HIghly Commended Finalist in the 2012 Share the View International Photography Contest

I am pleased to announce that my photograph Vervet Eating Flowers was just awarded highly commended finalist in the 2012 Share the View International Photography Contest sponsored by the Audubon Society of Greater Denver.  This photograph was taken on my trip to Kenya this past summer in Tsavo East.  It was so much fun watching this monkey stuff his mouth full of flowers. As soon as he reached for this one, he created such a perfect composition that I knew it would look like a painting. I am very honored to have received this award. The photograph will be posted on their website soon.

When I saw this monkey eating flowers with such delight, I realized he was fully in the moment in a most indulgent and perfect way.  It brought to mind a story that Mark Nepo told in Estes Park at the Wake Up Festival and which he also recounted in The Book of Awakening.  The story goes like this:  "It is said that a great Zen teacher asked an initiate to sit by a stream until he heard all the water had to teach.  After days of bending his mind around the scene, a small monkey happened by, and, in one seeming bound of joy, splashed about in the stream.  The initiate wept and returned to his teacher, who scolded him lovingly.  'The monkey heard.  You just listened.'"

Vervet Eating Flowers @ Lynne Buchanan

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