another peek

Source: None via Stacey on Pinterest

{Electric} Gilbert, AZ Family Photographer

"The most interesting information come from children, for they tell all they know and then stop."
— Mark Twain

Vision, Art, life, mission, statement...

Source: ffffound.com via Stacey on Pinterest

{Sandlot} Phoenix, AZ Fine Art Photography

"I decided to accept as true my own thinking."
— Georgia O'Keeffe

{birth: art. life} baby as art as I see it...

"Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves; just as in the experiment, we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen, for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle could be any kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches."
— Laura Esquivel

I loved that this mama wanted her baby to open her bright new eyes....cause i love those eyes... when you meet them, after time.. you want to see those gooey, crossed eyes...

{Catch-22} Art , therapy...

"Do you know how long a year takes when it's going away?" Dunbar repeated to Clevinger. "This long." He snapped his fingers. "A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you're an old man."
"Old?" asked Clevinger with surprise. "What are you talking about?"
"Old."
"I'm not old."
"You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow down?" Dunbar was almost angry when he finished.
"Well, maybe it is true," Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. "Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?"
"I do," Dunbar told him.
"Why?" Clevinger asked.
"What else is there?"
— Joseph Heller (Catch-22)

A constant discussion with myself

{In Like A Lion} Minneapolis, MN Lifestyle Photography

"listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door; let’s go"
— E.E. Cummings

{Cross. To. } Phoenix, AZ Fine Art

“Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography”

Oscar Wilde

{and so it goes} Minneapolis, MN fine art photography

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.


Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918

{unconditional positive regard} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photographer

"I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, enjoyable, do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the good life, even though the person in this process would experience each one of these at the appropriate times. But adjectives which seem more generally fitting are adjectives such as enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging, meaningful. This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-fainthearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. Yet the deeply exciting thing about human beings is that when the individual is inwardly free, he chooses as the good life this process of becoming.
(On Becoming a Person)"
— Carl Rogers

As I have grown in my counseling journey (professionally and personally) I more and more subscribe to the brilliant humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers. Beside being one of the forefathers of psychotherapy what I relate to most is his practice of unconditional positive regard (look it up on Wikipedia but the cliff notes means providing a safe, confidential place for clients to talk and be heard without judgement..)
Ultimately it is the person who, in a safe environment, knows the changes that need to be made that are right for him or her..depending on where he or she is in their life, what outside forces influence them etc....the counselor is mainly an objective safe person in the room who listens and reflects back the clients own words to validate that he or she is being heard.

I emphasize what is right for him or her because there is no right answer....no final perfect destination to be reached that is universal for everyone...
If anything that puts the wonder of people, God, Buddha, Catholics, Christians, Atheists, Jews, educators, business, moms, dads, men, women, pets, children, outer space, politics, history, faith, science, art ...etc..etc.. in a tidy little box...

I don't think there is any tiny little box except maybe when you wrap a present with 5 year old tape....:) which I have done and it it wraps tight. trust me on this.

often times the greatest gift a counselor can give is to listen.
Listen. Anyone can practice this. Not just licensed counselors
Just shut your mouth:) This is something I practice daily cause it is hard to do.
So feel free to tell me to shut up and listen.
My sister does a real good job at that.
Peace Out!

{Pals} Minneapolis, MN Pet Photographer

"It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal."
— John Grogan

I was here

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be."
— Abraham H. Maslow

{Where I am today...} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photographer

"They are so damn 'intellectual' and rotten that I can't stand them anymore....I would rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those 'artistic' bitches of Paris."
— Frida Kahlo

{Close} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photographer

"There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet."
— T.S. Eliot

{Vein} Minneapolis, MN Fine Art Photographer

You know it's nothing new
Bad news never had good timing
Then the circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining...

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
Fear is a friend who's misunderstood
But I know the heart of life is good...
-John Mayer

{purple}

"America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people."
— Gloria Steinem

it is what...

"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else."
— Leonardo da Vinci