Northwest

Day 168: A Time of Zero

| Aspergers Girls
Washington 2012
Nature Trail
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”

Friedrich Nietzsche

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”~ Rachel Carson

“There is new life in the soil. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is great strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.” ~ Calvin Coolidge

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.” – Kahil Gibran

“Rivers and rocks and trees have always been talking to us, but we’ve forgotten how to listen.” – Michael Roads

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.” ~Anne Frank

Time of Zero

Nocturnal spirit

 Split

Blanketed in thankfulness

Rests beside self

One to the other

Connected

Time erased

Young child weeping

Tear catcher

Smiling

Living in thought’s forest

A time

Of zero

When all was

When silence whispered secrets

And babe of the evergreen

Opened to discovery

Beneath the giggling trees

Illusion vanished

The puzzle box picture

The patterned pieces

Scattered

Until invisible

And the corridors of phantom’s dreams

Released fully

With angelic breath

~

Sam Craft June 2012

Day 166: Welcome Life

| Aspergers Girls

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I came across this list I wrote over a year ago, in 2011.

In This Way I Shall Live

Recognize power is not in money but in the perception and energy granted to the illusion of money.

Explore avenues and options, and discard thoughts that are built on foundations of hopelessness and failure.

Acknowledge the limitless of the universe within.

Welcome abundance into life.

Confront feelings of “being nice.” Discover what “being nice” has meant, what it has brought, and what it has cost. Replace “being nice” with “living authentically.”

Honor true feelings and opinions without judgment of self.

Release the need to be anything to anyone.

Understand and embrace inner potential.

Prioritize what is most vital, including health, clean environment, communication, fun, and gratitude.

Welcome order into life.

Partake in a health cleanse to detoxify the body, mind and spirit.

Continue cleanse day-by-day based on individual needs and desires, and not balanced against the outcomes of others.

Pay attention to what is put into the mouth, where food comes from, who provides the food and at what cost to society and the environment the food is made.

Welcome clean healthy food into life.

Be gentle with self.

Welcome accomplishment into life.

Release the need to contribute.

Pamper the self.

Give back to the giver.

Give by receiving thankfully and fully, without excuse or diminishment of the experience.

Allow others to love the beauty carried within.

Believe in the worth of the glorious embodied spirit of love that resides within.

Reach not for answers.

Relax in just being and knowing essentially all is enough.

Welcome nurturing into life.

Sacrifice for growth. To break through spiritual blockages make a sacrifice through spoken word, written word, or other form of creation.

Take a risk to honor the self.

Speak up.

Claim the right to be heard.

Speak for self and self alone, not dependent upon outcome or response.

Honor the self enough to give voice to passion and need.

Replace silence with truth.

Welcome growth into life.

Let go.

Release anyone, everything, anything, any thought, any memory, any worry, and any entity taking energy from spirit.

Release and know that in releasing in return there is increased compassion and love.

Replace anger, resentment, regret, bitterness, and blame with increased empathy, patience, love, and forgiveness.

Forgive and then forgive again. Make forgiveness an every moment process. Awake and forgive. And awake and forgive again.

Welcome freedom into life.

Let loose the pattern of looking for infractions, wrongs, and imperfection.

Notice the limitless beauty in imperfection.

Know if this was to be the last day of breath, the day will have been spent in thankfulness.

Welcome life.

Forest in Great Northwest
Washington
Photos by Sam Craft

Day 165: A Place of Love

| Aspergers Girls

“When I say to you, ‘You are lovely’,  you do not believe me, because of the blemishes you know so intimately;  but those blemishes are the scars  of your sufferings and they shine out of your soul,  radiating beauty,  the way the daisies do in the long summer grasses. So when I say to you. ‘Even with closed eyes, I still see how beautiful you are’, it is true. Believe it. Believe it.” ~ Rumi

I am a sculptor, a molder of form.

In every moment I shape an idol.

But then, in front of you, I melt them down

I can rouse a hundred forms

and fill them with spirit,

but when I look into your face,

I want to throw them in the fire.

My soul spills into yours and is blended.

Because my soul has absorbed your fragrance,

I cherish it.

Every drop of blood I spill

informs the earth,

I merge with my Beloved

when I participate in love.

In this house of mud and water,

my heart has fallen to ruins.

Enter this house, my Love, or let me leave.

~ Rumi

“Your inner teacher says: ‘Come closer.  Be faithful to the tree that you are.  Like last year’s leaves,  shed the old stories,  the ache of unfulfilment,  the pain of separation  from yourself. Follow the fool’s tracks.   He turns himself inside out   and upside down   and all for smiles,   all for laughter,   that splits paradigms   and shakes you to your roots. Come inside.   Summer is a wild rose,  though only  for a little while,   but your heart is  a rose for all seasons   and wild   for love. Do not be afraid to be  heart to heart  with yourself.”’ ~  Rumi

“The Master sees things as they are, Without trying to control them.  He lets them go their own way,  And resides at the center of the circle. He or She understands that the Universe  is forever out of control,  And that trying to dominate events Goes against the current of the Tao.  Be content with what you have;  Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking,  The whole world belongs to you.”  ~ Tao Te Ching

A summer’s walk in the Great Northwest
photos by Sam Craft

Day 143: The Raven Bride in White

| Aspergers Girls

Take me to the green in you

The secret valley beneath the sun

Hidden behind the whispering ghosts

Of whom you pretend to be

Open up your mossy arms

So I may open mine

And wrap all limbs round your spirit wide

To exist as half no more

Bring me to your mossy floor

Beyond the shadows of your fear

A raven bride in white

A ladder to your soul

Fold down your branches

Peel open your chocolate bark

So I may pour

As liquid amber

Through your very veins

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The Raven Bride in White

Take me to the green in you

The secret valley beneath the sun

Hidden behind the whispering ghosts

Of whom you pretend to be

Open up your mossy arms

So I may open mine

And wrap all limbs round your spirit wide

To exist as half no more

Bring me to your mossy floor

Beneath the shadows of your fear

A raven bride in white

A ladder to your soul

Fold down your branches

Peel open your chocolate bark

So I may pour

As liquid amber

Through your very veins

Words and Photographs by Samantha Craft June 2012

Day 142: The Sea in Me

| Aspergers Girls

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My nano was an Italian fisherman.

He sailed most of the year up the Pacific Ocean from Central California (Monterey) to Alaska.

He was the designated cook on the ship, because of his talent for creating a scrumptious meal from the gifts of the sea.

I thought of him today, as I walked along the docks.

I thought of him today, and his journeys; how I wish I could speak to him now—hear his rough Italian dialect weave the ocean tales of sea monsters, mermaids, and giant jellyfish.

The sea is in my blood.

I know this now.

I can never live away from the ocean again.

The salt water is my refuge.

The seagulls my angels.

And the waves, as they move, confirmation that I am just as source intended.

Whether I wash ashore, retreat, break, or beckon onlookers, I am exactly as I was made to be—an endless ocean of mystery harboring the secrets of generations.

ROSE TEARS

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Ocean Legs

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My angel

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The green that makes me scream in delight!!!
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