Sacred Ruminations: Sky Watch #7 & HF #64

About Me

1st Blogoversary Post
2nd Blogoversary Post
101 Things About Me
2007 Blog Review
Top 7 in '07 Small is Beautiful Review
My 100th Post
A Milestone Missed?
Why I Blog

My other blogs
Small Reflections
Happily Retired Gal
Bling & Blurbs

My Blog Rolls - have been moved to a Blog of their own.

I appreciate all of you who visit, and I enjoy the comments many of you leave behind. I do my best to respond to any questions in a timely manner if your email is available. In addition, I do my best to visit your blogs and leave comments as time permits.

Click to learn ... How I Became a Blogger

Late in October of 2007, I started playfully exploring possibilities here and at Small Reflections. Initially I published daily on both sites, but in mid-January of 2008, I gave myself permission to rethink things.

Since committing to Blog 365 at Small Reflections, I've continued to publish daily there, but I'm considering alternating days and/or experimenting a bit with a variety of possibilities in an attempt to balance my online activities with my "real life" ... without giving "short shrift" to either blog. Therefore, it's all a work in progress, and I hope you'll bear with me.

Food for Thought

(or reminders for myself)

Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.
Barbara De Angelis

"Whatever can come to a woman can come to me
Whatever can happen to anyone can happen to me."
Muriel Rukeyser

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."--Mother Teresa

"It is better to ask some questions than to know all the answers." James Thurber

"Forgive yourself for everything you did not know in the past but do now. Don't waste any of your precious energy beating yourself, or anyone else, up. Your power to change your life is in the present, regardless of your past."
Dr. Christiane Northrup

"Your purpose is to heal yourself first in mind and intent. Declare this principle to yourself -- I intend to walk the highest path to my awakening. I am fearless in the face of learning to discipline my mind and actions so they are attuned to my true divinity." Doreen Virtue

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has a purpose." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

More thoughts ...

"It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker." Henry David Thoreau

"It is no small task to change one's focus from what can go wrong to what can go right and to empower women to shift from destructive behaviors to those that are generally associated with health. I want to awaken that still, small wise, intuitive voice in all of us, that voice of our own body that we have been forced to ignore through our culture's illness, misinformation, and dysfunction. I want to give you the courage to listen to that voice and act on it." Dr. Christiane Northrup

"No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place." Maya Angelou

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Diane Ackerman

"No one needs to know that you've shut the world out and are meditating as you stroll down the street. Twenty minutes to a half-hour every day is a good amount of time to restore a sense of serenity." Sarah Ban Breathnach

"One of the marks of an intelligent person is to be able to distinguish what is worth doing and what isn't and to be able to set priorities." Anne Wilson Schaef

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." Sophocles

More thoughts ...

"Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength." Sigmund Freud

"I need to understand the dynamics of effort & success. I will spend my energy on things & and activities that bring me the most fulfillment. I will spend less energy on the "stuff" that ultimately has no meaning to me." Dr. Christiane Northrup

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do if you do not act upon them?"
Buddha

"The greatest contribution that you can make is the aliveness that comes from simply being yourself, living your truth, and doing what you love. The passionate expression of who we are will heal the world." Shatki Gawain

"It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the result of our efforts. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared." Henri H. Nouwen, theologian

"I am ready to supply the earth's needs with my riches. I seize upon my wealth within and give freely as I am replenished." Doreen Virtue

"... perception can be given a new purpose. ... Follow His Light, and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you. And let him give you peace and certainty which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him." A Course in Miracles

More thoughts

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." Rumi

"I believe I'm here to speak my truth and that's all I have to do. I don't have to make people understand it... I just have to speak the truth." ~Anne Wilson Schaef

"A woman is like a teabag-only in hot water do you realize how strong she is." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever."
Mahatma Ghandi

"...We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. ... 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." Nelson Mandela

“Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.” - Maya Angelou

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”
Rumi

"A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place, but a seed to be planted and to bear more seeds toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"I have lived long enough to learn how much there is I can really do without.... He is nearest to God who needs the fewest things." Socrates

Welcome to Sacred Ruminations

Friday, August 15, 2008

Sky Watch #7 & HF #64 - Cloudy Collages

My first Sky Watch is at Small Reflections.

Thanks to Scylla at Law & Motherhood for this cool Haiku button

Watching the sky change
yesterday I snapped a few
photographs and then

experimented
within Photoshop to make
these two collages.

Click for others participating in Sky Watch this week at its new home.
~ ~ ~
Click for Haiku Friday #65 at Small Reflections ...
'Admittedly Olympic Obsessed'

For others participating in Haiku Friday this week go to A Mommy Story or Playgroups are no Place for Children. (To see my previous Haikus, click on the Haiku Friday label below this post or in the sidebar under About Me where you'll find a 'directory' of my Haikus on both blogs).

Thought for Today
"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed. ... It feels an impulsion . ... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons." Richard Bach

22 comments:

Carletta said...: These are gorgeous!
I really have to get Photoshop. I see so many wonderful things being done.
Lovely cloud shots.; August 14, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Unknown said...: Oh I really really like it! I never thought of making a collage of skies, but it turned out great!!; August 14, 2008 at 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: I love how you've collaged those beautiful sky pictures together :)
Happy weekend!!!; August 14, 2008 at 9:22 PM
Joyce's Journey said...: I am so glad I found you in Skywatch Friday. Your blog looks so enticing - I must come back for more. I love Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. She was incredible at putting her thoughts to paper. Your photo's are beautiful. An excellent addition to SWF. Have a great weekend and I shall visit again!; August 14, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Interesting set of photos.

Abraham; August 15, 2008 at 3:10 AM
SandyCarlson said...: Storyteller, your photo montages are spectacular. Thanks for these!; August 15, 2008 at 5:23 AM
Honey Mommy said...: LOVE photoshop!
Great cloud pictures, great haikus!; August 15, 2008 at 6:05 AM
coolgirlsar said...: Love how they all blend in together and all the different shades of the sky and clouds. Lovely. Happy Sky Watch Friday.; August 15, 2008 at 6:19 AM
the planet of janet said...: cool collage! and well played!; August 15, 2008 at 7:31 AM
Karen Coutu said...: Nice! I really like the first collage.

Karen of the MomDot Street Team
www.MomDot.com; August 15, 2008 at 7:44 AM
Barb said...: I'm hoping Santa brings me PhotoShop! You know, Someday.; August 15, 2008 at 10:16 AM
AphotoAday said...: Hey, I like that... Very creative...; August 15, 2008 at 2:04 PM
kjpweb said...: Very neat! Good one!
Cheers, Klaus; August 15, 2008 at 2:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Very interesting effect. A beautiful sky.

Alice at: I Was Born2Cree8
My SWF post is here: Sky Watch Friday; August 15, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Mom Knows Everything said...: I LOVE THE COLLAGE!!!; August 15, 2008 at 4:29 PM
Kelly said...: Very delightful of a collage of photos!! Well done!!; August 15, 2008 at 5:27 PM
Roan said...: Amazing collage. I need to check out photoshop.; August 15, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Rambling Woods said...: You can do that in Photo Shop? I want to learn how to do that so I guess I will have to open Photo Shop and look at it....@:}; August 16, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Virginia said...: Aaaah, Photoshop helped your do these lovely collages. I have just bough Elements. Maybe you can help me along with your cool technique. Beautiful and inspriational as always.
Thanks so much for your sweet comments as well.
V; August 16, 2008 at 4:22 PM
storyteller said...: To all – I’m delighted you each found time to visit my Sky Watch Cloud Collages this week and seemed to enjoy them. It’s fun to put my newly acquired Photoshop skills to use in this manner. As some of you know, I’ve owned various versions of the PSE program for more than a decade but didn’t know how to put it to effective use until I signed up for and attended classes this past summer at a local ‘Adult School’ educational program. I've shared that journey here and at Small Reflections with a series of Photoshop Elements posts illustrating lessons along the way which can be found by clicking the links in my sidebars. I highly recommend such classes and (after taking a month off) will be returning to take the Advanced class starting next week. I appreciate each of your comments and enjoyed my visits to YOUR blogs during the past week. Seeing skies from all around the world has been great fun and meeting you all ‘virtually’ is pretty ‘kewl’ too. I hope you're each having a wonderful week.
Hugs and blessings,; August 19, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Tina Coruth said...: Storyteller,

You are very creative. I love these sky collages! Beautiful!

Thank you for your kind comment about my dragonfly sky. :-)

hugs,
Tina; August 20, 2008 at 10:11 AM
storyteller said...: Tina Coruth – You’re most welcome and thanks for your visit and thoughtful comment. I do so love seeing the ‘skies’ everyone shares each week ;--)
Hugs and blessings,; August 21, 2008 at 3:11 PM