A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I have heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So this week I thought I would do something different and post some of my favorite images that evoke a feeling of peace in me.  As you gaze at them, may they do the same for you 

This is Washington Allston's Landscape with a Lake

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Peter Severin Krøyer's Summer Evening on the Southern Beach

A Day of Peace - Paintings by John Lautermilch

Beauty in Tears

All this month I have been thinking about and reflecting on the practice of beauty. I have practiced seeing the beauty in everyone I meet, every situation I am in, and every place I go. The other day I was having a conversation with a dear friend who is going through a challenging time. I had to stop and ask myself where is the beauty in an illness, which makes someone suffer and feel as if the Divine has abandoned them. When I prayed with her, I was somehow about to express all that was in her heart and that she had not been able to find the words for in her own prayers. While I have never been in my friend’s place, I could empathize by thinking about the times I had felt broken, forsaken, and abandoned. It was during this time that I discovered a simple truth.

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Temporary and Permanent Residency

A friend of ours is interviewing for a job in another state. As she has talked about the idea of moving, she has thought about taking up a temporary residence somewhere until she can decide where and in what neighborhood she wants to live in. As I have listened to the stories of those whose homes were lost during Hurricane Katrina, there was a clear sense that where I am at right now is a temporary situation, but soon I will be moving back to or into permanent housing again. When it comes to where we live, most of us have a clear sense of when the place is our temporary and or permanent residence. So why is that some of us have trouble doing that with our feelings.
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