The recognition and enjoyment of some experience. Acknowledgement accompanied by good feelings.
Opening to life’s deeper revelations Considering this wrench, what was its history? How did it come to be? My reflection begins with the observation that someone, likely a man with dirty hands, placed it on an oil drum inside the mushroom farm in Loveland, Ohio—where I photographed it. Where was the wrench before that? Might it […]
Gratitude can turn it around in short order Gratitude: From the Latin gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness depending on the context. What It Does Gratitude works in at least two ways. It shifts negative thoughts to positive thoughts by recognizing that something in life is good. And because the specific good we think […]
One of my favorite fast-food sandwiches is the Burger King Wopper. (Shown here as I ordered it). I hadn’t had one since before the pandemic, so when I drove through to get one recently I couldn’t help but express my gratitude, which turned into a contemplation where I traced each of its parts back to […]
Downtown on a playground A little girl saw a white man With a camera And she ran to him. Take my pitcher! Take my pitcher! Take my pitcher! She shouted. When photographing in other cultures The pointing of my camera Sometimes caused children to turn away And adults to turn their backs. What’s the difference […]
One of my favorite fast-food sandwiches is the Burger King Wopper. (Shown here as I ordered it). I hadn’t had one since before the pandemic, so when I drove through to get one recently I couldn’t help but express my gratitude, which turned into a contemplation where I traced each of the parts back to […]
Downtown on a playground A little girl saw a white man With a camera And she ran to him. Take my pitcher! Take my pitcher! Take my pitcher! She shouted. When photographing in other cultures The pointing of my camera Caused children to turn away And adults to turn their backs. What’s the difference I […]
A strategy for making the ordinary look special In the early years, I used to spend a lot of time walking up and down the many rows of vendors at outdoor antique fairs looking for that rare situation where the quality of light illuminating an object peaked my aesthetic sensibility. Later on, I noticed that […]
The soul’s feedback mechanism When I first printed this image, I thought it was a nice expression of childhood exuberance. Looking deeper now, I see humanity standing between earth and cosmos expressing joy. Given how our bodies evolved from the earth, it’s like the planet’s rising up here, now conscious, reaching out in a celebration […]
As we transition into Autumn, rather than post a series of images—as I did through the summer months—I’ll return to the original format of posting a single image with a brief, associated contemplation. As stated on the home page, the purpose of this blog is to, by way of demonstration, encourage you to use […]
Peony Flowers know the secret of beauty. 130 million years ago, plants learned that modifications in their form, texture, color, and odor can evoke the experience of beauty in other sentient beings. And they have been doing it ever since, wherever plants grow. Still today, flowers exercise the power of attraction as a reproductive strategy—so strongly, that 70 billion units of consciousness […]
Contemplative Photography 