A Walk at the Lake

Along the Path  © Candy Paull 

Along the Path  © Candy Paull 

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
— John Muir

Year in, year out, I walk at this lake. Round and round, an endless circle of seasons and life changes. The path may seem to cover the same territory, but every walk brings its own unique views and its own visual treasures. This lake is always the same, yet always new. It is the place of comfort when life feels overwhelming, a place to pace out my joys, and a place to meet others in the fellowship of the trail. 

Turtle Convention © Candy Paull 

Turtle Convention © Candy Paull 

Squirrel Nutcase © Candy Paull

Squirrel Nutcase © Candy Paull

The turtles emerge from the muddy depths to sun on logs. Blue heron cautiously stalks the prey that swims beneath the green, green duckweed. Deer browse in the bushes and drink at the shoreline. Squirrels dig for nuts buried beneath the bark overlaid on the trail. Canada geese cry as they fly overhead. The honeysuckle weaves its scent on the bank in the late spring. Tender wildflowers appear as winter ends, and autumn leaves paint the landscape in shades of russet and gold. The water rushes over the dam and down the creek bed after the rains. The spring peepers sing their brief song of fleeting joy. The trees begin the spring with a soft gold green mist, then become the brightest crayon green, then deepen into dark forest green as the summer wears on. Then the edges begin to fray as August passes into September, and by October and November the leaves turn to golden fire, then brown ash, and then back into naked branches shivering against a cloudy grey sky. Every day is a good day at the lake, and every season speaks to my soul.

How many hearts with warm red blood in them are beating under cover of the woods, and how many teeth and eyes are shining! A multitude of animal people, intimately related to us, but of whose lives we know almost nothing, are as busy about their own affairs as we are about ours.
— John Muir

Though there are many beautiful places to walk in the Nashville area, this one lake calls to me over and over. Before I even moved to town, a friend shared the beauty of this lake, his own sacred place of renewal. And when I moved to town twenty years ago, the lake become the center of my natural universe, the place that called me at the end of a day of writing. I would drive across town and plan my day around a walk at the lake, whether it was a snatched twenty minutes before the winter sun set or a long leisurely summer tramp around the entire lake. It has been healing and nourishment to body and soul. I have met friends and cultivated relationships there, but even more, I have washed my own spirit clean in nature's healing bounty so that I was able to live with myself once again. 

Blue Heron Searches © Candy Paull 

Blue Heron Searches © Candy Paull 

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.
— Henry David Thoreau
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
— John Lubbock

Though I love spring and fall the best here in Middle Tennessee, the summer green woods offers its own pleasures. I go prepared for bugs and sweat, and plan to look for subtle beauties that I often miss in more exciting seasons. The long slow summer days remind me that life takes time to ripen. I have lately shot photos of water, taking pleasure in the abstract patterns that reflect trees and sky, and provide an ever evolving background to animals or flowers I see on my walks. I have been learning that the color of creeks and lake reflections can be a palette that pleases the eye as much as the more vivid colors of spring flowers or autumn foliage, if one has the eyes to see. I learn again to allow the slow magic of summer to work its way into my soul. 

Context

Context

Look Closer

Look Closer

Pattern 

Pattern 

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
— John Burroughs
Young and Curious © Candy Paull 

Young and Curious © Candy Paull 

Nature is sanative, refining, elevating. How cunningly she hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses, and violets, and morning dew! Every inch of the mountains is scarred by unimaginable convulsions, yet the new day is purple with the bloom of youth and love.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are feeling tired and jaded, or trapped in the seemingly endless circle of your own futile thoughts, I suggest that a walk at lake or shore, an immersion in woods and wildness, is the most invigorating way to renew your faith in life. I love books, and the best are very wise, but sometimes the only wisdom I am able to receive comes from nature itself. May this little meditation inspire you to take a walk at a lake, a seashore, or other wild place. I know you will come back with renewed spirits and a fresh perspective. 

 

Summer Secrets © Candy Paull 

Summer Secrets © Candy Paull 

Healing Waters

Each night I gaze upon a pond,
A Zen body sitting beside a moon.
Nothing is really there, and yet
it is all so clear and bright.
I cannot describe it.
If you would know the empty
mind your own mind must
be as clear and bright
as this full moon with water.
— Chiao Jan
I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me — I am happy.
— Hamlin Garland
Reflecting  © Candy Paull 

Reflecting  © Candy Paull 

Now that I have so many wonderful tools available on my new website, I am delighted to discover ways to share a little more of my life with you through a blog that can look more like a photo essay. I love to take photos and have taught myself to see and experience life in new ways because of my digital camera. Now I'll be able to share more of that visual magic with you. The photos in this essay were all taken at Radnor Lake. And of course, as always, I'll share quotes and ideas and resources to inspire and remind you that you are rich in the things that really count. 

 

Turtle Reflections © Candy Paull

Turtle Reflections © Candy Paull



The Return of Spring

Apple Blossom Time 

Apple Blossom Time 

Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places.
Henry Beston

Though it is still winter, signs of spring are starting to appear here in Middle Tennessee. I was walking at the lake the other day and saw daffodils already out. It's way too early, as we can have hard frosts into March. But so lovely to see the bright yellow against the sere brown landscape. I look at photos of apple blossoms taken last spring, and their beauty lifts my heart on gloomy winter days. 

I feel I have been in a long winter; a quiet but intense time of going within. I have missed blogging and connecting with you, dear reader. But a full time day job and continuing work on my new e-book, The Tranquil Heart: Inspired Choices for Challenging Times, have been the fierce focus through fall and winter months. More festive plans are afoot now as I prepare my finished book for publication and move on from my last assignment at a day job into a season of full time writing. I will be sharing more in the coming weeks about the rebirth of my writing career. 

Today I want to express my gratitude for all who have commented or sent me messages of encouragement or reviewed my books on the many websites where they are available. I read your comments and take them to heart, and they have an influence on what I write and how I present it. I have been in an intense place the last few months, so thank you for your patience with my slow response to your letters and emails. I honor every person who cares enough to communicate, and will try to be more available now that my life is moving from winter into spring. I think we all, as a collective, found 2012 to be a challenging year. So many friends have experienced big transitions and unexpected changes in these times, as I have. I know my own spiritual life has deepened in the process, and I am excited about the new things I have to share with you, beginning with my upcoming e-book, The Tranquil Heart. More announcements will be forthcoming. Until then, I want to encourage you to make choices that will help you cope when things get intense in your life.

If you’ve been closeted indoors too long, your thoughts get as stuffy as the closed rooms you’ve been living in. It’s time to get out and let the wind blow through your hair, the sun shine on your face, and the fresh air invigorate your attitude. 

Escape to the wild places to renew your spirit. Let the wind blow through your hair and whisper secrets of wild freedom to your heart. Enjoy being away from all man-made structures and in the midst of nature’s beauty. You’ll return to your daily life with a wider—and wilder—perspective. 

Mountains, deserts, seashores, green fields, gardens—find a little bit of earth and spend some time on it, staring at the clouds, digging in the dirt, smelling the flowers, and just being with green and growing things out under the wide bowl of arching sky. Rejoice in nature and let it remind you that life is larger and airier and freer than the enclosed world you’ve been immured in. 

Watch a squirrel scrambling through leaves, intent on her business. Listen to the returning birds sing their songs of joy. Enjoy the picture of a baby animal kicking up its heels in the spring sunshine. Look at the tight knobby buds just beginning to swell. Watch for the signs of returning spring, and make room for spring in your soul. 

Remember that life is rich and full and mysterious. Nature shares secrets of renewal with those who will take time to listen to her. Seek out the wild places—mountain, forest, untamed shore, winding riverfront, vast desert—the primal creation that shimmers with living glory and reminds you that this is a very large and beautiful world. And in your own backyard, the changing seasons remind you that even the coldest winter will finally give way to spring. 

Climb the mountains and get good tidings. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
John Muir

Spring flowers, autumn moon,
Summer breeze, winter snow—
When the mind is free from unnecessary thoughts,
Every season is just perfect!
Ekai

If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.
Henry David Thoreau

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Eyes to See

Bee Browsing for Nectar 

Bee Browsing for Nectar 

The gloom of the world is but a shadow;
behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy. 

Fra Giovanni

Lens

I should have brought my camera…
I saw a flash of yellow
dancing on a mound of pink
Perfect light
backlit the lovely wings
the butterfly
sipped the nectar
from a purple-pink thistle
and I 
sipped the nectar
of the moment
A meditation 
on light
color
movement
and ephemeral ecstasy
No camera to capture
the moment
only my eyes
seeing through the lens
of timeless awareness

(poem written September 17, 2010) 

Spring Beauty

Rainwashed Crabapple 

Rainwashed Crabapple 

I have been out in Nashville spring, taking photos of the beauty budding and blossoming around me. This is a crabapple in bloom, caught right after a thunderstorm. Perfection.


Healing Beauty

Let beauty
be its own
healing magic.
Do not play small.
Do not stunt your own growth.
Blossom.
Be fruitful.
Fulfill your own destiny.
This is not a race
or a battle.
This is a garden
and each must grow, 
flower, 
and produce fruit
in its own way
and its own time.
Let beauty
blossom 
in you.

The human mind and heart are a mystery...
Psalm 64:7

Earth with her thousand voices praises God.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with plenty.
Psalm 65:10

Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes.
Paracelsus

The art just wants to be made
It pushes through the vehicle
(the person) into manifest form.
Vicki Noble

Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers—and never succeeding.
Marc Chagall

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
Buddha

The amen of nature is always a flower.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Comments

  1. April 8, 2011 10:41 AM CDT

    Love your header! My writing coach told me yesterday that you'd been very busy (which I knew you had) and now I see!

    - Leisa Hammett