Beekeeper

When the flower blooms, the bees 

come uninvited. ~Ramakrishna

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. ~James Russell Lowell

Pragmatic & Passionate

Passion isn't something that lives way up in

the sky, in abstract dreams and hopes. It lives at ground level, in the specific details of what you're actually doing every day. ~Marcus Buckingham

Without vision, even the most focused

passion is a battery without a device. ~Ken Auletta

Persuasible Patience

He who rides the sea of the Nile must have

sails woven of patience. ~William Golding

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when 

you feel like stripping your gears. ~Barbara Johnson

Blustering Melodies

A few minutes ago every tree was excited,

bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious

enthusiasm like worship. But though to the

outer ear these trees are now silent, 

their songs never cease. ~John Muir

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me

until I have set them down in notes. ~Ludwig van Beethoven

Finding Summer

Aaah, summer - that long anticipated stretch

of lazy. lingering days, free of responsibility

and rife with possibility. It's a time to hunt

for insects, master handstands, practice swimming strokes, conquer trees, explore nooks and crannies, and make new friends. ~Darell Hammond

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. 

To do nothing and have it count for something. 

To lie in the grass and count the stars. 

To sit on a branch and study the clouds. ~Regina Brett

Composition & Performance

The negative is comparable to the composer's

score and the print to its performance. Each

performance differs in subtle ways. ~Ansel Adams

We must remember that a photograph 

can hold just as much as we put into it, and

no one has ever approached the full 

possibilities of the medium. ~Ansel Adams

Creatively Confident

No man has the right to dictate what other

men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit. ~Ansel Adams

Intuition is the wisdom formed by feeling

and instinct - a gift of knowing without

reasoning... Belief is  ignited by hope and

supported by facts and evidence - it builds

alignment and creates confidence. Belief is

what sets energy in motion and creates

success that breeds more success. ~Angela Ahrendts

Philosophical Collaboration

Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy

requires art. Otherwise, what would 

become of beauty? ~Paul Gauguin

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. ~Andre Gide

Dreaming

To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan... believe... act! ~Alfred A. Montapert

All successful people, men and women, are

big dreamers. They imagine what their 

future could be, ideal in every respect, and

then they work every day toward their

distant vision, that goal or purpose. ~Brian Tracy

Memoirs & Moments

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us

by surprise. It is not that we seize them, 

but that they seize us. ~Ashley Montagu

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. ~John Milton

Demiurgic Disposition

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box. ~Henri Cartier-Bresson

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Flowering Flections

No great artist ever sees things as 

they really are. If he did, he would cease 

to be an artist. ~Oscar Wilde

Good art is art that allows you to enter 

it from a variety of angles and to emerge

with a variety of views. ~Mary Schmich

Tellurian Murmurs

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as

to have friends at a distance; they make the

latitudes and longitudes. ~Henry David Thoreau

And forget not that the earth delights to 

feel your bare feet and the winds long to 

play with your hair. ~Khalil Gibran

Solitary Stimulation

The monotony and solitude of a life

stimulates the creative mind. ~Albert Einstein

There is a fellowship more quiet even than

solitude, and which, rightly understood, 

is solitude made perfect. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Consequential Infloresence

Nature is an infinite sphere of which 

the center is everywhere and the

circumference nowhere. ~Blaise Pascal

There is no glory in a star or blossom till

looked upon by a loving eye; There is no

fragrance in April breezes till breathed with

joy as they wander by. ~William C. Bryant

Dewdrop Mist

Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail. ~Robert Motherwell

A meaningful life - this is what we look for in art, in its smallest dewdrops as in its unleashing of the tempest. We are at peace when we have found it and uneasy when we have not. ~Bjornstjerne Bjornson

Illuminating Propensity

We cannot hold a torch to light another's

path without brightening our own. ~Ben Sweetland

We are each gifted in a unique and important 

way. It is our privilege and our adventure to

discover our own special light. ~Evelyn Dunbar

Placid Patience

Have patience. All things are difficult

before they become easy. ~Saadi

Patience and perseverance have a magical

effect before which difficulties disappear and

obstacles vanish. ~John Quincy Adams

Perennial Party

In the end, it's not the years in your life that

count. It's the life in your years. ~Abraham Lincoln

One way to get the most out of life is to look

upon it as an adventure. ~William Feather

Visionary Imagination

Why does the eye see a thing more 

clearly in dreams than the imagination 

when awake? ~Leonardo da Vinci

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. ~Carl Sagan

Provenance

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture,

society must set the artist free to follow his

vision wherever it takes him. ~John F. Kennedy

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Agrestal Artery

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than 

we can ever learn from books. ~John Lubbock

As a single footstep will not make a path on

the earth, so a single thought will not make 

a pathway in the mind. To make a deep

physical path, we walk again and again. To

make a deep mental path, we must think over

and over the kind of thoughts we wish to

dominate our lives. ~Henry David Thoreau

Reality of Hope

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for 

the dream of yesterday is the hope of today

and the reality of tomorrow. ~Robert H. Schuller

I really do believe that God is love, one 

of deep affection and grace and forgiveness

and inspiration.  ~William P. Young

Ethereal Passion

No act of kindness, no matter 

how small, is ever wasted.~Aesop

Better pass boldly into that other world, in

the full glory of some passion, than fade and

wither dismally with age. ~James Joyce

Finding Contrast

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its

lights are stronger in the contrast. ~Charles Dickens

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Andersen

The light of lights looks always on the motive, 

not the deed, the shadows on the deed alone.

~William Butler Yeats

Intrepid Soul

Character cannot be developed in ease 

and quiet. Only through experience of 

trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. ~Helen Keller

Permanence, perseverance, and persistence

in spite of all obstacles, discouragements,

and impossibilities: 

It is this, that in all things distinguishes the

strong soul from the weak. ~Thomas Carlyle

Expressions of Simplicity

The art of art, the glory of expression 

and the sunshine of the light of letters, 

is simplicity. ~Walt Whitman

Simplicity is nature's first step, 

and the last of art. ~Philip James Bailey

Shamrock Bee

May the Irish hills caress you. May her 

lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of

the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of

Saint Patrick behold you. ~Irish Blessing

For 'tis green, green, green, 

where the ruined towers are gray, 

And it's green, green, green, 

all happy night and day;

Green of leaf and green of sod, 

green of ivy on the wall, 

And the blessed Irish shamrock with 

the fairest green of all. ~Mary Elizabeth Blake

Life Sermons

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,

finds tongues in trees, books in the running

brooks, sermons in stones, and good in

everything. ~William Shakespeare

Life is short and we have never too much

time for gladdening the hearts of those 

who are traveling the dark journey with us. 

Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

~Henri Frederic Amiel

Spontaneous Spring

Life stands before me like an eternal spring

with new and brilliant clothes. ~Carl Friedrich Gauss

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. 

Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ~Lao Tzu

Astonishing Aurora

Each leaf, each blade of grass vies for

attention. Even weeds carry tiny blossoms

to astonish us. ~Marianne Poloskey

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

Progress Soars

 Truth is not a matter of fact but a state of

harmony with progress and hope. Enveloped

only in its wings will we ever soar to the

promise of our greater selves. ~Bryant H. McGill

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with

which man soars above the earth and all

temporary nature. ~Thomas A. Kempis

Independent Exploration

I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore. ~Georgia O'Keefe

I do not wish women to have power over

men but over themselves. ~Mary Shelley

#internationalwomensday

Creative Choices

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~Pablo Picasso

An artist must be free to choose what he does,

certainly, but he must also never be afraid to

do what he might choose. ~Langston Hughes

Art of Seeing

The vision must be followed by the venture. 

It is not enough to stare up the steps - 

we must step up the stairs. ~Vance Havner

We all see, but we do not observe the little thing. The minute, imperfect elements that make up each one of us. It is what makes us human and individuals.  We must explore the world around us and enjoy the wonder of the beauty in everyday things. Practice observing the world through new eyes. Take time to view the little details...the things you might have missed.

Vision is the art of seeing what 

is invisible to others. ~Jonathan Swift

Are you looking?

What is art but a way of seeing? ~Saul Bellow

Terrestrial Tuition

Earth teach me to forget myself as melted

snow forgets its life. Earth teach me resignation 

as the leaves which die in the fall. Earth teach

me courage as the tree which stands all

alone. Earth teach me regeneration as the

seed which rises in the spring. ~William Alexander

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! ~Sitting Bull

Knowledge Remains

A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine. ~Anne Bronte

Pleasures take to themselves wings and fly away; true knowledge remains forever. ~Dorothea Dix

Soul Revival

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is 

apt to revive also. ~Harriet Ann Jacobs

Ah, yes Spring has returned and so have I. Things have really been crazy since before Christmas. But I am back now. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain a regular posting schedule. We shall see how that goes. 

So enjoy the daffodils and fields of gold and the warm sunshine on your face. Rainbows of tulips are in bloom and the awakening has begun. The wild flowers unfurl their tiny petals in the light. The bees are buzzing around me and the landscape quivers with life. I can find myself lost in these moments...just me and the camera and life. 

We cannot stop the winter or the summer

from coming. We cannot stop the spring

or the fall or make them other than they are.

They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute 

to life when each arrives. ~Gary Zukav