Some of my favorite pics from Europe

I just made prints of these to hang on my wall...hopefully I'll get it done.

Quote on inspiration

Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners -- and I could list a hundred more professions ... A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."
- Wislawa Szymborska, from her lecture upon winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996

Great story! Une Belle Histoire! Amusez-vous! Enjoy!

This is from my French language club in Houston

De temps en temps j'espère écrire des messages et des citations positives qui vous
donneront de l'énergie et vous aideront dans votre quotidien...

C'est le premier!



Un jour, l'âne d'un fermier est tombé dans un puits.

L'animal gémissait pitoyablement pendant des heures, et le fermier se demandait quoi faire. Finalement, il a décidé que l'animal était vieux et le puits devait disparaître de toute façon.

Ce n'était pas rentable pour lui de récupérer l'âne. Il a invité tous ses voisins à venir et à l'aider. Ils ont tous saisi une pelle et ont commencé à enterrer le puits.

Au début, l'âne a réalisé ce qui se produisait et se mit à crier terriblement. Puis, à la stupéfaction de chacun, il s'est tu.

Quelques pelletées plus tard, le fermier a finalement regardé dans le fond du puits et a été étonné de ce qu'il a vu. Avec chaque pelletée de terre qui tombait sur lui, l'âne faisait quelque chose de stupéfiant.

Il se secouait pour enlever la terre de son dos et montait dessus. Pendant que les voisins du fermier continuaient à pelleter sur l'animal, il se secouait et montait dessus. Bientôt, chacun a été étonné que l'âne soit hors du puits et se mit à trotter!

La vie va essayer de vous engloutir de toutes sortes d'ordures. Le truc pour se sortir du trou est de se secouer pour avancer. Chacun de nos ennuis est une pierre qui permet de progresser. Nous pouvons sortir des puits les plus profonds en n'arrêtant jamais...

Il ne faut jamais abandonner!
Secouez-vous et foncez!

Rappelez-vous les cinq règles simples!

Pour être heureux:
1. Libérez votre coeur de la haine.
2. Libérez votre esprit des inquiétudes.
3. Vivez simplement.
4. Donnez plus.
5. Attendez moins.

A ne jamais oublier, surtout dans les moments les plus sombres!




Si vous avez des suggestions ou que vous avez juste envie de bavarder,
n'hésitez pas à m'écrire.

A très bientôt,

Alain



English Translation

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as
the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway;
it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began
to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried
horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what
he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing.
He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it
off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and
happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well
is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out
of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred – Forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries – Most never happen
3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less

Never forget this, especially in the darkest of times.

Finally watched the film "Born into Brothels"

Last night I finally sat down and watched the academy award winning documentary, Born into Brothels. I loved it. Everyone that has seen it for years has said I needed to see it and now I know why. The woman who filmed the story started an organization called Kids with Cameras and here is the website, www.kids-with-cameras.org.

New Year's Candles

For New Years I spend it lighting candles for all my loved ones along with a group of very special friends. It looks like this at night.

Wisdom from Richard Rohr

Richard's Daily Meditations
I receive daily prayers and thoughts from Richard Rohr, a catholic priest that is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I really love what he has to say most days but today was great!


THE GIFT OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

Question of the Day:
Whose life am I living?

Spirituality is about seeing. It’s not about earning or achieving. It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements.

Once you see correctly, the rest follows. Mary Oliver, the poet, puts it so well. It is like “seeing through a veil, secretly, joyfully clearly!”

You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it. The life is lived within us, and we learn how to say yes to that life.

If we exist on a level where we can see how “everything belongs,” we can trust the flow and trust the life, The Life so large and deep and spacious that it even includes its opposite, death.

Kristen and John's album from La Jolla, CA

I never posted anything on my blog about this wedding. I really enjoyed it! Small-very small, intimate and fun! They only had their parents attending. It was in La Jolla, CA at The Wedding Bowl right on the coast. The wind was gentle and the sun just the right spring temperature. This wedding came from a referral from Bryan (my first wedding in Ohio) and they are from North Carolina. I never actually met Kristen and John until the day of the wedding. At the time of the wedding I was still living in Belgium and I flew out to photograph it. The timing worked out perfectly for me to also make it to the birth of my close friend's birth of her first son (there are photos of the moment right after the birth on my blog). It was a great trip! Here is their album and if you click on the photos individually a larger image will come up.

Facebook

I was on Facebook and it served as a real social outlet for me while I lived in Belgium and first came to Texas. Now, however, I am stepping back because it has so many issues with privacy and I'm guilty of saying things I shouldn't have or sharing things I shouldn't have. It also seemed like since I started Facebook, it became the way people stayed in contact with me, through my postings, and this is too superficial. I also started to feel less loved because people stopped emailing and just read what is going on or don't call. I also didn't email or call my friends as much either. So, all in all Facebook is really all about FACE and not about much depth. So, I'm keeping my account as a network but there won't be any activity. If you need me my contact info is on there. My emails are available through my website and also you can email me through Facebook. There just won't be any postings. It will be good for my health besides.

Baby Ian

I just visited some friends in Maryland and had a great time feeding, burping, bouncing, feeding, burping, bouncing...they didn't let me change diapers too often. We also took some photos. I'm not great at baby photos, in my opinion, but I'm willing to learn and do some more. In fact I'd like to do more baby photos and family portraits. Here are my favorites.

Still Traveling

Steve and I were in Norway last week and it was absolutely beautiful. We came up with the slogan of "It's ridiculously Beautiful". Every direction we looked we were in awe and at first wanted to spew obscenities, which was a strange reaction yet that subsided after a couple of days when we got used to seeing utterly ridiculous natural beauty. We hiked everyday often for at least 6 hours and many many miles which was so relaxing for us. Often the only thing we could hear was the water falling in the mountain streams, rivers and waterfalls. I counted 14 waterfalls in one valley I was standing in in Flamsdalen. Balestrand was a magical little town with a history of Artists living there, British tourists and even Hitler was there in 1938 before he began to take over other countries. The other towns we were in were Aurland, which is also gorgeous, Geilo, Laerdal, Flam, Myrdal (all really small towns no larger than 1600 people). We did stop in Oslo for a couple of hours before we caught the plane back to Brussels but I think that the countryside in Norway is to be seen. The Fjords are amazing and people are really friendly. We met a very nice artist in Balestrand named Bjorg who we spent hours talking with. She paints beautiful watercolors and everywhere we went in the region we saw her paintings and met people that had some connection to her. I never thought I would be interested in Norway or Scandinavian culture but it was really charming and familiar feeling. However, whenever I travel I find something wonderful about a place because truly everywhere has something to be talked about and appreciated.

Oslo Opera House
Steve and the map

Inside St Olaf, a modern Stav Church in Balestrand
Sunset above Aurland



Mountains above Balestrand
Crazy tourist Ferry
Ferry to take us to Balestrand or other towns

Seaside in Barlestrand

Road between Aurland and Laerdal
Steve and I above the Fjord
Mountain streams in Norway

Evening light on Aurlandsfjord
Aurlandsfjord at night
Undredal, Norway
Borgund Stav Church
Me above Aurlandsfjord
I'm still traveling and just got back to Belgium from Norway. This is a detail from a Stav Church in Borgund.