A Practice of Returning

One spring following another - I've watched these two return to their familiar nesting ground and pond. He - spends his days tirelessly patrolling..keeping all predators at bay. She - sits hour after hour..day after day warming the eggs in their precious and precarious nest.

It's been a late-coming spring. Trees have been slow to color themselves green. Flowers have been even slower to blossom and bloom. We - persons - have taken a long time to shed our winter coats and skins.

The birds sing.

Oblivious to the cold..the wet..the inclement weather. Unaware that this spring's rhythm doesn't quite rhyme.

The birds sing.

They mate. They nest. They hatch babies. They're not waiting for the right time..the right place..the right moment. It's spring. They trust in their hearts. They trust in their internal compasses as guides.

A practice of returning. Season after season. Year after year.

They say that they mate for life. Through bountiful seasons or bare..through sickness or health..they love and they cherish 'til death do them part.

In the damp. In the grey. In the cold. Theses ugly little ducklings were - just today - hatched. They know nothing of late-coming springs. Only that they will grow..that they will love and mate..and that they - too - will someday hatch cygnets of their own.

The circle of life continues. On..and on.

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'?

If I Was That Groundhog

Bidding adieu to the month of January and welcoming in February.

Today - I a thinking about the infamous groundhog. Putting myself in his little shoes. Seeing the world thru his lens. Imagining being called out from my safe warm hole in search of a shadow. A single shadow that will declare to the world whether this endless winter has an end-in-sight..or if it might go on forever.

The pressure he might feel. The need to come up with the right answer. To please and appease. To promise the impossible.

It is - as I write - once again snowing and blowing wildly. It is beautiful and white. Magical. If it was me called upon to predict this winter's future - I'd say that it's going to be a long one. Although I'd hate to disappoint all of those who are awaiting a different prognosis..I'd have to be honest and true to what I see. Trusting my eyes - no shadow.

If I was that groundhog.

I'd gather up all of my internal resources. I'd practice presence and awareness. And - with the greatest of confidence in myself and my vision - I'd pronounce quite loudly that it's going to be a long while before we see spring. I'd encourage everyone to sit wit it...that there are lessons to be learned within. That there is only one way to the other side..and that way is straight through.

So..and to that - as the snow continues to fall and blanket us in its withe - I invite you to sit with me. To be in it. Practice patience. Practice presence. Practice awareness. Practice finding the beauty in this wintery moment..in this day. Because this is it. It's all there is.

Practicing Elegance and Grace

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?

Questioning as 'Practice'

It's grey. It's November. I have a list that is much too long..awaiting my attention. I ate too much. I slept too little. My big toe aches. There isn't enough time in my busy day.

There are always so many very good reasons - all perfectly valid - why not to attend to whatever it is we practice. But - we practice anyway. Of - I do. By turning off our thinking minds..we get into what grounds and inspires us. We invite in what we need...and let go of what won't serve us on that particular day.

Those of us who are entrenched in a daily ritual and routine can't imagine how they might get through their day without it.

Lately - I've found myself questioning. Should I roll out my mat...should I not? Should I to out with my camera..or is this day too rainy..too cold..to un-inspiringly grey? Strangely and surprisingly - it is within those questions that I'm finding a whole new and different practice. This one - about trustint what I already know to be true. No matter what..no matter where or when. Sometimes it's better not to 'ask' too many questions..and simply to 'do'.

Within the familiarity and framework of that daily practice is where I'm found. My feet solid on the earth beneath me. My head - free and clear and reaching for the sky above. Ready to create..to find a spot of unexpected color in an otherwise monochrome and very ordinary day.

What is it that you do that inspires? That grounds? That defines and structures your day?

A Challenge

By now - you’ve all heard from me. What challenges..what centers..what grounds and inspires me.


You’ve heard how I greet each morning by saluting the sun…and how that ‘practice’ has shaped and changed how I view my world and capture it through my camera’s lens.

You’ve heard how I meet the blank page…and fill it with whatever the moment has to offer.


Now – it’s your turn.

I’d love to hear about your ‘practices’ – whether they be daily…weekly..or monthly. I’d love to hear about what gets your engines going in the morning…what inspires…what helps you see and feel and ‘be’.


To that – I’d like to offer up a challenge. In 300 words..or less – tell me about yourself. You can use words..or images..or both. Tell me what you do that frames your day..that focuses you…that gets you going when nothing else will. I’d love to hear about your ‘practices’ – in your own creative way.


Over the next few weeks – we’ll be posting your offerings right here at the Inspiration Studio. It's an opportunity to see..and be seen..and be a part of this extraordinary group.


Leave a comment here. Let me know what you think...and if you'd like to be a part of this. And then – email me directly with your story. The one you'd like the world to see. In the subject line – be sure to write ‘Daily Practice’ so that I’ll know that it’s you.

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?