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by Lao Tzu  (604-531 BCE)

Beauty and ugliness have one origin.

Name beauty, and ugliness is.

Recognizing virtue recognizes evil.

Is and is not produce one another.

The difficult is born in the easy,

long is defined by short, the high by the low.

Instrument and voice achieve one harmony.

Before and after have places.

That is why the sage can act without effort

and teach without words,

nurture things without possessing them,

and accomplish things without expecting merit:

only one who makes no attempt to possess it

cannot lose it.

Excerpted from: The Poetry of Zen

translated & edited by 

Sam Hamill & J. P. Seaton

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.

-- Rumi

You deserve the best.

Never feel unworthy or 

    not justified in having the best.

I tell you, this is your heritage;

but, you have to accept it.

You have to expect it; 

you have to claim it.

To do so is not demanding too much.

Jai Guru Deva. Om. 

Nothing's going to change my world. 

Nothing's going to change my world.

Guru Deva,

Swami Brahmananda Saraswati

 

One of the most pristine, primeval national parks anywhere in North America, the Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia provides scenic ocean and coast views, dense, almost jungle like forests, and thousands of birds and wildlife. Barely touched by humans, and, hopefully, will remain so forever.

Hiking along the Columbia River Gorge will lead you to the Elowah Falls, near Cascade Locks, Oregon. Approximately 228 feet in height.

Taking advantage of the good weather, we hiked the Oregon Coast Trail near Hug Point (close to Cannon Beach)

Old forest growth along the Oregon Coast Trail

Hug Point, Oregon Coast

Hug Point Falls, Hug Point State Park, Oregon

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson,

from 

A Return To Love: Reflections 

on the Principles of A Course in Miracles