Holding back

"You can hold back from the suffering of the world, that is something you are free to do and it is in accordance with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided." -Franz Kafka

Swept off

The Road goes ever on and on
     Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
     And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
     Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
     And wither then? I cannot say

-J.R.R Tolkien, The Hobbit

Tsuro

 Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being. --Carl Gustav Jung

Wings

I saw this piece at the Morse Museum in Orlando, which has the largest collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany. This is one of my favorites. 

This photo doesn't do the piece justice. In real life I was mesmerized for minutes. In the right lighting, this is stunning.

Motivation

"Artists don't get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working."
                                                                                                            -Stephen DeStaebler

Exultation

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses- past the headlands-
Into deep Eternity-

Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

-Emily Dickinson 

The Sunshine State

This is the view I have from work, every day. An open door, a cloudless sky, a gentle breeze, and a beautiful lake. 

Eat your heart out, Kansas.