(please pardon the blurred photos to follow – they are from 2009, taken on a flip phone, & are slowly being downloaded from my Facebook account which has served as a photo album between 2009 and 2014) 
I know how to see & recognize beauty in this world.
I try to expand this notion of beauty as a practice.
Sometimes I fall into rigidity, sometimes, I stretch this seeing.
I try to honor life in all forms.
Sometimes I fail to see my actions, sometimes I can be gentle with this life so-called outside.
It’s easier to encourage others, harder with myself.
(Don’t worry, Mom & Dad, I didn’t get another tattoo – it’s the forearm of an acquaintance)
🙂
But it’s great for me to see.
I’ve written before that I tend to forget, which is why I write things down.
But what do you do when there’s an unknown to step into?
Like beginning graduate school
When telling yourself “I can do this” feels like a lie
Where does faith come from?
I lean on my friends when the voice of “who do you think you are?” presses on like a broken record.
They say things like: “have you talked back to that voice question? Tell it who you think you are!”
This has been helpful.
Plants, like this late Autum Sedum already sending buds forth before the long Winter, anticipating Spring.
I can learn a lot from plants.
I have learned a lot from plants & this world continues to be one of my greatest teachers.
So, I’ll keep on, like the sedum, beginning, again.
& heading in a direction…
…like the Red-Winged Blackbirds migrating…
With whatever is luck…
…and whatever is faith…
To challenge the voices, (or even simply turning my attention elsewhere, dropping the habitual thought, as suggested to me)
Sensing the world
And challenge myself to step into the unknown.
The Salted Banana 