Listening to Ajahn Brahm's "Space the Final Frontier" talk yesterday during my wet wet drive, I was reminded to look past objects into the space surrounding those objects. The objects in our lives should take a back seat to the space around them. We, ourselves mostly space, need to realize what we put in the space between us and others is extremely important. What we put in the space we surround ourselves with will determine our day, our life.

In keeping with the idea of space but also finding water a "running" theme so far in my trip I took this photo with my new cheap variety underwater camera. I've been wanting for a long time to take photos in the water so I had a wonderful time creating these images this morning.

The rain I drove through yesterday has caught up with me again. It now looks like rain for the kayak trip I planned (which at the time showed plenty of sun :( But, that is ok. I think I will plan for lots of rain for this trip as it is pretty much covering the country right now.

I highly recommend Ajahn Brahm's talks- you can find them here:
https://brahmstalks.wordpress.com/

Raindrops are falling on my Head

This morning I head east. I have a wonderful month of July planned in New York, Hew Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. I start my day in my hot tub as I start everyday, only today I have an even greater sense of appreciation and gratitude for all that I have. As I sat in peace and joy the rain began to fall. It started with just a few random bubbles in the tub with no sight of the drops entering the water, then it built up to miniature eruptions as the incoming drops displaced the still water shooting them straight up for a quick ride. I sat feeling my skin go from cool to cold and then develop goosebumps giving me chills down my back. I sank lower into the warm water and let the cold drops rain down my head and face. Another gift.

I know I will miss my hot tub meditations but I hope to create new morning rituals that will include meditations. I will be starting my trip at Cornwall on the Hudson; a short kayak ride across the Hudson to an old artillery castle, Bannerman Castle, where I hope to be able to get some good shots.

I'll be staying only minutes from Storm King State Park and about an hour from Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY where I will be trained in Tai Chi.

I hope to keep the blog going until I hit the trail. This morning's photo is another phone photo since my camera is packed away with just about everything else I own.

This is the rain on the deck as the water hits and the puddle reflecting the chair above. I removed the color since the photo was about the shapes and textures that caught my eye.

Railside

Remarkable June morning in that the breeze is cool, the sun is out, and the temperature sits somewhere in the 70's. At 7:47 I have already been awake for over four hours enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells from within our piece of the prairie.

Delighting in my last sip of hot lemon water with honey, mmm extra sweet that last drop, I decided to try a phone post using a phone photo (that didn't work... not sure why it wouldn't publish, so I am reposting yesterday's post today). The texture and color of the lemon catching my eye like a miniature sun prompted this photo; just love my new golden prairie grasses swaying in the breeze in the background of this photo.

Such an incredible way to start my day. I am so blessed that I have opportunities like these to witness and marvel at the world around me.

Using Chakra's for Photography

I created this document to be used in our Costa Rica Trip for my part : Meditative Photography. I plan to start with a chakra meditation before we begin our photographic assignments.

Afternoon Delight

 So much rain here in central Illinois everything is extremely green, something I truly missed during our short stint in Colorado (maybe the only thing I missed :) Have you seen the blue of the Colorado sky? Anyway, had to shoot these in color. I heard once that the human eye can distinguish more shades of green than any other color. Lots to see here.

Prehike Moment

My husband and I recently had the opportunity to hike in Southern Indiana with my brother and his wife on the Knobcreek Trail. It was a wonderful backpacking experience through a very quiet forested area of Indiana. My back full, I decided not to carry my camera with me, but the night before our journey I shot these as the last bit of sunlight spotlighted the lake next to our tent.

As I look at these now I see a theme.... perhaps a kind of  "heads up". This was a remarkable unforgettable trip for me and part of the reason for that was discovering that I had lost my car keys 7 miles into our hike. While initially I was anxious and somewhat panicked about the hassle that would create for everyone, as the day went on I was able to let go of it. I took an "everything will be alright" attitude. I held onto this feeling so securely that as we drove from the end of the trail back to where my car sat at the trail head I felt an enormous sense of relief. I left myself feel huge gratitude for finding the keys. When we returned to my unlocked car to find, my purse, my brother's and sister in law's wallets and ipads still there the relief I felt went deeper. And when my husband looked down at the back bumper of my car and discovered that someone had found and returned the keys I was elated. It felt like magic.

Recently I've read about the cause and effect relationship and the magic of the fact that the opposite  is also true. Maybe it really is true that sometimes, the effect can create the cause. I believe it :)

Curious?? Read the article I read here: http://consciouslifenews.com/law-magic-effect-base/1169605/

Solo Kayak

My first solo kayak trip of the year and apparently my first blog since 2014 and it's already May. Oh well, as this is my last month of teaching perhaps I will be more vigilant in keeping this up. I'm pretty sure I just got lazy and posted to Facebook though I much prefer this venue. My first kayak trip of the year was a surreal one. I went with friends to a piece of Lake Sangcris that was going to lead us to a small creek. It was a gorgeous 60 degree sunny day and after a long cold spell the sun felt especially warm on my naked arms and legs. We took off and paddled a fair distance, probably 15 minutes into our trip we noticed the lake looking particularly reflective. As we paddled closer we were soon consumed by an icy mixture much like paddling through a giant Sonic slushy. The sound was wonderful even it if did make it a bit more difficult to paddle. But as we continued on we got to a point of totally frozen lake with at least an inch thick of ice. We laughed and worked to break our way through. Clunk, Clunk, Splash, push. It made the trip extremely difficult as we had to first break the ice with our oars and then try to push ourselves forward. Thinking the creek of moving water wouldn't frozen we forged forward making our way along the edge of the water where the ice wasn't quite as thick. After almost an hour of hard paddling we stopped and decided to turn back as we were still far from the creek. Ten or fifteen minutes into our return we discovered that the ice that had covered the lake was entirely gone. It vanished in an instant. Wish I had carried my camera that day. The sun sparkling on the ice covered lake was like a path of diamonds.

From yesterday's trip on Lake Springfield into Sugar Creek I saw four snakes, three deer laying by the water and tons of turtles. It was an overcast day except for a blast of sun every so often. I made it out before the storm hit but got to see the dark clouds roll in quickly.

I was so relaxed on this trip I fell asleep and ended up under branches of a red cedar like this one.