No'thing' is Wrong

The sun is shining brightly..the wind is blowing..the ground is still covered in a heavy blanket of white. February is now long gone and behind us. Slowly we are stepping into the month of March...where spring awaits its first calling.

Such a hopeful season. A one of re-newal and re-birth and re-growth. When all that has laid frozen and fallow for so long comes forth anew.

No'thing' is wrong. Every'thing' is exactly as it should be. The long cold winter. The slow melt into spring. One sunny day..followed by a cold damp wet one. It's all unfolding just as it should. Perfectly imperfect. Flawlessly flawed. Beautiful.

As we enter into this season of change..I'm finding myself practicing living life from a place and platform where nothing is wrong. And - if no'thing' is wrong..then every'thing' is all right...and if it's all right..then each and every new day is a good one. A 'right' one. A one to be celebrated and appreciated. A one in which no'thing' is wrong.

Please - won't you join me in this practice of embracing and appreciating all that is 'right'?

Practicing Presence

The first day of the last month of the last year of the first decade in the new millennium.
WOW!
Until I wrote it out - just like that - I hadn't fully felt its weight and its significance.

I'm asking myself. I'm wondering. Where has the time gone? How has this year slipped thru my fingers and passed me by? And - with only one month left in this last month of this last year of this first decade in this new millennium - what is it that I can do to stretch it out..to capture..to preserve it?

Practice presence.
Practice being in the here and now.
Practice giving my full attention to each moment..without distraction. The distractions will surely be here tomorrow. This singular moment - will not.

And so - as I begin this month of holiday revelry and fun..as as the busy-ness and excitement fo the season escalates and whirls and swirls around me - I'm reminding myself to do only one thing at a time.
To focus on this..and not that.
To practice presence.

Won't you join me in that?

Why It Works

So..I’ve been asking myself..and am asking you too. What is it about a daily ‘practice’ that works? How is it that doing the same thing day after day..can change your mind and your life? How is it that it helps you find peace and ground and center? And how is it that within that daily ritual and routine.. you find the strength to speak your true voice?

When not thinking straight..when thoughts and endless questions are swirling and twirling and dancing inside – I turn myself upside down. I breathe. I trust my body. The answers come as I return myself to earth. To what supports and carries me.

When questioning and second-guessing and believing that I have nothing to say..nothing to offer – I sit myself down at my computer. I let my fingers do the walking. I trust in their knowing something that I do not. That they will guide me.

And when the world is looking hopeless and dark and grey..and that today is the same day as the day that was yesterday – I pick up my camera. I let the lens do the seeing…believing that it will lead me…that it knows better than me where to look and find the extraordinary in that everyday ordinary.

Over and over – I return to my ‘practice’…to the space that is comforting and familiar…and where I can simply be. How or why it works – I don’t quite know. But that – if it works for me..it could work for you too??

Practice

by Marcie Scudder.

As an avid yoga practitioner, I study the power of presence, the strength of acceptance, and the grace of embracing what ‘is’.

This ‘practice’ of photographing the world as I see it has become no different than that of stepping on my mat, feeling the ground solidly beneath my feet, opening my heart and my eyes to the world as it unfolds around me. It is a union of body and mind and the click of the shutter’s lens.

Day after day, week after week and month after month after that, no matter what the forecasted weather I get up before the sun rise and walk my morning walk. With my camera over my shoulder and in my hand, I ‘practice’ recording the world as I see it. I never know in advance what it was I might find. The perfect scene, the perfect moment, the perfect light are inconsequential and often elusive. There is always something new to see and be seen; something to be captured from a different point-of-view and in a whole new way. The morning light, the weather, the mood, the seasons are ever changing and evolving along with my vision.

Looking thru my lens I often find myself totally immersed in the moment and what it has to offer. My ‘practice’ has become a daily reminder that there is hidden magic in the details if we actually stop and breathe and look and listen.

Curious to hear how it is you practice your craft? What it is that you do daily?

Ode to Daily Practice

I'm Marcie..and thrilled to be a part of this group of endless inspiration. I'll be sharing my thoughts and experiences around the power and possibility of daily practice, and thought I'd begin with a little 'manifesto'..of sorts.

It’s about feeling the earth beneath you. Solid and strong.

Just breathe.

It’s about meeting that white page with a few words..or sentences..or even paragraphs. But finding something.

Just write.

It’s about confronting that blank canvas and filling it with a few strokes of color. Your color. Whatever it might be today.

Just paint.

It’s about going out there with nothing other than a camera. Expecting nothing. Neither controlling nor contriving. Looking and seeing and recording it as it is.

Just click.

It’s about setting an intention to commit. Without any sort of attachment to outcome..finding the true prize in the process and in that pose.

Just move.

It’s about discipline and ritual and routine. In spite of the bad mood..the bad weather..the sleepless night that happened before.

Just do it.

It’s about simply getting up and meeting each day. Accepting and embracing..without judgement or question.
It’s about rising and beginning again and again and again..time after time after time after that.

It’s about practice...a one that is done daily.