Beauty in winter….. 12/22/2014

bearing witness to the song of a cardinal, red berries on bare vines, misty fog of winter’s first night…
12/21/2014

The holly and the ivy,
now both are quite full grown.
Of all the trees out in the wood,
the holly bears the crown.

The rising of the sun
and the running of the deer,
and the playing of sweet music
at the turning of the year.”

Traditional Yule carol

The world over, ancestors marked this day….December 21 and 22 depending on the year was day of rejoicing.  Through the Northern Hemisphere temples and monuments were built to welcome the rising Sun as it emerged bearing light.

Best places to see and celebrate the winter solstice…..Smithsonian magazine

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-best-places-to-see-and-celebrate-the-winter-solstice-169694017/?no-ist

The return of ” Light ” in these days of so much darkness …. May it be for all….

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Beauty in Winter… 12/21/2014

I live in an urban area with over a dozen nearby parks… many of them large… there is a creek less than a block from where i live…  most often begin and end the walks at the river…. ‘Down to the river to pray’…our world is in great need of release restoration….

We live by the sun,

We feel by the moon,

We move by the stars,
We live in all things,

All things live in us,
We eat from the earth,

We drink from the rain,

We breathe of the air,
We live in all things,

All things live in us,
We call to each other,

We listen to each other,

Our hearts deepen with love and compassion,
We live in all things,

All things live in us,
We depend on the trees and animals,

We depend on the earth,

Our minds open with wisdom and insight,
We live in all things,

All things live in us,
We dedicated our practice to others,

We include all forms of life,

We celebrate the joy of living-dying,
We live in all things,

All things live in us,
We are full of life,

We are full of death,

We are grateful for all beings and companions.

Stephanie Kaza

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Beauty in Winter…. Photos while walking thru the seasons….

Beauty in Winter….Starting 12/21/2014 will blog pictures taken while walking… Hopefully for a full year each day will be posting at least one image..I begin this day of  Winter, so often Winter is known   as  the cold drab dark season…My only mission while walking is to see the beauty that is present…

The Earth itself is Buddha, is Christos, is Allah, is Gaia….It is all Here….
I give thanks for this, the Mother in Nature that sustains us, the flowing waters, the plant life, the elements, the seasons that turn round and round, and ‘That’  which directs all things.

‘ That ‘  (within everything that can be named and beyond any name)
I return thanks….

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

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