Spectacular vista! The garden is abuzz in glorious revery. Nothing to be accomplished, nowhere to go. Sit down or join in the dance, there is no path to be followed, you’ve never left, we’ve awaited your return. Dry your eyes, it was only a dream.
With warm gratitude to Bob O’Hearn, a brillant writer and constant inspiration.
Feelingtoinfinity
This image was captured 5 years ago on July 4, 2009. I hiked to the top of the hill behind the hacienda and I had the overwhelming sensation that if I could just go a few feet higher I could actually reach out and touch this delightful Strato Cumulus cloud. It was right there!
“When you see that ordinary mind is the Buddha mind, you can see that everyday life as it is;
is the great thing. There is no difference between that and the divine mind.”
~Alan Watts
Parked in traffic coming back from Vegas a couple of years ago and looked off to the south to behold this spectacular vista. I might have missed this had we been flying along at 80mph. Sometimes we need to force ourselves to slow down in order to see the world as it truly is.
A tribute to one of my favorite American artists, Maynard Dixon. http://maynarddixon.org/ Although pegged as a “Western” painter, Maynard understood better than any other artist of his generation the overwhelming emotional power of standing before a “big sky”.
Pay attention now.
See how much of waking life is spent removed from the present.
Lost in thought constructions, my own, and those constructed by others.
Unreal, yet so all absorbing it becomes my reality, my normal.
Illusion, self created self, consciousness.
Shhh, be still now.
Who is watching?
Just this now and nothing more.
Enter from here.
~ Jeff’s Zen Garden
My Uncle, Southern Calvin Courtney passed on this morning. Southern was born in 1927 and lived 87 full and energetic years. He was an avid hiker and was familiar with every trail in the Sierra Nevada and Angeles Crest. Now he has moved on to his last adventure, into high country, whereabouts unknown. Happy trails my friend.
I shot this sunset, looking west from the hacienda this evening, November 1st, 2014.
A moment of magic photographed from my front yard looking west across the
Santa Clarita Valley. Late October, 2013
jeff's zen garden 