Edward Steichen 'Lotus' and Spirits search for itself

Edward Steichen 'Lotus' 1915

words from Parabola Magazine

“The struggle to know who I am, in truth and in spirit, is the spiritual quest. The movement in myself from the mask to the face, from the personality to the person, from the performing actor to the ruler of the inner chamber, is the spiritual journey,” wrote Ravi Ravindra in our Fall 2004 issue: The Seeker. "

These words remind me of the daily practice of unlayering what we put on the day before to be in the world, and then need to 'deconstruct' on a regular basis to find that deeper inner self again. And even though there is so much resistance, and one has to discipline oneself to do this it, it is the most 

nourishing and deeply restorative practice available, no matter what form it takes (eg Yoga, meditation,

prayer, journal writing etc etc).

The surprise flowerings from my wandering jew cutting

"THOSE WHO WANDER ARE NOT NECESSARILY LOST" -- JRR Tolkien

I stole a little cutting of purple wandering jew from a garden in Brisbane, and brought it down to cold old Melbourne. I thought if I just put it in a sunny spot for a week or two in a glass of water, and let it acclimatize to the cold down here, that everything would just work out fine. Well, not only did it work out fine! It sprouted these tiny little beautiful flowers one after another for weeks. They'd only last a few hours, and then another one would come up two days later. I felt like I was being being showered with wandering jew blooms. A friend told me about how when plant is threatened with death it just throws out

as many of its flowers/seeds as it can. 

if only we could capture the scent of daphne on camera

flower from out-a-space?

This is an African daisy and I just searched online for it, because I was looking for something outrageous from Nature, a statement about how innovative and out-of-this-world she can be.  I wanted colour and dynamism. This picture delivered!

After Georgia O'Keefe

I started to think about how Georgia O'Keefe painted the inside of flowers in the most intimate and intense way, showing us our own connections to these wondrous manifestations of nature, sure put here by angels and the Gods. I searched for an image which spoke to me of this deeper self, the intricate and ephemeral language of emotion. I found this image by the artist: Len Bomba, which he calls 'Blue Pansy - Georgia O'Keefe Style'. (see more about this picture here)

Blue Pansy - Georgia O'Keefe Style

Eclipse

Eclipse, originally uploaded by cYrus!.

This photo came up on a search I did for 'death flower'. Another person within my community has just died, and it feels like a time of transformation, and letting go some more.
This photo has a mixture of dark and light. There is a feeling of a group of people holding the light. I sometimes find the light of my inspiration comes after a journey into the dark.