More Truth Is Said In Jest...

...and it makes me smile!! :)

PS--Despair.com=AWESOMENESS

Pictures

I have always loved pictures!! :) The ability we have to capture a moment in time; to literally see the world through the eyes (or lens) of another; to be able to discover new ideas and concepts, to meet new people, to visit new places, to experience new...things...is AMAZING!!

But pictures have also scared me.

I have always disliked having my picture taken, with rare exception. Perhaps like some Native American tribes, I secretly believe that photographs can "steal" your soul!! ;P Nah...but something like it. I think I am afraid of having such a fixed moment in time define me. I am not "done" yet!! Photographs can make me feel trapped, as if I can no longer change.

However false I realize this is, it has been hard to shake. I simply try to remember that most of the time we see through a glass darkly. Our eyes, ears, and other senses all deceive us from time to time as we try to discern reality through that "dark room," the mind.

Making sense of the world is a tricky thing. Our minds have the power to bend and shape reality according to our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. We must indeed be mindful of such power. I would add to Descartes,' "[As] I think, therefore I am."


Disclaimer: I have so source for Native Americans' stance on photography and soul stealing...it's just something I have "heard" before!! :)

PS--I make too many "I always..." statements!!!! :O
PPS--I am thinking about 'pictures' because I have just started a Photography class...which I LOVE!!! Awesome teacher, great class...all-around AMAZINGNESS!! :D

A Psalm of Life!!

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and god o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There's A Reason Why Longfellow Is The "Poet And You Know It" Guy!!

Let us then labor for an inward stillness,
An inward stillness and an inward healing,
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thought and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks in us, and we wait
In singleness of heart, that we may know
His will, and in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do His will, and do that only!

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow