Day39

Home sweet home. Sometimes I feel a little creepy walking around at night taking pics.

Once I saw someone looking at me through their living-room window 

- looking at me looking at them, 

or at least their fantastic front-yard tree.

So I took one at home tonight. 

No one was looking through the window at me looking at them. 

Robert was watching Breaking Bad.

Day 38

Hey little leaf, let go.

Day 37

Barely there. But Summer existed. I found proof!

Unbelievable that leaves would sing together in the breeze less than a year ago. 

Spring will be sweeter this year.

Day 36

We went for a booze run as they say. LCBO downtown Oakville was shut tight as a drum. Sadness prevailed...walking in the wind for nothing I was thinking but then I saw this. Not very clear as the wind threatened to throw my phone into the harbour. I but I love the patterns of shapes in this pic just the same. 

Thinking more about what Almyra said about Miksang photography. It's like you don't want to fit the thing you notice into your own frame (of reference, perspective, trend etc) but allow it's frame or structure to be itself. I don't think I know how to do that.

Day 35

Went for a walk with Almyra, my dear ex-pat friend who lives in Lux. She is the REAL

photographer in the family. But I noticed a familiar vibe - she stops to look at things while everyone else keeps going down the sidewalk,and often, a camera is between her and what she stops to see. Now I know what it's like to walk with me. Though I think she's more hard-core.

 I am a light-weight compared to her but I am enjoying myself. She talks about the triangle of exposure and I talk about what looks interesting and stop there. 

She introduced me to Miksang, a type of meditative photography 

where you take photos of what strikes you, what opens

up to you, what you notice, what speaks to you. She says this is a discipline 

in that you have to un-train your cultured eyes - we always see through the lense of 

trends and culture and see a different way. I think the cultured lense is inescapable, and yet perhaps we just have to see with a different eye,

the inner eye - a completely different sense altogether. Maybe that's what she's talking about.

Day 34

I'm curious. What were you thinking Elizabeth?

Day 33

I took a quick walk down the road tonight. 

Very refreshing after a long night of working on an assignment.

I submitted it 4 minutes and 37 seconds late the moodle course told me.

That's a nice slap in the face right when you need it most.

I noticed this sign...at the bottom, if you look closely,
you'll see a spray-painted, not-supposed-to-be-there
bat...made with a... bat stencil!
Robert says its twin is on the south bathroom wall in the park
Who carries around a bat stencil in their pocket?
Who communicates in bats, I wonder...

Day 32

I love these put-it-in-my-pocket shots
looks like energy in pure form

Day 31

Goodbye winter. 

The party is over.

DAY 30 !

The last day of my 30 - day challenge. 

The first day of my life-time challenge: to walk mindfully everyday.

I realized that walking everyday is like the idea of non-resistance in life.

This idea teaches us that the cause of our suffering is not our circumstances or reality but our resistance to it.

Walking everyday is like a microcosm of this. A walking metaphor perhaps.

Everyday I  have to accept and open myself up to what the day is:

it's reality - rain, sun , snow, gentle breeze, wind, cold or heat and walk into it.

It is. and I am. 

There will be days, and there were days,

when it's difficult to face reality.
And being open to everything in life is not really possible, how can we not resist death and suffering?
But you probably know this from experience as I do,
suffering is far greater and drawn out when we resist reality
and only deeper if we let go and allow it in,
knit it into ourselves and it becomes a sturdy row
of the fabric of our life.
What is real and true will ground us.
Like walking.

It's been freaking cold out there. I wanted to stay put and drink tea on the sofa.

I didn't want to wrap myself in layer upon layer and brace myself
for cold's bite.

I sighed. I moaned. 

But I did it. And it taught me 

this lesson.

Life is richer, deeper, and far more lovely

 when you face it.
I know I will need to learn this over and over again.
so I walk.

Day 29

Something happened on the way to my pocket.

Day 28

What do you do when you have a lot of work piling up?

You go out for a walk.

Day 27

lights remind us of the lifeforce that dances all around us and within us

Day 26

 Walked by the local tonight,

You could hear a muffled, tinkly piano

 and a handful of voices

straining for harmony
along with

the rest of us.
All howling

 beneath the very same moon

Day 25

For all of you who need to howl at the moon tonight...

Day 24

 Life is a cacaphony of elements thrown in your path

if you look up every once in a while

you will find yourself deliciously immersed

in 

everything

and everything in you.

Day 23

salvation carved in stone

Day 22

Snow is pretty, but cruel.

Day 21

It was me and the snowplows tonight, me

and a few stray dogs going to Shopper's Drug Mart.

Howling to the moon, each their own song.

Dreaming of bed yet not ready to put the day away, 

a last wander through the hills 

before the moon slips behind its cloudy blanket.

Day 20!

Everyday kind of beauty. Beauty everyday.

Day 19

Oh poop!

Day 18

If Andy Warhol had walked with me tonight...

Day 17

This thought from Buddha 

kept humming inside of me as I was walking today:

 "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. 

We ourselves must walk the path." ~Buddha

Day 16

Walking in the woods on a windless, snowy day is a walking meditation.

 It's silent but for the sound of snowflakes.
That is the first thing you notice. 

Then you feel immediately removed from your kaleidescope life
as if a heavy curtain is being drawn behind you.
The woods is what is real now. 

Snowflakes kiss your cheeks.
The trees silently greet you and bear your passing against their branches.
You are among them now, they embrace you as one of their own.
Your attention is drawn into the exquisite pattern of snow on bark,
 the dripping of ice-sleeved branches.
You pay attention but you remain wordless. Nothing demands a response.
It just is. It quietly unfolds it's being in front of you.
 As you unfold yours.