HUNDREDS OF WAYS TO KNEEL AND KISS THE GROUND

 Nature photography by Mary Jo Hoffman. See website here

After a week spent absorbing 
the natural beauty of the Wild Coast
I mentioned to a friend 
that the whole holiday
felt like a prayer of gratitude 

Wild Coast by Robyn Gordon 

..... which got me thinking about a quotation by Meister Eckhart
"If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough."

.... which lead to a favourite quote by Rumi
"Let the beauty we love be what we do. 
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

Photography by Klaus Oppenheimer. See website here

There are indeed hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground

Photo from Lisa Haneberg's website here

Leslie Avon Miller observes nature through her camera lens.  See blog here

Observing the miracles of nature is at the top of my list

Nature Photography by Kevin Jones. See blog post about Photography as Meditation here.

Practicing mindful photography

Photo by Kevin Jones

Photo by Kevin Jones.

" If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep deep woods and I'd look up into the sky -- up -- up-- up -- into the lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd feel a prayer." -- L M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I love this photograph by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

As an artist I am aware of something greater than myself
every time I create art.
When I look at the work of many, many artists 
I can feel the sacred in their work. 
I'm certain their art is their meditation.

Sarah Gillespie at work. See Sarah's Blog here

Winter Birds (oil on canvas) by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

I remember the way we were taught to pray at school 
Prayers always seemed so elaborate 
A far cry from Mary Oliver's ideas of prayer

PRAYING by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate,
this isn't a contest but a doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

By Fiona Watson. See Flickr photo stream here

NATURE INSPIRED

 Erik Gonzales. See more of Eric's work at the Costello Childs Gallery website here

I suppose we all have a place in our hearts, perhaps from childhood or another life time that makes the heart ache when you think about it. A place that has a strong pull but is sometimes too painful to think about because you know you can't go back. I learned to love nature in such a place. When I feel a connection to all the things that live and grow in the countryside I also feel a connection to the farm I grew up on.

Erik Gonzales. See more here

 I find this poem by Pablo Neruda particularly moving.

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off: it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-opened darkness of leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood --
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.
- Pablo Neruda

An Unwritten Book by Fiona Watson. See Fiona's Flickr photo stream here

Fiona Watson. See more of Fiona's work here

Fiona Watson. See more here

One-of-a-kind artist book by Jill Hubley. Click here

Everything/Something, a unique book with wooden pages, screenprint, gouache by Karen Kunc. See website here.

Bee Mapping by Cas Holmes. This piece is currently on tour in the 5th European Quilt Art Tour. See website here  and blog here

Rosie Turnbull textile print. Click here.

Exquisite Leaf by Francis Ooi. See more here

 Mayumi Sarai draws inspiration from organic structures and other natural processes to create her carved wooden sculptures. See more here

Bronze sculpture by Mark Hall. See more here

A PLACE YOU CAN GO

Photograph by Michel Poisson
There is a place you can go

where you are quiet,

a place of water and the light

on the water. Trees are there,

leaves, and the light

on leaves moved by air.

Birds, singing, move

among leaves, in leaf shadow.

After many years you have come

to no thought of these,

but they are themselves

your thoughts. There seems to be

little to say, less and less.

Here they are. Here you are.

Here as though gone.

None of us stays, but in the hush

where each leaf in the speech

of leaves is sufficient syllable

the passing light finds out

surpassing freedom of its way.

- Wendell Berry

(I found this poem at this beautiful blog)

Digital print by Fiona Watson

Digital Print by Fiona Watson

Valley of the Ghosts by sasanester

Jon Roman

Sue Lawty's pebble mandala. Read about the Beach Project here .

Photo by Jim Champion

"Be secluded in your secret heart-house,

that bowl of silence... " - Rumi

I found this photo on Tumblr. Photographer unknown.

"There is a silent self within us whose presence is disturbing precisely because it is so silent: it can't be spoken. It has to remain silent. To articulate it, to verbalize it, is to tamper with it, and in some ways to destroy it ". - Thomas Merton

David Severn

PATTERNS AND RYTHMS OF NATURE

Particles of Light, etching by Fiona Watson

"It is the child that sees the primordial secret in Nature and it is the child of ourselves we return to. The child within us is simple and daring enough to live the Secret." - Lao-Tzu

Fiona Watson is certainly living the Secret. She gathers nature's treasures and creates still life compositions which she photographs. These compositions are the most beautiful zen-like works of art.

In Fiona's artists statement she says, "The patterns, rythms, forms and colours of nature in a microscopic and macroscopic sense have always fascinated me. This initially led to studying Biological Sciences at Leicester University. After several years of working for various medical journals, I eventually studied printmaking at the Glasgow Print Studio - etching copper and steel plates with acids turned out to be the perfect blend of science and art. As a complete contrast and foil to messy printmaking, I also work extensively in digital printmaking."

Fiona sums up her journey to becoming an artist with a quote from Ben Okri. “We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected.”

See Fiona's work here, here and here.

Take a look at the "Playing with the Pieces" series. Fiona writes that they are "sort of visual exercises .... like piano scales ... before I start work."

Last but not least, feast your eyes on the stunning "Unwritten Book" series. Someone ought to write a poem about it.