Reason and Passion {Maine Lifestyle Photographer}

Posted on January 13, 2010

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows — then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky — then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.     – “On Reason and Passion” by Kahlil Gibran

Forever Friends {Maine Lifestyle Photographer}

Posted on January 2, 2010

In late October I photographed Carly and her horse, Pepe’.  It was a secret.  The photos were to be used for Christmas presents so I couldn’t post them until now.  I remember Kirstie telling me – “good luck!  She doesn’t like to have her picture taken.  She usually makes funny faces.”  I thought, okay, I’ll work with it.  When I finished editing them and sent Kirstie a preview she said, “no one has ever captured Carly like that!”  Needless to say, we were both pleased.

“On Friendship” by Kahlil Gibran

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

My Muffin Man – {Maine Lifestyle Photographer}

Posted on December 17, 2009

My miniature horse, Muffin, is so photogenic and he seems to love the camera, too.  Couple that with incredible morning light, and the results are quite pleasing.  I hope all who are in the Northeast are staying as warm as possible.  Minus 6 due to a wind chill factor is on the extreme end of winter.  And it’s NOT even winter yet!

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice. – Kahlil Gibran

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.  – Kahlil Gibran

In Memory of Summer – {Maine Lifestyle Photographer}

Posted on December 10, 2009

The Winter Solstice is nearly upon us, there is snow on the ground and the cold wind is howling.  However, these past couple of days I’ve taken a break from editing and decided to wander through some photos I took this past summer.  It amazes me the drastic shift in each of the seasons, especially between summer and winter.   The following images are of children, two of which are my own.  Seeing the carefree spirit of the young ones really made me think of Kahlil Gibran “On Children.”

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-Kahlil Gibran