I am on a journey of many destinations with not just having to learn about photography and my camera.

I am also learning about my own tastes and style.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.

[A fragment of Rabindranth Tagire´s poem “Unending Love”]

What Are Heavy?

What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow:
What are brief? today and tomorrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep ? the ocean and truth.

– Christina Rossetti

Bluebird
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.

[A fragment of Charles Bukowski´s poem of the same title]

“Seasons flow in a cycle.
Life too, passes through difficult winters.
But after any winter, spring will follow.”

― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Tales from the Café

“Who Am I?”

I am more than merely me:
I’m the hearts I touch, the air I breathe,
The thoughts I think, the things I see,
And the footprint that I leave.

You can find me in the ones I love,
In the thunder, rumbling high above,
In a goodnight kiss, or a friendly hug,
In butterflies and lightning bugs.

I am more than meets the eye—
From the smiles I give, to the tears I cry;
Between the laughter and the sighs,
I’m a compliment to a passerby.

(…)

– Jimmy Osborne

“Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.”

– Francis Bacon

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

– John Muir

“You are part of the universe after all – at times, you are in control; other times, you are bound to let go and flow by witnessing the magic of this world, that’s part of being alive.”
― Alyaa Sadek, Equilibrium

can we just sit
on the floor
in silence
while i hold
what´s left
of my heart?

– Marina Aimée

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
― L.R. Knost

“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.”
― L.R. Knost

Don’t make yourself small.
Not for anyone.
If someone tells you
you’re too much…
too loud, too sensitive,
too fierce, too caring,
too intellectual, too optimistic,
too realistic, too logical, too emotional…
just smile and move on, my friend.
Clearly, they aren’t enough for you.”

― L.R. Knost

“There are people who are never completely happy. No matter what you do, they are always a little sad.”

–  Sara Stridsberg

“
I have one foot
stuck in sadness,
while the other foot
is in the doorway to happiness.
parts of me dance in the sunshine,
while the other parts
drown in the rain.
I am the one in the room
who laughs the loudest
while the grief stings
and pulls me backward.
I exist simultaneously
happy and sad,
and at any given moment
either one can the over.
don´t try to pull me
one way or the other,
because one can´t
exist without the other.
“
– Jessica Jocelyn

to heal a wildflower,
you must first go to her roots.
to get to her roots,
you have to go back to the beginning.
(…)

– Jessica Jocelyn

“Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.”

– Ralph Waldo Emmerson

“I do not want a life
that is wild and
filled with chaos.

I want a life that is soft
and gentle and filled with
warmth.

As thought I am the sun,
finding my way back after
days of rain.

I don´t want a life filled
with insecurities or unanswered
questions.

I want to be a home that you feel
safe in – I hope so much for this.”

– Courtney Peppernell

“Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and dark, considering snow. On the dry, red road, I pass the place of the sunflower, that dark and secret location where creation took place. I wonder if it will return this summer, if it will multiply and move up to the other stand of flowers in a territorial struggle.”
– Linda Hogan

“even
in the loneliest moments

i have been there
for myself.”
— Sanober Khan

“What’s your name?” he asked above the roar of the music.

She leaned close. “My name is Wind,” she whispered. “And Rain. And Bone and Dust. My name is a snippet of a half-remembered song.”

He chuckled a low, delightful sound. She was drunk and silly, and so full of the glory of being young and alive and in the capital of the world that she could hardly contain herself.

“I have no name,” she purred. “I am whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be.”

He grasped her by her wrist, running a thumb along the sensitive sknin underneath. “Then let me call you Mine for a dance or two.”

― Sarah J. Maas

“Why are you crying?”
“Because,” she whispered, her voice shaking, “you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.”
― Sarah J. Maas

Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,

“You owe me.”

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”
― Hafiz

“Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?”
― Shel Silverstein

“What’s your name?” he asked above the roar of the music.

She leaned close. “My name is Wind,” she whispered. “And Rain. And Bone and Dust. My name is a snippet of a half-remembered song.”

He chuckled a low, delightful sound. She was drunk and silly, and so full of the glory of being young and alive and in the capital of the world that she could hardly contain herself.

“I have no name,” she purred. “I am whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be.”

He grasped her by her wrist, running a thumb along the sensitive sknin underneath. “Then let me call you Mine for a dance or two.”

― Sarah J. Maas, The Assassin and the Underworld

‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’ – Mark Twain

“You don’t need to play every ball but every ball needs your judgement.”
― Amit Ray

If I had to answer the question of what is photography, I would answer that the creation of an image, the basis of which is independent thinking. If someone were to ask me what life is all about, I would answer similarly – that life is about thinking for yourself every minute of its duration.

– Michal Konrad

“I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would not be weak, or helpless again
I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.”
― Sarah J. Maas

“I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belong to you.”
― Sarah J. Maas

“To the stars who listen—and the dreams that are answered.”
― Sarah J. Maas

MEDITATIONS
by
YVETTE VIETS FLATEN

A long walk alone in the rain.
Puddles grow, drips shower,
sidewalks glisten. No voices,
no cars passing, gentle drumming
of drops on the umbrella.

The lap of lake water against
a hull, subtle curl and kiss,
a gentle lift and sink against
the bosom of waves, silent swell
rising like easy breath.

The warmth of welcome rest
after the world’s work. Heady
and solemn, a dampening of care,
to drift away into the sure embrace
of the boundless peace of sleep.