Sunset over #hiltonhead on September 10, 2012. #NEXTArtspaceArtist

“Love is ever the beginning of knowledge, as fire is of light.” - Thomas Carlyle

There are places.

Deep where the spirit wanders there are places. In the turning of seasons they call again and again. Come home. It’s here where memories that hold true are illuminated and in solitude the spirit of the artist reaches out.

There are places where in the half-light of dawn or dusk you can nearly see it but more feel it - something eternal; something beyond but intimate. It rises and drifts in shadows and mist. It echoes with birdsong from cliff walls and flows with base notes of falling water.

There are places. Places of love. Places of grace.

To go alone is to go in peace and in community with all those who’ve gone before. And in these places I honor with gratitude the gift that is the opportunity to express, to touch, to experience.

Life and love resound in these places; these places of the heart; these places of the soul.

For the poet’s eye. Sunset at high tide. Palmetto Bay Marina on Hilton Head Island, June 7, 2012.

Summer by Jim Crotty on Flickr.

Sunflowers as still life.

Three. Always three.

True blessings - the most valuable gifts that change lives for the better - reside outside our comfort zones. They’ll never arrive under the guise of safety and security. To reach them we have to go beyond ourselves, beyond our fears and beyond the fears of others that hold us back.

Previous generations offer more than their fair share of sources for inspiration but it is in the next generation whereby I’m truly inspired. My own children. My nieces and nephews. With no fear they lead the way. I have hope.

Life’s journeys. Every experience becomes a part of who we are. #hiltonhead

Love like fire. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Please.

Listen to your heart for the truth eternal. The one voice is patient because it knows that it will survive above the din of fear and regret and self-blame - the din from within and from others. Be still and hold true and all else will fall away.

Mercy rises in the stillness of grace. Everywhere, goodness for which to be thankful.