Everything Had To Happen

What one photograph taught me about wonder, interconnectedness, and the miracle of being Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the […]

When Becoming Becomes Being

A quiet morning revealed the difference between doing and simply being In the wee small hours of the morning, while the whole wide world is fast asleep…  The rain has stopped. The streets are fresh and warm. The sky is clear. The day begins to form… The opening lyric to these favorite songs conveys the sensibility […]

What Does it Mean to be Human—To be More Fully Human?

Finding Meaning, Purpose, and Wholeness Through the Evolution of Consciousness In The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. Arthur C. Brook says many today, especially young people, are experiencing a growing sense of emptiness. There’s a lack of purpose and significance Loneliness, anxiety and dissatisfaction are on the rise I’s […]

Ascending the Evolutionary Spiral

Collaboration, Courage, and Consciousness are Shaping Humanity’s Future The spiral stairway in this image evokes in me considerations of the evolutionary spiral, the universe’s operating system, which scientists understand to “favor” increased novelty, diversity, adaptation, complexity and order. Along the bottom steps of the oil tank, I see the significant ordering that has already occurred. […]

Radiance

Our world is as big as the candle we carry Since my introduction to photography in high school I’ve been in love with Light. Long before I understood aperture, exposure or composition, I sensed that certain qualities of light carried emotional and even spiritual force. The qualities of light—its softness, direction, contrast, intensity and mystery—could […]

Necessary Conditions For A New Humanity

Qualities of Love and Consciousness Are Shaping Our Evolutionary Future My common practice for this blog is to select a photograph that will prompt a contemplation. In this instance, due to a period of focused readings in theology and philosophy relative to the future of humanity, there came a moment when I had the distinct […]

Patterns

Evidence of cosmic order All evolution is a dance of wholes that separate themselves into parts and parts that join into mutually consistent new wholes. We can see it as a repeating, sequentially spiraling pattern: unity to individuation to competition to conflict to negotiation to resolution to cooperation to new levels of unity and so […]

Reverence for Light

Attending to light fosters deep perception and appreciation I was nineteen and majoring in photography at Rochester Institute of Technology when I made a commitment to the regular practice of black & white photography as a medium of personal growth. Prompted by insights gained from some images I’d made, I sat alone in my car […]

Clouds and Beyond

Science, Ecology, Art; Spiritual Insight I’ve always appreciated clouds. Often, they evoke an out loud “Wow!” If Linda’s nearby I can’t help commenting on them. In the early years of elementary school, the nuns always seated me in the back of the room, probably because I was paying more attention to what was going on […]

The Wonder Of Being

What had to happen for these leaves to be photographed? Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the […]