Sherralee (on the road)'s photostream  

Initially, I wasn't sure what this plant was but after a bit of research I learned it was a spider lily.

Thanks to Flypaper Textures

A different approach to selective colour for Beyond Layers

You have to look more closely to see the beauty that exists behind the scenes.

I used Kim's "new grey day" texture here.

A completely different take on the same orchid shot shown previously in my photostream. Do you have a preference?

9/Project 2012

Ten truths about me for Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers

I believe you need only know what brings a person joy to know the most important things about them.

For me, that means following Rumi's advice: "Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray."

What I love and what I seek in this life revolves around the sea, simple sensual pleasures, travel and discovery, kindred spirits, laughter, gratitude, gentleness, beauty, looking deep into the heart of things, expressing my true nature and spending enough time in the still place within to taste a bit of the true wisdom, awareness and freedom found only there.

Making photographs allows me to touch all these things, and who could ask for more than that?

Like many of you, I am inspired by a good quote. Here are a few quotes that express my truths.

"Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" Henry David Thoreau

"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been." Diane Arbus

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." e.e. cummings

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton

"What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness." Barbara Kingsolver

“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” Thomas Merton

"Our life's work is to use what we have been given to wake up." Pema Chodron

In terms of aspirations, I agree with Diane Akerman “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”