Lake Algae at Johnson Reservoir: Photography
“The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is ‘look under foot’. You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of power than you think.” John Burroughs
Little Gem
Author Archives: noellevignola
Blessed Toe
beautifully cracked… like me… Photography by Noelle
Blessings to my broken toe. I’ll confess I was angry with you over the past week for interfering in my work out and yoga practice, not to mention hindering my shoe selection. But this morning you didn’t hurt so much so I decided to try some yoga. Because of you I had to go slower. Be more thoughtful and focused about each pose. I had to be kinder and gentler with myself and pay attention to little things. I had to think of which poses I could do and as a result, pulled out some poses I hadn’t done in ages, which totally charged my practice. So thank you, broken toe. I had no idea what a blessing you were.
High Wire Act
We hang delicately in the now between what was and what hasn’t been. A circus performer on one foot, balancing gracefully on the high wire. This is what the Universe was made for. For you. In this moment. On this very breath of life filling you up. A ceaseless cycle of letting go, taking in, letting go, taking in. Raise your arms, turn on the wire and feel the power of each balancing motion. Feel how innately you know how to move in this moment. That at your core where all balance resides is a total knowing of how to take the next step. Know with certainty that there is no risk. The net is there, has always been there, will always be there. You are the spirited acrobat of the Great Circus Tent. The divine applauds in the stands with glee at your every move. You are divine grace and balance, in motion.
Passion
Re-posted from Enchanted Nature’s FB page
There are two states of living. One is alive, alert, curious, inquisitive, hungry, impassioned, in love and with the readiness of a child for the next possible moment to play. The other is to let go little by little all of the above, until you find your senses and your extraordinary mind dulled to the point of a plastic knife cutting a two-day old bagel.
Today I am everything I have ever been and in this day I have more than a million chances to discover someone in me I have never met. This is Wonderland and it was all made for me, as it was made for all of us. This is our adventure. Wake up everyone. It’s time to go out into the world and play.
Waking Up
Re-posted from Enchanted Nature’s Facebook page
I wake at the crack of dawn to hear a bird chirping continuously outside my window. He is calling all in his center of the world to wake up. I ponder when he’ll move on as I would love to go back to sleep. Still he sings. After awhile the sound begins to drift into my mental background. Becomes part of my brains now ongoing chatter since I’m up. This is what is happening to me daily with the divine. Source energy is ceaselessly calling me to wake up, and at first I hear, but call back how lovely is my slumber. And when the call does not penetrate it begins to be a part of the din inside my head. This is why I meditate. So that I can alertly and quietly hear the call. Wake up. You have slumbered long enough.
Shoo Fly
Re-posted from The Mind Unleashed Facebook Page
If I do not give THIS thought my attention, my emotions, my time than it has no power over me. It shapes no aspect of my life. Shoo! Shoo! Out with you. I do not entertain houseflies in my skull!
Dragonflies
Re-posted from Art For Ever Facebook Page
The dragonfly
Curious creature if you spend much time observing their structure. Flimsy really. Bent body that looks little more than a dry twig. Wings so translucent that you can see clearly through their veil of blues and greens at anything that lies beyond. Alight upon your hand and you’d mistake it’s presence for a dandelion seed, it has so little weight. A good wind should snap it in two.
And yet……. it doesn’t.
The dragonfly in all it’s frailty is one of the greatest fliers of all the Earth. Up, down, backward and forward. It dazzles us as it skims the surface of a lake, only a flicker to our eye.
We are the dragonfly, brilliantly translucent against a river of divine love. We appear to ourselves, at times, so frail and flimsy facing the forces of life’s challenges.
And yet…….we are not.
There is not a spirit that walks the Earth that is frail or broken. Even in-spite of our bent and dried up appearance. What we are can not be disturbed by even the greatest events of our lives, no matter how strong the winds of change.
You are capable of great adaption and changes of direction. You know this. Feel the flutter of your iridescent wings moving steadily in your chest. Your spirit moves in you with all the art of the great flier. It is no mistake you live by the wind moving steadily in and out, in and out of your wing like lungs. Embrace your bits of color and light refracting in the Universe. You were meant to dance, not hide amongst the reeds. Your presence on this Earth is one of the great mysteries of design and beauty.
Just like the dragonfly.
Patience and Crawdaddies
Stained glass at Living Arts Center in Denver: Photography by Noelle
As a child I was quite the tomboy, catching bull frogs in the lake behind my house or craw daddies in the creek. I still listen to frogs on summer nights to determine where they are and to what mate they call. I’m especially fond of finding crawfish in the streams that I hike. Spring has been slow to come to Colorado and the creek is running fast, deep, ice cold and swollen with snow melt. Not very hospitable for a crawfish. Still, I look. Today, I was about to turn away after quite some time standing, when it’s tail caught my eye as it scurried across the creek bed beneath a rock. Life! Spring is here!
I meditate so that I may cultivate the quiet, the patience, the awareness and the love for this moment. Even the long waiting part. Even if there’d been no crustacean. Even with the red wing blackbirds that squawk like old Bolsheviks into my ear from the thicket for my intrusion. May you live a long life my mud-digging friend. You lit up my heart tonight.
Meditation Travelogue 
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