetti
Note: It’s been said that it’s better to burn out than to fade away. My my, hey hey.
A Dream Within a Dream
“He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.” Douglas Adams
Spring Trainspotting
I went down to the railroad this morning to try to get an image that was different than just a train. Even these beautiful old engines blowing steam out in a huge cloud is less exciting the more you see and photograph it.
I missed the blowouts anyway so I was talking to this man who was working with oil and grease and what impressed me was that his clothes were as clean as in a Tide commercial. All I could think of was that he probably embraces clean living unlike the characters in the cult classic Trainspotting.
As one of the junkies in the movie said: “We start off with high hopes, then we bottle it. We realise that we’re all going to die, without really finding out the big answers. Basically, we live a short disappointing life; and then we die. We fill up our lives with shite, things like careers and relationships to delude ourselves that it isn’t all totally pointless.”
If only they did less heroin and ate more vegetables their attitudes would probably be completely different. Or not.
