There is a famous Zen quote, “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” It is very tempting here to make a go at what would no doubt prove to be a long and somewhat confusing explanation as to what enlightenment might mean in Zen. However, that would just prove to be an arduous task with li...

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. -- Carl Jung We have to dare to be ourselves, however strange for frightening that may be. -- May Sarton Art and life really are the same, and both can only be about a spiritual journey, a path towards a re-union with a supreme creator, with god, with the divine; and this is true no...

Capturing Spiritual Essence in Your Art. I received a great compliment yesterday. A very nice woman who had just come across my work said, “ I love your gentle spiritual approach.” I really liked this as that is my goal in my art, to capture something of the spiritual essence of a subject, no matter what it is. So, how does one go about captu...

Freedom and Creativity I have, in past posts, written about creativity and spirituality, now I would like to explore the notion of freedom in creativity as a spiritual path. It might be more accurate to state it as freedom is the goal and the substance of the spiritual path. Having been a minister and even more pertinent to this discussion, a...

I am going to make a bit of a departure from my regular musings in this post. While I am still considering this to be about spirituality and photography it will pertain more to being on the river than the photography that happens there. For those who don’t know me, I am an avid whitewater rafter, although I have slowed down a bit in my later yea...