Be Thankful for the Gift of Life

Xinalani Beach with Waves © Lynne Buchanan

(Image watermarked by Digimarc, all rights reserved)

This photograph was taken in Xinalani Mexico in October 2011 at a yoga retreat there.  It was such a spiritual place and the energy was quite special.  After practicing yoga and meditating every day, it was so easy to feel the magic of this scene on the last evening I was there and feel blessed to be alive.  When the God rays broke through the sky, as I was standing with my tripod in the ocean, I felt immersed in a miracle.

Sometimes, it is not so easy to feel that all of life is a blessing though.  Anxious thoughts can snowball and create more anxious thoughts and suddenly you are overwhelmed.  Yet, to really progress along the spiritual path, it is important to try and open our hearts to everything in our lives and be thankful for all of it, even the parts our smaller selves don't recognize as blessings yet.  It is really always a push-pull between feelings of doubt and hopefulness.  That is the nature of being human.  

Last weekend, I attended a fantastic frame drumming workshop with Layne Redmond in Melbourne, Florida.  Drumming seems to appeal to people in the midst of transformation.  At sunrise on the second day, I decided to go for a walk on the beach before class, because I was really struggling with some personal issues and was hoping a walkabout on the beach would provide me with some clarity.  I did not have my camera, so I will have to describe my experience instead.  It was an overcast day with areas of blue sky peeking through.  The wind was blowing quite strongly and the waves were crashing in accidental patterns.  The incoming waves were met by the receding tide and all kinds of crisscross patterns were evident.  The shorebirds would suddenly have to split their formations and run in opposite directions.  Pelicans were flying right into the fray of it all and somehow emerging unscathed.  Spray was curling off the tops of the waves and bits of foam were skipping along the sand, until suddenly they would stick at some random spot and then dissolve.  As I was looking into the stormy sea, I thought, "God, life is really a mess sometimes.  How can there be any kind of divine pattern in this?" My ego couldn't comprehend how something that looked so purposeless could be anything more than mere chance.  It seemed to validate my feeling that every decision I was making was impossible, because nothing was related and it was all so arbitrary.  At the moment I had this thought, God rays suddenly formed (only below the clouds instead of above like they did in Xinalani) and struck the most distant water on the horizon lighting it up so brilliantly.  It made me think that maybe I just couldn't see how it all looked from a larger perspective.  As I stood there feeling hopeful that perhaps in a few months or a year things would be a whole lot clearer and more stable in my life, one of the large rays of light that had formed traveled from the horizon all the way to my feet.  I was totally transfixed and felt the warmth of the sun's positive energy cut through the chill in the air and enter my body and soul.  It gave me goose bumps.  All my senses were telling me that there is magic in this world and that the challenges I am facing must be blessings, even if I don't yet know how these blessings will manifest in my life.

Stockholm in November

I just returned from a wonderful weeklong trip to Sweden, where we celebrated my Godfather's 80th birthday at a party in a small castle in Stockholm.  Listening to the speech he made and the toasts in his honor reaffirmed my belief that he has been a soul father to me and that his dedication to the pursuit of truth and beauty has been one of the greatest influences of my life.  Gunnar, a retired Agricultural Minister for Sweden, has dedicated much of his life to preserving the natural environment.   He is also a deeply spiritual human being and a philosopher, who followed his own path in life.  I am so grateful for all that he has opened my eyes to and for the deep conversations we have had over the years.  I attribute much of my spiritual connection with nature to my Nordic heritage, which I have learned about through Gunnar.

Swans at Sunrise in Royal Djurgarden Park, Stockholm

The Nordic Museum from Royal Djurgarden Park

Ostermalm Stockholm from Royal Djurgaden Park

(All photographs © Lynne Buchanan, watermarked by Digimarc)

Above are three photographs I took on a cold November morning in Royal Djurgarden Park just before the sun rose.  The clouds turned so many beautiful colors and lit up the water in a truly magical way.  I did not bring my SLR on this trip, since I didn't expect to have a lot of time for photography, but I did have my new Sony RX100 which does quite well in low light on a tripod.  If you are in the market for a compact digital camera to take with you on your travels, I highly recommend this new camera with its large sensor--especially for landscape photographs.  The resolution is unlike anything I have experienced with a pocket camera before.

Realities to LIve or Die By

Canyon de Chelly in the Late Afternoon

©Lynne Buchanan (Image watermarked by Digimarc)

"Intimate knowledge of the natural environment--its whims, cycles, patterns, seasons, terrain, and topography--became second nature to them.   Such knowledge can be the key to our survival as humans, but this time, instead of adapting to the environment in order to maintain our existence, we must save and heal the wounded earth so that future generations are assured of survival.  To accomplish this, we must go back to the beginning." --Joseph Marshall III, To You We Shall Return: Lessons About our Planet from the Lakota

Near the end of this wise book about what he has learned from his ancestors, Marshall writes, "Only after I learned the reality of how my ancestors tried to exist within the parameters of the natural environment did I finally begin to understand.  Whatever is beneficial to the natural environment is beneficial to humans.  Conversely, anything bad for the environment is bad for humans.  These are simple realities to live or die by."

The superstorm we experienced this past weekend should be a wake up call to us all that global warming does exist and that each and every one of us, through our patterns of living, are contributing to this problem to a greater or lesser extent.  We all need to increase our awareness of how our actions impact this beautiful earth and find ways to live more harmoniously with the natural world, or both we and the planet will continue to experience such dire consequences as we have just witnessed.