my zen

This page is dedicated to things that make my world harmonious. Feel free to use the comments section to include the things that give you zen. You can include beautiful pictures you’ve found or taken, or you can share a poem that gives you peace of mind. Maybe it’s a family member. It doesn’t matter, just feel free to share! : )

Pale Blue Dot – keeping things in perspective

Voyager 1 took a picture of earth, which is now known as the pale blue dot.

There we are in the universe…the pale blue dot…

Here is a long-but-poignant quote about the dot by Carl Sagan.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Truly someone special while he was here.

Dance

I love all arts, man. But dance is magic. I don’t care if it’s Ballet with Mikhail Baryshnikov or you just getting your boogie on at the club; dance is a special energy in our lives.

Click here to visit the Alltop page for Ballroom Dancing.

Nature – you can’t be zen without green.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. – Albert Einstein.

You know, not only is that quote fantastic, it’s a little true. A study came out that being amongst nature rejuvenates our creative minds. It’s why I usually take walks at River Legacy Park in Arlington, TX. Graham Hill, a blogger for the site TreeHugger, outlines the importance of nature and our well-being here.

Here are some Flickr pictures that are just beautiful to me: (pics link to original Flickr pages)

[by user Play4smee]

[by user Zack™]

[by user nakrnsm]