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July 20th, 2021

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Poetry

July 20th, 2021

>^..^<

I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains,
bluebells, dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses - Pablo Neruda

From New and Selected Poems: Volume One:
The Kookaburras

In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.
In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting
to come out of its cloud and lift its wings.
The kookaburras, kingfishers, pressed against the edge of
their cage, they asked me to open the door.
Years later I wake in the night and remember how I said to them,
no, and walked away.
They had the brown eyes of soft-hearted dogs.
They didn't want to do anything so extraordinary, only to fly
home to their river.
By now I suppose the great darkness has covered them.
As for myself, I am not yet the god of even the palest flowers.
Nothing else has changed either.
Someone tosses their white bones to the dung-heap.
The sun shines on the latch of their cage.
I lie in the dark, my heart pounding - Mary Oliver


The Poet With His Face in His Hands

You want to cry aloud for your
mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
doesn't need any more of that sound.

So if you're going to do it and can't
stop yourself, if your pretty mouth can't
hold it in, at least go by yourself across

the forty fields and the forty dark inclines
of rocks and water to the place where
the falls are flinging out their white sheets

like crazy, and there is a cave behind all that
jubilation and water-fun and you can
stand there, under it, and roar all you

want and nothing will be disturbed; you can
drip with despair all afternoon and still,
on a green branch, its wings just lightly touched

by the passing foil of the water, the thrush,
puffing out its spotted breast, will sing
of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything - Mary Oliver


Last night the ocean was full of starfish
drifting . floating . carrying dreams upon their backs
The sky had fallen into the waves
where by-the-wind sailors
gathered moondust on cobalt sails
to illuminate the rolling tide . . .
My dream self stood at the water's edge
gathering sand dollars in the hem of my skirt
just so I could throw them back into the sea
with the same wish kissed upon every one
And the starfish swam
across deep worlds
to deliver them all to you . . .

link for beautifullotus
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryo19680849/9474871821/in/pool-floralessence

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Robert Frost
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

We pass on to Sadi of Shiraz, who flourished in the thir-
teenth century, and whose Gulistan or Rose-garden has long
enjoyed something of a European celebrity, having been pub-
lished at Amsterdam in 1651, by Gentius, with an uncouth
Latin translation. Sadi's writings are a very favorable speci-
men of those collections of moral apologues which are so
popular in the East. His two best works are the Gulistan
and Bostan ; the former in prose, interspersed with distichs
and quatrains, and sometimes with longer poems ; the latter
entirely in verse. The Gulistan has been translated by Pro-
fessor Eastwick, who has also edited the original text, and from
his translation we give the following very graceful fable :

I saw some handfuls of the rose in bloom,

With bands of grass suspended from a dome.

I said, '' What means this worthless grass, that it

Should in the rose's fairy circle sit ? "

Then wept the grass, and said, '^ Be still ! and know

The kind their old associates ne'er forego.

Mine is no beauty, hue, or fragrance, true !

But in the garden of my Lord I grew."


*****************************
Don't forget love,
it will bring you all the madness you need
to unfurl yourself across the universe - Meerabai

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination - Voltaire

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem. - Walt Whitman


Give yourself completely to the act of listening. Beyond the sounds there is something greater, a Sacredness that cannot be understood through thought. - Eckhart Tolle


The sea of joy yearns to attain your presence - Baha'u'llah


There is another world, but it is in this one - W.B. Yeats


Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now - Rainer Maria Rilke


❝There are beings in this universe whose winking is of the duration of an epoch. Space and time have no fixed span, both are appearances, both imagination. Because the substratum is real; space too appears very real. Giving illusions of separateness between elements within itself. Time too arose as a notion (another dimension). Time is threaded and animated by the power of this reality. It is the finite space of individual consciousness that creates the divisions in time. ❞ ~ Yoga Vashishta



Against Certainty, by Jane Hirshfield

There is something out in the dark that wants to correct us.
Each time I think �this,� it answers �that.�
Answers hard, in the heart-grammar�s strictness.

If I then say �that,� it too is taken away.

Between certainty and the real, an ancient enmity.
When the cat waits in the path-hedge,
no cell of her body is not waiting.
This is how she is able so completely to disappear.

I would like to enter the silence portion as she does.

To live amid the great vanishing as a cat must live,
one shadow fully at ease inside another.





I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore - Al-Hallaj


In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy. - Thomas Merton


In meditation, silence is the Mother." (Ammaji)
"Silence is the mother of creation." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)

You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour - Zen Proverb


The main impediment of many seekers in the path is that they want to surrender. Don't say that you want to surrender; know that you already are surrendered. "Wanting to surrender becomes an impediment on the path. This is like a child saying to the mother, I want to love you. No child ever tells the mother, I want to love you. Love is already there. Surrender is not an act, it is a state of your being. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it is there. "The wise wake up and see: You have no choice, you are in a state of surrender deep within you. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is a confession of character - Emerson


First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection - Nisargadatta


In order to change an existing paradigm, do not struggle with the problematic model. Create a new model and make the old one obsolete - Buckminster Fuller


If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea - Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist - Nietzsche

The real miracle is not to walk on water. The real miracle is to walk on the green earth - Thich Nath Hanh

There is only one Road. It is like a great river: its springs are at every doorstep, and every path is its tributary. It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road.... - Bilbo Baggins


There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein

The world needs more sages than anything else right now - more prayer wheels, more visions, more poems, more magic - Zen poet Philip Whalen

Good People, most royal greening verdancy, rooted in the sun, you shine with radiant light. In this circle of earthly existence, your shining surpasses understanding. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery - Hildegard of Bingen, 11th Century

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. - Dr. Seuss


Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble... Life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny- only Being - Albert Einstein








The Garden of Dreams

My heart is a garden of dreams
Where you walk when day is done,
Fair as the royal flowers,
Calm as the lingering sun.
Never a drouth comes there,

Nor any frost that mars,
Only the wind of love
Under the early stars,�
The living breath that moves
Whispering to and fro,
Like the voice of God in the dusk
Of the garden long ago - by Bliss Carman

The woods are lovely . dark and deep . . but i have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep - Robert Frost

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch
that she feels bending beneath her,
still she sings away all the same,
knowing she has wings - Victor Hugo



Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed - Terence McKenna

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit - Robert Louis Stevenson

The symbolism of . purity and grace . . . . . Chinese literati believe that a lotus is a pure world unto itself in which both body and soul are clean. According to the book Jian Nan Shi Gao, when the Song dynasty poet Lu Yu was 78 years old, he once dreamt that an ancient spoke to him: "I am the lotus scholar and responsible for the mirror lake," he said. "But now I am leaving, and I was wondering if you could take my place minding the moonlight, wind and dew and protecting the lotuses?

"Leap into the boundless, and make it your home" quote by Chuang Tzu

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before - Edgar Allan Poe

Power and passion well up like an artesian spring and creativity dances in celebration of life -- poetry by David N. Elkins

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens . . . -- Kahlil Gibran

Our most sacred tears never seek our eyes -- Kahlil Gibran

The just are close to the people's heart . but the merciful are close to the heart of God -- Kahlil Gibran

Love one another . but make not a bond of love . . Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls -- Kahlil Gibran

There is a path from me to you that I am constantly looking for -- Rumi

In prayer . it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart . . Mohandas Ghandi



I can endure my own despair but not another's hope -- William Walsh


This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meaness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
... He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whomever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Beloved Persian Poet


I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people . . that each protects the solitude of the other -- Rainer Maria Rilke

The world is but a canvas to our imaginations -- Henry David Thoreau

It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship . . Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment . it will not be created for years or even generations -- Kahlil Gibran

It is always what I have already said: always the wish that you may find patience enough in yourself to endure, and simplicity enough to believe; that you may acquire more and more confidence in that which is difficult, and in your solitude among others. And for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is right, in any case ― Rainer Maria Rilke


The smile that flickers on a baby's lips when he sleeps . does anyone know where it was born? Yes . there is a rumour that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud . and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning -- Rabindranath Tagore

You . that turn stones to gold . . change me -- Rumi

What we speak becomes the house we live in -- Hafiz

Take away Love and our Earth is a Tomb -- Robert Browning

..

As with all great journeys . the vision is the beginning . .
Dreams of all the possibilities . of the many paths widening to the future
Of all the great and extraordinary things our mind can imagine
The persistence of our own opportunistic souls reaching for what is yet unabridged
An unconscious decision to struggle forward yet again
And without even knowing of our focus
We start forward

All of our past . our teachings . our experience . are brought into play . .
The trials of our past giving us the tools that we need to find our way
Our way to fulfilling this newest quest for our dream

No obstacle too great . no argument rebuff
The journey begun . we will not allow defeat

We can only see the unfolding . as it will be
And as always . the goal is reached

And there . sated in the peace of our newly added thread in the web of our life
We rest
and the vision comes again -- Steve Whitacre

Let me bathe my soul in colours . let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow -- Khalil Gibran



About seven miles from the southwest coast of Maui is the island Kaho'olawe . historically known as Kohemalamalama O Kanaloa
Kahoolawe is separated from Maui only by a narrow channel . the beautiful blue waters of Alalakeiki Channel
Maui Hawaii
Copyright (C) Sharon Mau - All Rights Reserved


In Contemplation of Nature and as Lovers of Wisdom
Pythagoras, his teacher, instructed Socrates:
Offer sacrifice and worship with thy shoes off.
According to Pythagoras:
'Life is like a gathering at the Olympic festival, to which, having set forth from different lives and backgrounds, people flock for three motives.
To compete for the glory of the crown, to buy and sell or as spectators.

So in life, some enter the services of fame and others of money, but the best choice is that of these few who spend their time in the contemplation of nature, and as lovers of wisdom." ~ Socrates [c. 469 - 399 B.C.] was the greatest Greek philosopher according to the Oracle of Delphi.



The Universal Incarnation - There is a Wisdom like a brooding Sun, A Bliss in the heart's crypt grown fiery white, The heart of a world in which all hearts are one, A Silence on the mountains of delight. A Calm that cradles Fate upon its knees; A wide Compassion leans to embrace earth's pain; A Witness dwells within our secrecies, The incarnate Godhead in the body of man. Our mind is a glimmering curtain of that Ray, Our strength a parody of the Immortal's power, Our joy a dreamer on the Eternal's way Hunting the fugitive beauty of an hour. Only on the heart's veiled door the word of flame Is written, the secret and tremendous Name -- by Sri Aurobindo


Bright, flowing and free, love transcends all pain of the heart. The universe, filled with the love of Spirit, knows me well. Daily greetings from the sun, nightly nods from the moon, I am a part of the great cycle of life. As the tree sprouts to life, so do I. As the flower grows, so do I. As the leaves fall to the earth once more, so do I. Nature, Spirit and I are one in the never ending dance of love. -- Journey with Spirit


Love, the hidden spring of life, and souls desire.
Celestial gold, secreted, laid by fire.
In every heart, in every thing that lives.
In every thought that human impulse gives.
The coin of heaven, the treasure of earth.
. . The rarest gift and joy of largest worth . . . - Edwin Leibfreed

Because I cannot sleep I make music in the night -- Rumi


Touch of Divine
. . . Hear me now:
If this life is meant for anything,
it is for knowing Love.
Experiencing the touch of divine oneness is gifted in this way:
to bask in the glow of the Beloved and be loved -- Poetry by Darren (Stone) Nelson



ourjrny
The Heart Within the Art

Time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves. We lose as much to life as we do to death.
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey


You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing Your Praises but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart -- Rumi

Words . . . even if they come from the soul . hide the soul . . as . . . fog
rising off the sea covers the sea . the coast . the fish . the pearls . . . It is noble work to build coherent philosophical discourses . . but they block out the sun of truth . . . See God's qualities as an ocean . this world as foam on the purity of that . . . Brush away and look through the alphabet to essence . as you do the hair
covering your beloved's eyes -- Rumi

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter . and sharing of pleasures . . for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed -- Khalil Gibran



A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king
If a man lose ev'rything he owns
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?

So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes -- Through Heavens Eyes - in the Prince of Egypt Sound


The archetype of Wild Woman resides in the guts, not in the head. She can track and run and summon and repel. She can sense, camouflage, and love deeply. She is intuitive, typical, and normative. She is utterly essential to women's mental and soul health. She is the female soul. Yet she is more; she is the source of the feminine. She is all that is of instinct, of the worlds both seen and hidden -she is the basis. She is intuition, she is far-seer, she is deep listener, she is loyal heart. She encourages humans to remain multilingual; fluent in the languages of dreams, passion, and poetry. She is the voice that says, "This way, this way." She is the one who thunders after injustice. She is the one we leave home to look for. She is the one we come home to. She is the things that keep us going when we think that we're done for. To adjoin the instinctual nature does not mean to come undone, change everything from left to right, from black to white, to move the east to west, to act crazy or out of control. It does not mean to lose one's primary socializations, or to become less human. It means quite the opposite. The wild nature has a vast integrity to it. It means to establish territory, to find one's pack, to be in one's body with certainty and pride regardless of the body's gifts and limitations, to speak and act in one's behalf, to be aware, alert, to draw on the innate feminine powers of intuition and sensing, to come into one's cycles, to find what one belongs to, to rise with dignity, to retain as much consciousness as we can - Women Who Run With Wolves

He who does not understand your silence . . will probably not understand your words - Elbert Hubbard

==========

Since we live where everything is music,
everything is dancing.
Watch the dust grains moving
in the light near the window.
Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,
but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,
directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master - Dschalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi


Yesterday we obeyed Kings and bent our necks before Emperors . . But today we kneel
only to Truth . . follow only Beauty . . and obey only Love . . - Kahlil Gibran

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious . too greedy . or too impatient . . One should lie empty . open . choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh


The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes . but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust

Truth is . everyone is going to hurt you . . you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for - Bob Marley

Looking at my life . I see that only Love has been my soul�s companion . . From deep inside . . my soul cries out: Do not wait . surrender . . Surrender . . for the sake of Love - Rumi

Those with a clear mind . .those who are wise and ever watchful . they feel the joy of watchfulness . . - quote from an ancient Buddhist scripture . . the Dhammapada .

(To be watchful is to feel your essential presence (which is consciousness itself) even while thinking and engaged in daily activities. It is a joy to feel that. Without it, you mistake the conditioning of your mind for who you are)

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky - Buddha

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy . if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you . if the simple things in nature have a message you understand . . Rejoice . for your soul is alive - Eleanora Duse

coquelicot - a beautiful poppy red colour

It has been said that an original artist is not a person who emulates no one, but rather is somebody that no one can emulate - author unknown

If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world - C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming - Novalis (1772-1801); German Poet

You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Perfection does not exist. To understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to desire to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness - De Musset (1810-1857)

Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: What is my truest intention? Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it's right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it. ~ Oprah Winfrey

Your true evolution is not what you do out there. That's secondary. Your true evolution is to do with the arising of awareness in you as you go about your life - Eckhart Tolle

Believe in a love that is being
stored up for you like
an inheritance,
and have faith that in
this love there is a strength and a
blessing so large
that you can travel as far
as you wish
without having to step
outside it.
― Rainer Maria Rilke
Ren� Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian�Austrian poet


Ua hekili Pukalani


Entwined within Hawaiian song and poetry, rain may signify joy, life, growth, greenery, the presence of gods or royalty, sexual relations, beauty or hardship.

Light rains and mist might be a sign of good fortune, and heavy rains may be indicative of grief, sorrow and tears.

In the richness of the Hawaiian language, every type of rain has it’s own name and meaning, and is often associated with particular places:

*
kili, much beloved rain
*
ko’iawe, light moving rain
*
kili hau, chilly rain
*
ua nāulu, showery rain
*
ua hō’e’ele, drenching rain
*
ua lani pili, rain downpour
*
ua ho’okina, continuous rain
*
ua hekili, rain with large drops
*
ua hikiki’i, slanting rain
*
ililani, unexpected rain
*
uakoko, rainbow-hued rain
*
kuāua hope, spring rain
*
ka ua ‘awa, bitter rain (grief)


Ua like nô a like (It is like the rain)

Me ka ua Kanilehua (That produces the lehua blossom)

Me he ala e `i mai ana (It seems to say to me)

Aia i laila ke aloha (Love is there)


Copyright © Sharon Mau - All Rights Reserved
P H O T O G R A P H Y
_______________

The blowing of the Pu (conch shell trumpet) in ancient Hawai'i often signified a herald of significance that was to occur. It could have served as the announcement of an arrival of a person of high ranking, or even a call to arms of the warriors. The sounding of the shell in contemporary times is still used to draw attention to a person(s), event, or the initiation of ceremony and protocol. Legends of magical Pu are found throughout Hawai'i. The area of Waikapu (waters of the conch), located within the ahupua'a (land division) of Na Wai Eha (The Four Waters) is not excluded from these mo'olelo (stories).

There was an entrance to a lava tube located somewhere in the deep valleys of Waikapu that stretched to the other end of the island. There existed a Pu that when sounded correctly within the cave, its trumpet could be heard for miles. So well-known was this mo'olelo that a prophet from the island of Kaua'i journeyed to Maui in search of this shell. One of the residents of this area was a very mischievous dog named "Puapualenalena." He lived near a cliff that faced the lava tube where the magical pu was kept. Puapualenalena found the shell and whisked it to safety, silencing the shell forever…but keeping the pu on Maui.

_________________


May the sun
bring you new energy by day.
May the moon
softly restore you by night.
May the rain
... wash away your worries.
May the breeze
blow new strength into your being.
May you walk gently through the world
and know its beauty all the days of your life.

Apache blessing


Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Rumi

It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love.
Native American Prayer
"I give you this one thought to keep -
I am with you still - I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
... I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not think of me as gone -
I am with you still - in each new dawn."
Anon

Every moment, every glance, every thought and every word, can be infused with love.
Thich Nhat Hanh

The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away. ~ Wayne Dyer


Spirit is the essence of consciousness, the energy of the universe that creates all things. Each one of us is a part of that spirit - a divine entity. So the spirit is the higher self, the eternal being that lives within us.
Shakti Gawain




The bhakti path winds in a delicate way.
On this path there is no asking and no not asking.

The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him.

The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just dive in,
and coast around like a fish in the water.

If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his - Kabir




I root myself into the earth
and
I rise to the stars.





"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do-- determined to save the only life you could save" ~ Poetry by Mary Oliver


Now I really feel the landscape . I can be bold and include every tone of blue and pink . . it's enchanting . it's delicious . . . - Claude Monet


All finite things reveal infinitude .
The mountain with it's singular bright shade like the blue shine on freshly frozen snow .
. the after-light upon ice-burdoned pines .
. odor of basswood upon a mountain slope .
a scene beloved of bees .
Silence of water above a sunken tree .
The pure serene of memory of one man .
A ripple widening from a single stone .
Winding around the waters of the world - Theodore Roethke

KANALOA

Naupaka Kahakai growing on the lava rocks
overlooking Polo Beach.

"There is a voice within you that no one, not
even you, has ever heard. There is a welcome for you at the heart of solitude.

When you realize this, most of the fear that
governs your life falls away. The moment your fear transfigures, you come into
rhythm with your own self."

John O'Donohue from his book Anam Cara
(which means soul friend in Gaelic)




Hawai`i nei
--------------


I pull a sun from my coin purse each day. And at night I let my pet the moon Run freely into the sky meadow. If I whistled, She would turn her head and look at me. If I then waved my arms, She would come back wagging a marvelous tail Of stars. There are always a few men like me In this world Who are house-sitting for God. We share His royal duties: I water each day a favorite potted plant Of His -- This earth. Ask the Friend for love. Ask Him again. For I have learned that every heart will get What it prays for Most. From: 'The Subject Tonight Is Love' Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

KA MAKAU

"The makau (fish hook) holds the past while grasping the thread of the future. We need to reach forward using nä mea kapu, those sacred things, those customs and mo‘olelo to set the rudder. To look back at the wake of your coming, pick your star in the future and set the steering paddle.

The fish hook, like the cross of Christianity, has both a mundane and a spiritual form. In Hawai‘i it is the central philosophical and spiritual symbol. It symbolizes the connection between heaven and earth; it helps us reach to the heavens.

Cast a hook and catch a star in heaven; hold it fast so that we may partake of the collective ancestral spirit and wisdom and be spiritually sustained.

In the mundane, the hook fetches up the secrets of the kai hohonu (deep ocean). Cast a hook and partake of the gifts from below so we may be physically sustained on our life’s journey....

"If you are blinded by the many lights on the byways of Hawaii today, all you have to do is look to the heavens. The stars have shifted constantly, and yet are in the same place upon the appointed hour. They're solid as the fluid world of Te Moananui (the vast ocean). Everything is changing and yet everything is the same." - Sam Kaai

WITH DREAMING EYES

A sound as if from bells of silver . or elfin cymbals smitten clear . through the frost-pictured panes I hear . a brightness which outshines the morning . A splendor brooking no delay . beckons and tempts my feet away .

I leave the trodden village highway for virgin snow-paths glimmering through a jewelled elm-tree avenue . where . keen against the walls of sapphire . the gleaming tree-bolls . ice-embossed . hold up their chandeliers of frost . I tread in Orient halls enchanted . I dream the Saga's dream of caves . Gem-lit beneath the North Sea waves .

I walk the land of Eldorado . I touch its mimic garden bowers . its silver leaves and diamond flowers . .
The flora of the mystic mine-world around me lifts on crystal stems . the petals of its clustered gems . .

What miracle of weird transformingin this wild work of frost and light . this glimpse of glory infinite . .

This foregleam of the Holy City Like that to him of Patmos given . the white bride coming down from heaven . .

How flash the ranked and mail-clad alders . through what sharp-glancing spears of reeds .
the brook its muffled water leads . .

Yon maple . like the bush of Horeb . burns unconsumed . . a white . cold firerays out from every grassy spire . Each slender rush and spike of mullein . low laurel shrub and drooping fern . transfigured . blaze where'er I turn . How yonder Ethiopian hemlock crowned with his glistening circlet stands . .

What jewels light his swarthy hands . .
Here . where the forest opens southward . between its hospitable pines . as through a door .
the warm sun shines . The jewels loosen on the branches . and lightly . as the soft winds blow . fall . tinkling . on the ice below . .

And through the clashing of their cymbals I hear the old familiar fall . of water down the rocky wall . where . from its wintry prison breaking . in dark and silence hidden long . the brook repeats its summer song . . .

One instant flashing in the sunshine . keen as a sabre from its sheath . then lost again the ice beneath . I hear the rabbit lightly leaping . the foolish screaming of the jay . the chopper's axe-stroke far away . . the clamor of some neighboring barn-yard . the lazy ass's belated crow . or cattle-tramp in crispy snow . . and . as in some enchanted forest . the lost knight hears his comrades sing . and . near at hand . their bridles ring, . so welcome I these sounds and voices . These airs from far-off summer blown . this life that leaves me not alone . . .

For the white glory overawes me . the crystal terror of the seer Of Chebar's vision blinds me here . . .
Rebuke me not . O sapphire heaven . . .

Thou stainless earth . lay not on me . thy keen reproach of purity . if, in this August presence-chambe . I sigh for summer's leaf-green gloom and warm airs thick with odorous bloom . . .

Let the strange frost-work sink and crumble . and let the loosened tree-boughs swing . till all their bells of silver ring . . . Shine warmly down . thou sun of noontime . on this chill pageant . melt and move the winter's frozen heart with Love . . .

And . soft and low . thou wind south-blowing . Breathe through a veil of tenderest haze thy prophecy of summer days . . .

Come with thy green relief of promise . and to this dead . cold splendour bring . the living jewels of the spring . . poetry by John Greenleaf Whittier 1869


DREAM OF ME
In the half light of distant memory I sense the shape of the place
It's outline upon a vague horizon
and a knowing voice calling
.
Urging
. remember me, remember me .

In the clear light of day
the reality of the place is so much more .
An air of ancient serenity Settles upon the earth . whispering . .
come to me . come to me . .

In the fading light of dusk .
I step upon the holy ground Bound to past and future . .
The stones tell their own tales . Murmuring .
Be with me . be with me . .

In the darkness of the night .
The moon shadows flit from tree to tree .
And the spirits move .
Touching the soul with joy . Inviting .
stay with me . stay with me . .

In the cold light of dawn .
the embers die . fading red .
Knowledge gained is stored away . .
Until the time comes again . Renewing .
. Dream of me . dream of me . . - Vanora





Sunset Conceptual Art Square Format
Paako Beach Honuaula Makena Maui Hawaii



Aloha mai e
Copyright � 2011 Sharon Mau - All Rights Reserved


JOIN ME IN THE PURE ATMOSPHERE

"I slip in and out of the Sea at night with this Amazed soul I have. I am like a magnificent, magic ocean turtle Who sets aside his vast wings of Blue effulgence When I crawl upon your shores To leave my divine seed of verse. Let me remain cryptic tonight All the way till dawn As I orbit God In this holy, ecstatic mood. Grab hold of the corners Of my luminous, tender shell And I will whirl for you, For I am covered with eminent crystals That I have gathered from the infinite depths Of Love. Follow my tracks in the sand that lead Beyond thought and space, For I can see deep down That you are really a golden bird That needs to Dance With your spirit enraptured and ascending On the currents of Light. On the currents of His Breath. Join me with your hands, wings, hoofs or fins In my sublime applause. Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude For Life. I slip in and out of the Moon each night With a gracious ease With this brilliant heart I have. The Beautiful Friend, the Exquisite One, Sometimes steps from His Invisible Body And walks upon our shore So that we might see and know His radiant Tender Shell ~ His eminent crowns That are the three worlds. 'O grab hold of the hem of His skirt As He spins this Universe on an emerald Dance floor! Cling to the Transcendent Elements in His glance As the Beloved forever whirls His Love. Hafiz Slips in and out of God at night Tied to his own amazed Soul." Poetry of Hafiz


:: THE UNIVERSE IS AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE :: "I was a hidden treasure and I longed to be known, so I created both worlds, the visible and the invisible,
in order that my hidden treasure of generosity and loving kindness would be known." ::

"The sun
Won a beauty contest and became a jewel
Set upon God�s right hand.

The earth agreed to be a toe ring on the
Beloved�s foot
And has never regretted its decision.

The mountains got tired
Of sitting amongst a sleeping audience

And are now stretching their arms
Toward the Roof.

The clouds gave my soul an idea
So I pawned my gills
And rose like a winged diamond

Ever trying to be near
More love, more love
Like you.

The Mountain got tired of sitting
Amongst a snoring crowd inside of me
And rose like a rip sun
Into my eye.

My soul gave my heart a brilliant idea
So Hafiz is rising like a
Winged diamond.


Hafiz - �The Gift� � translation by Daniel Ladinsky" ::



:: "The Universe is an expression of Love. We live in an ocean of Love " :: "Every being and thing in creation is set in motion by Love" :: "Everything is seeking union with the object of it's desire" :: "And all of these desires are the derivatives of one Love" ::




:: "Love is the motivation behind every yearning" :: "The fundamental Love is the pure experience Being" :: "See how the hand is invisible while the pen is writing; the horse careening, yet the rider is unseen; the arrow flying, but the bow out of sight; individual souls existing, while the Soul of souls is hidden. Rumi, Mathnawi II,1303-4" ::

"The Spectrum of Love: Eros, Philos, Agape" :: "Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself,
how will you be able to understand
the secret of your existence when you die?

Farid ud Din Attar" :: "Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.


Farid ud Din Attar - translation Margaret Smith -The Jawhar Al-Dhat" ::

"He Pua Laha'ole" :: "a flower not common" :: "Ulu Wehi" :: "beautifully adorned" ::
:: "Aloha ":: "Sharon Mau 09 April 2011 Copyright - All Rights Reserved"



EVOLUTION OF THOUGHT
Pythagoras and his disciples developed the idea that numbers are invested with qualities. "One," being the source of all combinations and permutations rather than an ordinary number, stood for Divine Reason. "Two," denoted opinion - that is one set against another one. "Three," as harmony, brought the opposites together in a trinity representing thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. "Four," became justice, the principle which rules the material world. (Esotericists speak of the "four lords of karma.") "Five," was marriage because it brought the union of the first male number (three) and the first female number (two). In this way it was believed that the entire universe is organized on a numerical basis. According to the Pythagorean system, odd numbers are positive, masculine, and associated with Spirit, while even numbers are negative, feminine, and associated with Matter. Odd numbers are said to be indissoluble, while even numbers are soluble (capable of equal division with nothing remaining) and hence ephemeral. Therefore, sacrifices of odd numbers of objects were differed to the gods while even numbers were offered to goddesses and subterranean spirits." ~ from The Evolution of Thought

Land of lost gods and godlike men...
Heart of Joy

THE MELODY OF LOVE
All Nature is taught in radiant ways to move, All beings are in myself embraced. O fiery boundless Heart of joy and love, How art thou beating in a mortal's breast ! It is Thy rapture flaming through my nerves And all my cells and atoms thrill with Thee ; My body thy vessel is and only serves As a living wine-cup of Thy ecstasy. I am a centre of Thy golden light And I its vast and vague circumference, Thou art my soul great, luminous and white And Thine my mind and will and glowing sense. Thy spirit's infinite breath I feel in me; My life is a throb of Thy eternity." ~ Sri Aurobindo



"Once in the dream of a night I stood Lone in the light of a magical wood, Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang; And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang, And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed, And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed In that magical wood in the land of sleep." ~ Sarojini Naidu


Aegir
Aegir was a fierce god of the sea. He had fingers like claws. His wife was named Ran, by whom he had nine daughters, said to be the maidens who move the waves. Aegir would appear on the surface of the sea to destroy ships, or with his wife would catch sailors with a net to bring them into his underwater kingdom. Captains would give coins to each sailor, so if they were captured they had a gift for the gods. It was believed that if the sailor's spirit was present at the funeral, Ran had given them a good welcome. There they were said to feast with Aegir and Ran. Sacrifices were offered by Saxon pirates, who used to drown every tenth man among their prisoners so that they could assure themselves a secure return home. Aegir is often shown as a strong god with a spear in his hand. An old name for the sea, garsecg, literally means "spear-man". Aegir was very similar to the Greek god Poseidon. Poseidon was known for holding his trident." The source of this quote is Windows to the Universe at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

The Descent
"And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship." Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay." And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." ~ Khalil Gibran





"All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live." Poetry by Swami Vivekananda




"The Stairway of Existence"

"We Are not In pursuit of formalities Or fake religious Laws,

For through the stairway of existence We have come to God's Door.
We are People who need to love, because Love is the soul's life,

Love is simply creation's greatest joy.

Through The stairway of existence, O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz

Have You now come, Have we all now come to The Beloved's Door.

(The Stairway of Existence - A poem by Hafiz)





Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life, The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray! The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Canto ii. Stanza 20. Lord George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron. (1788 � 1824)

Love, compassion, and concern for others are real sources of happiness. With these in abundance, you will not be disturbed by even the most uncomfortable circumstances. If you nurse hatred, however, you will not be happy even in the lap of luxury. Thus, if we really want happiness, we must widen the sphere of love. This is both religious thinking and basic common sense. -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

... we are part of a group sharing experiences
our thoughts are 'music' that attract or repel
'time' is a measure of our conscousness unfolding
we can go down one level of consciousness to help
we can go up one level of consciousness to learn
- author unknown

The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand - Robert Valett


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication ~ Leonardo DaVinci

Join the photographer at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sharon-Mau-Photography/108367762566505

:: Arie Sacre :: Sacred Song

Oli Hakea Pue Hoolaha o ke Alii Aloha nui mai ke Akua O Keanae

"Leave the familiar for a while. Let your senses and bodies stretch out Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.
Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.
Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of You."

from the Ecstatic Poetry of Hafiz.......


"All the Hemispheres Leave the familiar for a while. Let your senses and bodies stretch out Like a welcomed season Onto the meadows and shores and hills. Open up to the Roof. Make a new water-mark on your excitement And love. Like a blooming night flower, Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness And giving Upon our intimate assembly. Change rooms in your mind for a day. All the hemispheres in existence Lie beside an equator In your heart. Greet Yourself In your thousand other forms As you mount the hidden tide and travel Back home. All the hemispheres in heaven Are sitting around a fire Chatting While stitching themselves together Into the Great Circle inside of You." ~ Poetry of Hafiz







Pua Melia o Keanae Tropical Pink Plumeria

Copyright 2011 © Sharon Mau

My images do not belong to the public domain.
No form of reproduction, including copying or saving of digital image files, or the alteration or manipulation of said image is authorized unless accompanied by a written sales and/or licensing agreement issued by Sharon Mau
All rights reserved


Sharon Mau

P H O T O G R A P H Y

To purchase my prints and other products please visit me on my websites

http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com

http://sharonmau.imagekind.com/store

http://www.zazzle.com/ourjrny*

http://sharonmau.blogspot.com




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Waikamoi is the most accessible native rainforest on Maui, and one of the best in the state. Most are too remote for anyone but the serious researcher or gung-ho hiker. The U.S. Park Service conducts free interpretive hikes through Waikamoi, starting from Hosmer Campground in Haleakala National Park every Monday and Thursday at 9 a.m. The Nature Conservancy also leads hikes through the area on the second Saturday of each month. Reservations are required. The 1.25-mile loop trail takes two and a half hours, "mostly because we stop and talk a lot on the trail," says White. To step into a native Hawaiian rainforest is to experience sensory bombardment. Your nose, ears, eyes and even feet rush to get the message to the brain first: This place is special, and oh so different from any other you've been. There's the air, clean and cool -- this part of Waikamoi is about 6,000 feet above sea level -- and filled with the smell of green life, primeval and fresh all at once. The songs of strange and unseen birds fill the air. These are songs that just a couple of generations ago blessed lower elevations now populated by people and covered with their homes and streets and stores, but now are heard only in the mountains. Waikamoi is home to eight endangered birds, including the Crested Honey Creeper. Known to ancient Hawaiians as `Akohekohe, it was feared to be extinct until researchers found three active nests in February 1992. It was the first time that the bird, a brown creature about seven inches long with a blond forehead crest, an orange-red patch at the back of its neck and flecks of orange on its belly, had been seen since 1860 -- 132 years before! Waikamoi is it's entire range, the only place on Earth it is found. While you may have seen a koa tree or a tree fern or an ohia growing in the wild, only in a rainforest will you see them together, their roots and fates intertwined in the same web of life. Huge ohias spread overhead in a canopy that even on the rare sunny day blocks the sun and creates a shadow world below where light slants in dim and filtered at odd angles. Ferns create a sub-canopy, waist-high to the hiker, that keeps the ground dark and moist. The strongest sensation, and the one that lingers still, is the feel of the Earth underfoot. It's spongy and soft with humus and dendritus, decaying former life that gives new life a medium in which to take root and grow. You can feel this life cycle through your boot soles. But walk softly. Freshly broken ground is an invitation for seeds and spores of alien species to move in. That's why the first rule of hiking a Hawaiian rainforest is to clean your shoes or boots before hand (so to speak), to prevent introducing seeds from other areas. A second rule is to stay on the trail, to limit damage to the soil. Bogs, a feature of many local rainforests, are especially sensitive to human foot traffic. Randy Bartlett, watershed manager at Pu`u Kukui preserve above Kapalua in the West Maui Mountains, site of a large, pristine bog, says: "It can take months, even years for the bog to repair one human footprint. The reason is that it takes 10,000 to 12,000 years to build up enough organic matter to create 12 inches (deep) of bog. These are not areas that can withstand a lot of human contact." Excerpts from http://www.hotspots.hawaii.com/Chapman3. html


O Sapphire Heaven Soft and Low
John Greenleaf Whittier poetry

A sound as if from bells of silver,
Or elfin cymbals smitten clear,
Through the frost-pictured panes I hear.

A brightness which outshines the morning,
A splendor brooking no delay,
Beckons and tempts my feet away.

I leave the trodden village highway
For virgin snow-paths glimmering through
A jewelled elm-tree avenue;

Where, keen against the walls of sapphire,
The gleaming tree-bolls, ice-embossed,
Hold up their chandeliers of frost.

I tread in Orient halls enchanted,
I dream the Saga's dream of caves
Gem-lit beneath the North Sea waves!

I walk the land of Eldorado,
I touch its mimic garden bowers,
Its silver leaves and diamond flowers!

The flora of the mystic mine-world
Around me lifts on crystal stems
The petals of its clustered gems!

What miracle of weird transforming
In this wild work of frost and light,
This glimpse of glory infinite!

This foregleam of the Holy City
Like that to him of Patmos given,
The white bride coming down from heaven!

How flash the ranked and mail-clad alders,
Through what sharp-glancing spears of reeds
The brook its muffled water leads!

Yon maple, like the bush of Horeb,
Burns unconsumed: a white, cold fire
Rays out from every grassy spire.

Each slender rush and spike of mullein,
Low laurel shrub and drooping fern,
Transfigured, blaze where'er I turn.

How yonder Ethiopian hemlock
Crowned with his glistening circlet stands!
What jewels light his swarthy hands!

Here, where the forest opens southward,
Between its hospitable pines,
As through a door, the warm sun shines.

The jewels loosen on the branches,
And lightly, as the soft winds blow,
Fall, tinkling, on the ice below.

And through the clashing of their cymbals
I hear the old familiar fall
Of water down the rocky wall,

Where, from its wintry prison breaking,
In dark and silence hidden long,
The brook repeats its summer song.

One instant flashing in the sunshine,
Keen as a sabre from its sheath,
Then lost again the ice beneath.

I hear the rabbit lightly leaping,
The foolish screaming of the jay,
The chopper's axe-stroke far away;

The clamor of some neighboring barn-yard,
The lazy cock's belated crow,
Or cattle-tramp in crispy snow.

And, as in some enchanted forest
The lost knight hears his comrades sing,
And, near at hand, their bridles ring,--

So welcome I these sounds and voices,
These airs from far-off summer blown,
This life that leaves me not alone.

For the white glory overawes me;
The crystal terror of the seer
Of Chebar's vision blinds me here.

Rebuke me not, O sapphire heaven!
Thou stainless earth, lay not on me,
Thy keen reproach of purity,

If, in this August presence-chamber,
I sigh for summer's leaf-green gloom
And warm airs thick with odorous bloom!

Let the strange frost-work sink and crumble,
And let the loosened tree-boughs swing,
Till all their bells of silver ring.

Shine warmly down, thou sun of noontime,
On this chill pageant, melt and move
The winter's frozen heart with love.

And, soft and low, thou wind south-blowing,
Breathe through a veil of tenderest haze
Thy prophecy of summer days.

Come with thy green relief of promise,
And to this dead, cold splendor bring
The living jewels of the spring!

1869
John Greenleaf Whittier's poem: Pageant

Sizes

May 19th, 2017

https://help.society6.com/hc/en-us/articles/227119388?flash_digest=4e312bc4a742a7c1f76d7e5b2771f78efe417882

White Balance - Photography Tips

April 23rd, 2017

White Balance - Photography Tips

. . ★ . . :: Let's talk about White Balance . . you are welcome to add your thoughts and share your process in a comment below :: . .

I always shoot in RAW . post production in photoshop and/or lightroom to reveal the colours will help tremendously . .
Use a very subtle super light touch when processing your images making adjustments to your temperature and tint to maintain natural colours unless you are going for a more creative approach .

About colours . .

Adjust your hues using your slider on the HSL / Grayscale for a creative split-tone effect which often is effective for brightening colours . .
Adjust Luminance on specific colours to brighten or deepen colours as well as to add depth and dimension to the image . .
I almost never touch saturation . . if you do . take care to not saturate too much when you are trying to maintain a more natural appearance to your final image . .
Vibrancy is also something you would want to be very careful with as it will flatten your image . .
Black and White is a wonderful choice to "save" an image which has turned out to be overall flat . . .

Mostly focus on White Balance / Hue / Luminance and Curves . . .
Then if you like you could make adjustments in Split Toning for more creative expression . . .

White balance is so important in all circumstances . especially in low light conditions . ie. overcast "grey" skies . . Yet in all light conditions it is so important . .
Light is the key for beautiful photography and when the sun is not cooperating you must meter correctly for the lower light conditions (using a tripod helps tremendously)

You may make post production changes for your white balance to adjust your colour casts by making adjustments in temperature and tint .
Many images have a colour cast and you can solve this issue by adjusting your white balance . . especially when you have a very cool colours with winter skies or shadows . you may warm them up a bit and brighten them by adjusting your temperature and tint . .

For in-camera white balance options your DLSR has presets and Auto is much too unpredictable . . . basically an auto setting on your camera is your camera telling you what colour white is . .
You want to tell your camera what white is . . When shooting outdoors or especially indoors setting your white balance is important . .

For your camera settings try selecting your camera White Balance mode on Shade or Cloudy to warm things up a bit . .
You may choose to create your own white balance preset . . .

Then make adjustments in photoshop and/or Lightroom to your white balance by adjusting the temperature | tine | highlights | midtones and shadows . .
Use Parametric on your Tone Curve to make adjustments then also use Point . play with it until you like the results . .
Always remember never to touch your original images . . only process copies of your work to preserve the integrity of your portfolio .
That is one of the things I really love about Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom . . there is no photo degradation . .
You can make endless copies of your work with many variations for your final images . . .

In Photoshop for Curves you may choose on your drop-down tab Medium Contrast | Strong Contrast | Linear . . or Custom . .
Slide your points and adjust the curves until you like what you see . . .
Lower your contrast and adjust the blacks and/or clarity to soften an image . .

You may choose to use a vignette to create an interesting effect for focusing the eye on the light within your image . .

Create your own presets . . . they are a tremendous resource you may custom create to save yourself time in your work flow . .



Using lens filters will help as well in all light conditions . . . . .
These are only a few suggestions to help you . . . .

I shoot in RAW . often use lens filters and tripod . . try to get everything as perfect as possible in-camera when I initially take the photograph . . then post-process in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended and finish my images in Adobe Lightroom 5.5 :: . . ★ . .

. . . . ★ . .

Colour correction cards || colour calibrated reference cards are handy
. . do you create your own or purchase them?


Photoshop Elements
Applies to: Colour and camera raw
Adobe Community Help
Using the histogram and RGB values in camera raw
White balance controls for camera raw
Tonal and image adjustments in camera raw files
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/color-camera-raw.html


:: more useful links and resources :: . .

DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Colour Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide
http://www.amazon.com/DGK-Color-Tools-Balance-Calibration/dp/B00AWT2QCE/ref=pd_sim_p_6/176-7804790-5800554?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QYW49PT3W69BG0GF5H3

Introduction to White Balance
http://digital-photography-school.com/introduction-to-white-balance/

Using White Balance to Control Colour Casts
http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/color-cast-tutorial

Adobe Controlling White Balance Video Tutorials
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-5/controlling-white-balance/

http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1955727

18 June 2014
Sharon Mau

*****************************

. this is an interesting forum on Histogram: Luminosity and Colour
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread37685.htm


. :: more Colour Calibration Charts resources :: . .


http://www.amazon.com/Color-Calibration-Charts/b?ie=UTF8&node=3109910011

http://www.kayellaustralia.com.au/colour-calibration-cards-c-203_239.html


http://www.photoreview.com.au/tips/shooting/Getting-Colour-Balance-Right
. . :: Getting Colour Balance Right :: . .
"Although cameras with manual white balance measurement systems can provide almost cast-free colour photographs, there are times when additional colour reference tools should also be used to ensure you achieve a correct colour balance in any shooting situation. Including a colour balance reference target in shots is particularly handy if you shoot JPEGs. It's less important for raw file shooters because colour tweaking is possible when converting raw files to editable formats. However, having a target in a reference shot can make the task quicker and easier when you're editing image files."

Creative White Balance
Control the relative colour tonalities in your photos to create a better sense of mood and atmosphere
https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/tips-techniques/nature-landscapes/creative-white-balance/

Photoshop Elements
Applies to: Colour and camera raw
Adobe Community Help
Using the histogram and RGB values in camera raw
White balance controls for camera raw
Tonal and image adjustments in camera raw files
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/color-camera-raw.html


:: more useful links and resources :: . .

DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Colour Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide
http://www.amazon.com/DGK-Color-Tools-Balance-Calibration/dp/B00AWT2QCE/ref=pd_sim_p_6/176-7804790-5800554?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QYW49PT3W69BG0GF5H3

Introduction to White Balance
http://digital-photography-school.com/introduction-to-white-balance/

Using White Balance to Control Colour Casts
http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/color-cast-tutorial

Adobe Controlling White Balance Video Tutorials
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-5/controlling-white-balance/

. . ★ . . Colour correction cards || colour calibrated reference cards are handy




If any of these suggestions and tips help you let me know with a comment . . .


Aloha

Sharon Mau
http://sharon-mau.pixels.com









Aloha Happy 2017 Limited Time Sales Promo Discount Code

January 6th, 2017

Aloha Happy 2017 Limited Time Sales Promo Discount Code

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SEO Public Suffix Elixir

May 21st, 2016

#SEO #Elixir #PublicSuffix

New on the Dev Blog "Public Suffix: An Open-Source Elixir Library." https://goo.gl/1eNYZA

" #Moz Pro team wrote a Public Suffix parsing library for Elixir, and now it's open-source!"

You can find #PublicSuffixElixir on

#Github https://goo.gl/jKlCcO

and

#Hex https://goo.gl/1lDfPf

"Operate on domain names using the public suffix rules provided by" https://goo.gl/hkOdQI

Beautiful Celtic Music Playlist

November 20th, 2015

The Song of the Soul by Edwin Leibfreed

November 20th, 2015

The Song of the Soul by: Edwin Leibfreed

Oh to be naked!
My body? Yes, if need be.
My Soul, more than all else.
To be as I am. As small or as large as my Soul.
To speak truth, and scorn man's wrath.
To laugh at convention.
To rejoice at freedom.
To be hated, as well as loved, for Truth's sake.
To care no more for reputation
Than reputation cares for me.
For he who worries about reputation,
Has a reputation to worry about.
II
To believe in all things.
To defy nothing but wrong.
To spring at the ivory throat of wrong,
And strangle it with bleeding hands!
To slay it in public or private.
To let the blazing sandals of the feet of the Soul
Burn every evil they tread upon.
To know that every reformer's life is an avatar.
That reform is justifiable murder.
That every reformer bears a cross.
That the sword, and not the olive-branch,
Is the symbol of regeneration.
And that peace and harmony are its triumphs.
III
To dip into mysteries,
Artlessly, candidly.
To regard life as the Soul's sacred trust.
To know that every longing of the Soul is holy.
That life, with the Soul predominant,
Is a noble mosaic, a bewitching arabesque.
To answer my mother's call to my Soul
My sweet mother, Earth, who loves me!
To satisfy any desire I feel,
So long as I bring happiness to some other.
Not wanton waste of life, but holy use.
IV
To live as would a child, in its cradle, unashamed.
For they who feel shame have not grown wise;
They have lost the purity of innocence!
To do whatsoever my Soul suggests,
And do it openly.
To know that Thought is greater than words.
That words are but the shining garments of Thought.
To know that Thought creates.
That it is greater than the thing it creates;
That it creates Love;
That it is higher than Love;
That it is holier than Love;
That Love is Thought's first-born.
Oh for the courage of Truth!
For the courage of honesty!
What beauteous nakedness in these!
V
Only man can blush.
No other creature knows of shame.
Why have we wandered so far away
From simple honesty?
Who taught us so much that is shameful?
Or, is it only our vain imaginings?
Yet, after all, God is not shocked
At anything he sees.
Or else, seeing, and feeling shame,
He would not tolerate what he sees.
VI
To what extent shall I glory in my passions?
I glory not at all.
Nor do I reproach myself because of them.
I glory in normality;
In strength, and natural desire.
And when my soul calls on these,
They shall answer, and not shame me.
I believe in all that I am.
I believe in more than I am.
I believe in all that I should be,
Because Nature and God believe in me,
Therefore I am,
And, therefore, have I confidence!
Seeing I have been so honored,
Shall I have less respect for myself than God?
Shall I pervert and destroy?
Nay, rather I will conserve.
I will sacredly cherish.
Then shall I rejoice in my abundance.
I shall not know poverty.
VII
What a conservator is God!
And, yet, the abundance withal!
The normal soul is ever rich.
Poverty of soul, or of mind, or of body
Is a crime.
Nature punishes every crime.
Her honesty forbids dishonesty.
How merciful is nature! How just!
Nature is very kind.
Nature and I are happy friends.
VIII
Now let me speak my mind to you.
One assertion of yourself, and you are born.
One fearless sentence, and you are strong.
One battle with your darling vice,
And you become a champion.
A knowledge of one fragment of Truth,
And you have entered heaven's kingdom.
One glance of purity at a human form,
And you are saved.
One cry to God, and the answer of the universe.
One feast of true love, and hunger no more.
He who strives for happiness is a fool.
The wise man makes happiness for another.
IX
There is one forum to which all may go,
And be heard--the Mind.
One eager auditor--the Soul.
One kind old servitor--the Body.
There is more genius undiscovered,
Than genius to discover.
Not all of us shall have his song heard.
Some, who only rehearse the song here,
Shall sing it in triumph and honor
In Music's ultimate realms,
Before all the great singers of Time,
And before the King of Songs.
The blackest murder is the killing
Of the Soul's aspirations!
Ten thousand deaths do they inflict
Who strangle the ambition of the Soul!
X
Let the drawn curtains of the House of the Soul
Be parted. Others need the sight.
How sensitive is the Soul! The tenderest dove
Is an adventurer compared with it.
The Soul can hear the violets grow!
It can hear the throbbing heart of God!
Who would scotch my Soul?
Who would make me afraid of myself?
Is a man ashamed when he bathes?
Of what should he be ashamed?
Not of what he bathes,
But of what he does not bathe.
Tears are the Soul's baptism of cleansing.
Describe a smile, and you deserve immortality;
The pleasure of a kiss,
And you deserve them all;
The value of a tear,
And you have knowledge like unto God's!
XI
Love is the sweetest, yet the saddest thing.
The portal of the heart is emotion.
Motion and emotion are kin.
I sob over colors as some men over music.
Music is the highest expression of any art.
All art resolves itself at last into music.
All life seeks harmony.
Love is the Soul's exquisite vibrations,
Slow or rapid, sad or gay.
Love is the Soul at song.
All sense must have feeling, focus, form.
The highest form is harmony.
The fine art of Life is to make
Another Soul vibrate with a song of joy.
Technique is as elastic as Mind.
Perfection is as fixed as Divine Will.
The azure is alive with motion.
The Soul is most alive
When stirred by emotion.
The message is the thing!
XII
Oh to sing my song that is bursting my heart!
To sing it, and let others sing it, too,
Until such time as their own songs
Shall break the chrysalis that binds them,
And, on the lightest-feathered wings,
Go unto God who sings a deathless song.
Who would not journey thus?
And with my song liberated,
Go sauntering on to willing ears,
Enter in, and be at home,
Because of kindred life.
A vesper bell shall toll for the Soul.
Oh, take me, you who love sincerity and truth!
Take me, and embrace me. Kiss me!
I am but a traveler from the sky.
Home! Home! I journey to the only home I know.
The only heaven that I care to know.
There all is love. There all receive all.
Suspicion cannot flourish there,
Nor hate breathe one single gasp of life.
XIII
Let me begin to undress my Soul before you.
It is as pure as thought.
It is as sweet as jessamine.
It is as melancholy as sorrow.
It is as merry as joy.
It is as clean as the running water
In a cress-fringed brook.
It is as warm as the human breath.
It is as open as the eye.
Yea, it is as clear, too.
It is as tender as love.
It is as yielding as the flesh.
It is as modest as the dew.
It is as chaste as falling snow.
It is as true as the stars.
It is as old as God, Himself.
It is as young as life.
It is as far removed from malice
As is death itself.
Lo, it lies white and waiting!
Waiting what? Waiting whom?
Waiting expression;
Waiting the one who can interpret it;
Waiting the one who needs it;
Waiting the eternal purpose for which it came.
Who knows its throbbing tenderness? Who cares?
Oh the pity of onlooking disinterestedness!
Oh the pain of unrequited hope!
XIV
I stand in the presence of the Eternal!
I am not afraid. He made me thus.
He admits me to His sacred places.
He scorns me not;
Oh men, men, why have ye scorned?
Lo, some day we shall be striding together
Through the infinite worlds!
And you? I shall be helping you to the heights
That have been revealed to me through fearless thought.
I will unlock for you the iron doors of Truth.
You shall see all I see,
And seeing, be no more afraid than I.
And you will love me for my very nakedness,
Just as you will love Truth.
Oh, love me now! I hunger so.
XV
Let me be naked awhile before the holiest thing.
For nothing can harm me, but myself.
See, I am refreshed!
The shower sends its silver arrows
Into my warm flesh.
I am not afraid. I am renewed.
My Soul lives many lives.
Each life a thought, each thought a life.
I am but Thought.
See, now, how you would revile!
Revile me then. I shall hear you not.
A sexual blunder would you make of me!
Will God have need to breed thought
In dying protoplasm?
Thought is not born of flesh,
And needs not flesh to live.
It enters, only, into flesh as would light,
Or more potent still, as love.
XVI
I pass into flesh. I am light.
Oh, let me shine in the dark flesh of eagerness!
Let me enter into the bosom of ignorance
And split it with my golden radiance!
The Soul's dreams are titanic, not satanic.
Let me kiss Truth once more!
Let me taste the bliss of wedlock with Truth!
I would breed thoughts, but not in flesh;
For they would be but dead, and deadly things.
XVII
I would suffice for myself,
And then for all who need me.
I make no cross. It is already made for me.
How gladly do I climb the Hill of the Skull
To die for Truth, since Truth has lived for me!
For death is but a passing phase of Life;
A change of dress, a disrobing;
A birth into the unborn again;
A commencing where we ended;
A starting where we stopped to rest;
A crossroad of Eternity;
A giving up of something, to possess all things.
The end of the unreal, the beginning of the real;
Not cessation, but continuance;
Not exit, but entrance;
Not destruction, but life;
How wise the plan of death!
Death sanctifies everything;
Forgives everything; understands everything.
There is light in the darkest room.
There is light in the blackest night.
There is light in the tomb.
There is hope in the darkest hour.
There is hope in the blackest heart.
There is hope in the dead.
How rhapsodical is the Song of the Soul!
It cannot bide restraint or measure.
Sweeter than melody, loftier than harmony,
It is music itself!
XVIII
Come, naked Soul, be never dressed again.
Go in unto God, more naked still,
And fear no evil, for He knoweth none.
Into His presence come, and talk of Life--
Your life of broken song.
What notes of joy He will supply!
He will not rob me of my Soul.
My Song, my Hope, nor destroy aught.
He will share His matchless Home with me.
And why not?
Did he not grant me here a Palace
In which to dwell, and shall I doubt
The value of a Soul to Him
Who found it worthy of a first solicitude,
And then a constant care?
Would He deny me now, when face to face?
XIX
Alone with God! How shall I further speak?
I seem to feel the hush of Time,
The end of mortal things.
A thrill, unknown before, possesses me.
How near to God I seem!
Some larger purpose holds my view.
I thought to stay here,
Resigned, contented, all alive.
Oh bliss of fuller life!
Oh the sublime gestures of the Soul!
My nakedness to me is very sweet!


Return me if thou wilt, O God,
To earth, or commend me to
Some other sphere if destiny speak so.
I feel the thrill of an eternal plan.
Lo, nothing is lost, not even Time that ceased!
It was the marker, Truth required for this day.
How sweet to be with Truth!
And, yet, still sweeter is it to be Truth, itself! - poetry by Edwin Leibfreed

Rumi Poetry

November 20th, 2015

Ghazal 119

I dont need
a companion who is
nasty sad and sour
the one who is
like a grave
dark depressing and bitter
a sweetheart is a mirror
a friend a delicious cake
it isnt worth spending
an hour with anyone else
a companion who is
in love only with the self
has five distinct characters
stone hearted
unsure of every step
lazy and disinterested
keeping a poisonous face
the more this companion waits around
the more bitter everything will get
just like a vinegar
getting more sour with time
enough is said about
sour and bitter faces
a heart filled with desire for
sweetness and tender souls
must not waste itself with unsavory matters



- Rumi. Translated by Nader Khalili. Rumi, Fountain of Fire Cal-Earth, September 1994

Tags Keywords Algorithm

November 15th, 2015

. 'ae . . on our AW site we cannot see the keywords . there is no field for tags at all . .
. on FAA we can . .

It seems Sean has moved/migrated our keywords from beneath our images to the bottom of the page not too long ago and now again they have been moved and designated to the lower right side beneath our stats . . plus he has limited the display to 10 tags on our FAA gallery . I do like many of the changes and improvements on the site . . . but I have some questions . . . .


On the subject of our tags on FAA we see 10 tags and may choose to click on "See All" but it isn't really see all . .
For most of my images have between 450 - 500 keywords embedded within the meta data . .
Yet beneath each of my images there is a variable number of tags displayed when clicking on "See All" . . .

To optimize our meta description and meta keyword tags for Google search results many of us choose them carefully and embed them within our meta data before publishing . . and they are included in autofill when we upload them . . so whether or not they are actually working or have been "boosted" or are effectively rendered useless is a mystery . . .
It is true . yes . . that someone chooses whose keywords are active . . or not?
Ultimately Sean chooses which images rise to the top . . . .


When clicking on "See All" some images show 40 tags . some 43 . some 50 . one displayed 52 . some show 47 . . . so it isn't actually displaying ALL the tags . . only a portion of them . . and it isn't consistent .

I've been extensively researching this subject and thought I would share the results with you .. .

This quote is interesting to note . .
Quote from Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html

"Q: Does Google ever use the "keywords" meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has the ability to match meta tags, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that's an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don't have any effect in our search ranking at present.

Q: Why doesn't Google use the keywords meta tag?
A: About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called "off-page" factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.

Q: Does this mean that Google ignores all meta tags?
A: No, Google does support several other meta tags. This meta tags page documents more info on several meta tags that we do use. For example, we do sometimes use the "description" meta tag as the text for our search results snippets, as this screenshot shows:

Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don't use the description meta tag in our ranking.

Q: Does this mean that Google will always ignore the keywords meta tag?
A: It's possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it's unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy.

Posted by Matt Cutts, Search Quality Team
end quote

Here is another interesting discussion on the topic . .

quote: "What about ranking better with the tag. I mentioned already that many experienced SEOs dont find it useful. Believe me, if just putting a single word into that tag was going to rank your page better, everyone would be doing it. Instead, search for anything on Yahoo or Ask. Youll see plenty of pages ranking well for words without those words appearing in the meta keywords tag. And if you do see the words in the tag, its more due to coincidence the words also appear in the body copy, in the title tag and often in links pointing at the page. The words in the meta keywords tag arent the primary reason the page is ranking well. Promise.

Back to our Basset Hound example. Sure, you can add the correct spelling to your meta keywords tag. Go ahead, if you want. Just understand that it is not likely to make you rank any better than if you didnt include it at all. Moreover, beginners are especially likely to spend far too long worrying about getting the right words in the meta keywords tag rather than just writing good body copy."

"Other Uses - I mentioned that misspellings were a key use for the tag. You could also use it for synonyms. For example, if you have a page all about shoes and you never say footwear, you could put that word in your tag. However, its far better if you just find a way to make use of the word in the body copy itself. That text is retrieved by all the major search engines, not just some.

Aside from synonyms, perhaps you have a page thats all Flash or all images. Use the meta keywords tag to describe the page. Just remember that youre still not likely to rank better than other pages that have textual information. Search engines are textual creatures. Give them what they want."
end quote . .


Sep 5, 2007 at 7:42pm ET by Danny Sullivan
begin quote:
The W3C has guidelines (and here) in HTML 4.0 about meta data and search engines, while the XHTML specs dont get into it at all. Ignore the specs.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/appendix/notes.html#h-B.4
"Define the document language
In the global context of the Web it is important to know which human language a page was written in. This is discussed in the section on language information.
Specify language variants of this document" http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/dirlang.html#language-info

Provide keywords and descriptions
"Some indexing engines look for META elements that define a comma-separated list of keywords/phrases, or that give a short description. Search engines may present these keywords as the result of a search. The value of the name attribute sought by a search engine is not defined by this specification."

"A common use for META is to specify keywords that a search engine may use to improve the quality of search results. When several META elements provide language-dependent information about a document, search engines may filter on the lang attribute to display search results using the language preferences of the user." http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html#edef-META


Click on the link and read this page . it is informative . . . .
http://searchengineland.com/meta-keywords-tag-101-how-to-legally-hide-words-on-your-pages-for-search-engines-12099


Yes it was quite some time ago . . but it is still relevant yes?



So . please enlighten and educate us Sean and give us the real scoop on the subject of tags . . . .
Are our tags really useful?
Are our Titles and Descriptions more important than our tags for our ranking in the search engine results?



More interesting information:

via https://plus.google.com/+SearchEngineLand/posts

Google Pigeon Updates Local Search Algorithm With Stronger Ties To Web Search Signal
Jul 24, 2014 at 8:07pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Pigeon: Search Engine Lands Name For The New Google Local Search Update - http://selnd.com/1nR3SzY

Googles Pigeon Update Solves Yelp Problem, Boosts Local Directories - http://selnd.com/Uxa4lw

Google Search Designer Explains Why Some Features & Tools Get Axed - http://selnd.com/1nR3TUo

Google Pigeon Local Search Algorithm Launches
- http://selnd.com/Uxa70E 

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/07/25/google-to-seos-designers-advertising-agents-you-are-back-on-the-map/

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2027923

https://plus.google.com/110880018002403525445/posts/3ysuLuCwm6L

Promo Code

October 22nd, 2015

Promo Code

. . ★ . . :: Use Promotional Discount Code: DHDFNR for 25% savings throughout my store now through 01 November 2015 :: . . ★ . . http://www.sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com

beautiful gif images Colour

September 6th, 2015










































*`*.☆ ♥ ☆.** Mele Kalikimaka *`*.☆ ♥ ☆.*`*







Tutu To Two

April 30th, 2015



After taking a shot with his bow, the archer took a bow.
I had to console my mom after I sold her console.
No one could believe how much produce our garden could produce.
Theres no dessert in the desert for those who desert.
The family was hoping their live plants would live.
Theres simply no use for something you cant use.
They were going to project the project at the local theater.
Its not easy to resume work without a resume.
The band booked the studio to record their record.
Everyone knows its not lady-like to intimate with intimate apparel.
The salesman was standing so close it was impossible to close the door.
The rebel seized the opportunity to rebel.
The artist worked for hours to perfect the nearly perfect work.
The sport agents resigning affected the stars resigning.
The incense incensed the customers.


- - more dittograms - -


Roadkill Rick usually took carrion carry-on when he flew.

On breezy days Gale couldnt find stationary stationery for his novel novel.

In the Vatican, a popery potpourri comes from sealing ceiling art.

For a Roma aroma, the popery sent the potpourri scent.

When playing his trombone, Count Sheep read red notes but blew blue tunes.

The new ewe knew you.

Although she cant cant, she certainly can can-can.

A noise annoys the principle principal.

Lulu had had a notion that that herd heard a grisly grizzly.

The rude roomers rued rumors.

Cliff Hanger could bear bare bear barely.

A calligrapher is a write wright who can write right after submitting to the right write wright rite.

My son read bread beats sun-red bred beets for nutrition.

Paul Bunyan threw a gnu whole through a new hole.

Turn a round dear tern around deer.

One idol heroine won idle heroin.

We knew wee new hair hides hare hides.

Foursome dears meet for some deers meat.

That hour, we knew that our wee new wood parish would perish.

A private private is a shy soldier


A maize maze

A bolder boulder is the rock of rocks

mean mien

major major

packed pact

night knight

rain reign rein






the new ewe knew you
tutu to two


. the golden boy thrown one ground stood tall . .

Calendars

March 19th, 2015

The 2015 Hawaii Calendar is here available now filled with colourful tropical flowers on Maui to brighten your day with Aloha from our beautiful island home throughout the year. All images are available as prints and offered on additional products as well . . .

Hawaii Tropical Flowers 2015 by Sharon Mau
Hawaii Tropical Flowers 2015 by Sharon Mau by sharonmau
See here for Calendars


http://www.zazzle.com/sharonmau*

http://www.zazzle.com/hawaii_tropical_flowers_2015_by_sharon_mau-158775077235340197

Love the new look

February 7th, 2015

. . ★ . . :: 'ae . . it is gorgeous . . noticed it this morning . . and see that it has already evolved this evening . .. with the appearance of a "flow" very similar to what we have on other sites . . . . it is so much more professional . . visually and aesthetically appealing . love the new logo . tabs . and fonts as well . . . Overall the new design is a beautiful new look . . . I love it . . more images displayed on each page in my gallery as well . best of all they are displayed in their true dimensions . . ie. square or rectangular standard dimensions . huge thank you shout out to Sean . . it is fabulous :: . . ♥ . . . . ♥ . . ★ . .


Sharon Mau
06 February 2015
2302HST
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sharon-mau.html

google Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager

January 21st, 2015

@google #google #GooglePlus @_googleplus Public Policy Blog Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2013/04/plan-your-digital-afterlife-with.html

My favourite gifs

January 12th, 2015
























This list is a work in progress

Mele Kalikimaka

December 19th, 2014




Mele Kalikimaka -- Merry Christmas









Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself -- Norman Wesley Brooks -- Let Every Day Be Christmas


























Create Your Own Online Newspaper

December 18th, 2014

http://paper.li/

Hawaii State Parks Link

December 13th, 2014

http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/index.cfm

Merry Christmas Everyone

December 13th, 2014

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou -- Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone -- Wishing you a joyous holiday season :)




Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself -- Norman Wesley Brooks -- Let Every Day Be Christmas

Christmas Greetings

December 13th, 2014

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou -- Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone -- Wishing you a joyous holiday season :)




Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself -- Norman Wesley Brooks -- Let Every Day Be Christmas










Bohemian Style Artist Studio Hawaii

November 12th, 2014

http://www.houzz.com/projects/413671/my-houzz-chic-boho-style-for-a-hawaii-apartment

Excellent floral photo reference

November 1st, 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Wikipedia:Featured_pictures/Plants/Flowers

Hurricane Ana Maui Hawaii 18 October 2014

October 18th, 2014

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2150591 US National Weather Service Honolulu & Central Pacific... Hurricane Ana has arrived in Makawao . . right now we have rain but no wind . the air is still with little or no breeze so the rain is falling straight down and not lateral which is good . . the air is dense and thick and the atmosphere is heavy . although it is 1052am it is very dark with heavy cloud cover . . I'll sign off now and try and keep in touch later today . . . "The Central Pacific Hurricane Center continues to monitor Hurricane Ana as it continues to move south of the Hawaiian Islands this weekend. Maximum sustained winds are near 80 miles per hour, with higher gusts. Little change is strength is expected today, followed by gradual weakening on Sunday. Tropical Storm Watches are in effect for the western Hawaiian islands" . all of our ohana and friends on Maui and our neighboring islands . be safe . sending you much love and Aloha . . Sharon and Jacob . . . http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/tcpages/archive/2014/WEB_TCPCP5.CP022014.021.1410182027.php

The Universe is an Expression of Love

August 12th, 2014

:: "The Universe is an expression of Love"

:: "I was a hidden treasure and I longed to be known, so I created both worlds, the visible and the invisible, in order that my hidden treasure of generosity and loving kindness would be known" ::


From Song of the Open Road -
Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading me wherever I
choose.
Henceforth I ask not good fortune, I myself am good for-
tune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need
nothing;
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road - Walt Whitman
https://archive.org/stream/quotablepoemsana007889mbp/quotablepoemsana007889mbp_djvu.txt


:: "Whether your destiny is glory or disgrace, Purify yourself of hatred and love of self. Polish your mirror; and that sublime Beauty From the regions of mystery Will flame out in your heart As it did for the saints and prophets. Then, with your heart on fire with that Splendor, The secret of the Beloved will no longer be hidden." :: Jami, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert' ::

:: "He Pua Laha'ole" :: "a flower not common" :: "Ulu Wehi" :: "beautifully adorned" :: :: "Aloha":: "Sharon Mau 09 April 2011 Copyright - All Rights Reserved"

http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com/featured/he-pua-lahaole-ulu-wehi-aloha-sharon-mau.html

On The Subject Of Global Autocorrect Capitalization Feature

July 15th, 2014

. . just a note to let you know I saw your posting and understand . . I feel the same way . . so a bit of empathy here for you . . I asked Sean for this long ago and it seems we'll never have it unfortunately . . although I wish with all my heart he would make it happen . . I would like my titles to appear exactly as I publish them . I add my title . description and keywords within my metadata so when I upload it is autofill in those fields . often I must edit the title to remove the diacritic letters . . it would be awesome if we could use special characters such as umlaut and okina . . as well as other diacritics for we all know in linguistics the sound is completely altered without it . . and often as well it is purely aesthetic . . But I do understand why we cannot . . . for example with this title as I intend it :: Hau'oli ka lā Aloha kākou :: . . it posts as :: Hau'oli ka la Aloha kakou :: . . because I must remove the okina and the kahako which is a macron. Without the okina and the kahako in the Hawaiian language it will be a completely different sound and/or meaning . . So there is not much I can do about that in the title . . . yet most importantly is the URL . .
with the diacritics

Hau'oli ka lā Aloha kākou

appears in the URL address as

/hauoli-ka-l-aloha-kkou

you see it completely dropped the diacritic letters and skips two letters 'a' in the address . . which isn't correct either . . so I must spell it in English in the title for the URL to be correct . . thus for best search results it becomes :/hauoli-ka-la-aloha-kakou :: . . not the same at all but that's the way it has to be . . . .

. . wish for the first letter in all the words on titles to not be automatically converted to uppercase . that should be no problem and Sean could do it if he wants to . . some or all words in the title are intended to be all lower case and it would be nice if the system didn't change it and would simply publish our titles exactly as we publish them . . .

. . it seems to be a global autocorrect capitalization feature which we are unable to disable . . . .


Consistency in typography appearance across the board on the website may be the reason for that but with respect for our individual artistic expression it is irrelevant . .
It would be lovely if we had the freedom to publish our work with a title exactly as we intended . . . even if we are unable to use diacritics it would be good to have all lower case if we want . . .


So . . just think . it could be worse . . society6 capitalizes them ALL and converts all the letters in our titles to uppercase . . how annoying is that . . I detest all uppercaps . . . in type it is like shouting . . .

. 'ae . . . so it is what it is . . . . my only solution to all this is to repeat the title in my description . . that might work for you as well Dan . . . at least then our viewers may see our title as we intend it to be . it won't interfere with our URL address for the image . . and the description area is similar to an iframe so while we may not include images video examples pull outs drop down and all those variables . . we may in fact also add our diacritic symbols in our text on our description so when the image goes to print it will be there . so that is a good thing . . . . . . my question on that is how many characters are included on the description . . this would be a good thing to know . . .

Aloha . . :)

Sharon

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1779205&targetid=2000584#2000584

Inspiration

May 16th, 2014

. interesting concept . . ♥ . .
http://mashable.com/2014/05/15/madesquare-app-launch/



. nice link for creative inspiration . . love her work . . . ♥ . .

http://www.sarahgardnerphotography.com/#!stock-images/c1ukh

2014 Calendar Templates

January 12th, 2014

http://www.etsy.com/listing/157571160/sale-11x14-calendar-template-calendar?ref=related-3

Shark Attacks on Maui

December 3rd, 2013

Aloha everyone . . . it is Humpback Whale season in the Hawaiian Islands and for most everyone who lives on Maui and throughout the Hawaiian Islands we know this is not a good time to go swimming in the ocean or for underwater photography or snorkeling . . the whales are mating and calving . . the magnificent and very beautiful central North Pacific population of Humpback Whales migrate between Alaska where they feed during summer and return each year to the Hawaiian Islands to calve and breed . . They are here and we will be having increased sightings in the coming weeks . .

"The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, which is jointly managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Hawai`i, lies within the shallow warm waters surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands and constitutes one of the world's most important humpback whale habitats. " read more on http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/

Humpback Whale - Megaptera novaeangliae, means "great wings of New England" and the Hawaiian name for them is Koholā
Indigenous (migratory). Status: Endangered Species

It is a well known fact that sharks are more present at this time of the year and in the past couple of days there have been several attacks on Maui . . it is heartbreaking to learn of those who have have injured and/or died

Maui County police identified a kayak fisherman killed in a shark attack Monday morning
"he was fishing with artificial lures to attract baitfish when his dangling right foot was bitten by a shark, according to a Department of Land and Natural Resources news release . . . This is the eighth shark attack off Maui this year. On Friday, a Paia woman was bitten while snorkeling in South Maui.
The woman was snorkeling about 30 yards offshore when she was bitten by the shark, leaving her with a cut on her shin and a 6-inch-long wound on her calf. The attack at Keawakapu Beach was about three miles north of White Rock, where 20-year-old visitor Jana Lutterrop was bitten by a shark Aug. 14. She lost her right arm in the attack and died a week later of her injuries." "Warning signs were posted to advise the public to remain out of the water from Ahihi Bay to Mākena Landing."

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/234128381.html


03 December 2013
Chris Sugidono states: - a visiting kayaker from Washington state died Monday morning after part of his right leg was bitten off by a shark about a half-mile off Little Beach in Mākena state and county officials said.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/02/21725887-kayak-fisherman-dies-after-shark-attack-off-maui-coast
http://www.mikesevernsdiving.com/maui-whale-season.html
http://mauinow.com/tag/shark-attack-maui/


quote: "Question: What is the likelihood of being attacked by a shark in the waters of Hawaii?
Answer: Very unlikely. In 2012, 7.99 million visitors came to the islands and there were just ten shark attacks in Hawaii (the highest since 2002). In 2008 there were only two attacks and just three attacks each year in 2009, 2010 and 2011. So far in 2013, there have been twelve attacks with eight off of Maui. Unfortunately, the victim an August 2013 attack off of Maui died in the days following the attack, as did the victim of December 2013. Prior to those attacks, the last fatal shark attack in Hawaii occurred in April 2004.

Answer: There are several possible explanations. First, there are forty species of sharks found in the waters of Hawaii. This is their natural environment. Of these eight are commonly seen near shore, including the Sandbar, Reef Whitetip. Scalloped Hammerhead and Tiger Shark. The waters of Hawaii are home to many of the prey of various shark species, such as monk seals, sea turtles and baby humpback whales. Humans are not a natural prey of sharks. It is likely that when an attack occurs, the human is mistaken for another prey. Sharks are also attracted to waters frequented by fishing boats, which often trail fish remains and blood.
(source - Hawaiian Lifeguard Association)

Question: What can one do to reduce the risk of being attacked by a shark?
Answer: By learning more about sharks, and using a little common sense, the risk of injury can be greatly reduced. The State of Hawaii Shark Task Force recommends the following measures to reduce the risk of being bitten by a shark:

Don't swim alone.
Swim in guarded areas.
Avoid swimming at dusk.
Don't swim with bleeding wounds.
Avoid murky water.
Don't wear bright jewelry or high contrasting colours.
Refrain from excessive splashing.
Don't swim if sharks are known to be present.
Be alert if turtles and fish are fleeing the area.
Remove speared fish from the water.
(source - State of Hawaii Shark Task Force)" source: http://gohawaii.about.com/od/mauiocean/a/shark_attacks.htm


. . . . also if you would like to learn and understand the cultural significance of sharks with Hawaiians read this wonderful article - The Aumakua - Hawaiian Ancestral Spirits by Herb Kawainui Kne http://www.hawaiisharks.com/pdf/APaperbyHerbKane.pdf

"Of the 11 known species of hammerhead, three can be dangerous to humans: the scalloped, great, and smooth hammerheads.
For Hawaiians sharks are considered to be gods of the sea, also known as aumakua, protectors of humans, and cleaners of excessive ocean life. Some of these sharks are believed to be family members who died and have been reincarnated into shark form. However, there are sharks that are considered man-eaters, also known as niuhi. These sharks include great white sharks, tiger sharks, and bull sharks. The hammerhead shark, also known as mano kihikihi, is not considered a man-eater or niuhi; it is considered to be one of the most respected sharks of the ocean, an aumakua. Many Hawaiian families believe that they have an aumakua watching over them and protecting them from the niuhi. The hammerhead shark is thought to be the birth animal of some children. Hawaiian children who are born with the hammerhead shark as an animal sign are believed to be warriors and are meant to sail the oceans. It is extremely rare for hammerhead sharks to pass through the waters of Maui, but many Maui natives believe that when the hammerhead sharks pass by, it is a sign that the gods are watching over the families, and the oceans are clean and balanced.. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerhead_shark

Sharks
Hawaiian Name: Manō
Indigenous
http://www.hawaiianencyclopedia.com/sharks.asp



. . with deepest condolences to those who have been injured and for the families who have lost loved ones . . . .

. . be safe and aware . Aloha . . . .

Sharon Mau
03 December 2013
Maui Hawaii

2014 Maui Hawaii Calendar

September 23rd, 2013

http://www.zazzle.com/2014_maui_hawaii_custom_printed_calendar-158699228809191370

HAWAII MAGAZINE 15th Annual Photo Contest

April 18th, 2013

http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/pdfs/2013_photo_contest.pdf

How to Protect Your Photography Online

April 15th, 2013

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-protect-your-photography-online/

Journey with Spirit

January 13th, 2013

We are busy with the luxury of things.
Their number and multiple faces bring
To us confusion we call knowledge. Say:
God created the world, pinned night to day,
Made mountains to weigh it down, seas
To wash its face, living creatures with pleas
(The ancestors of prayers) seeking a place
In this mystery that floats in endless space.
God set the earth on the back of a bull,
The bull on a fish dancing on a spool
Of silver light so fine it is like air;
That in turn rests on nothing there
But nothing that nothing can share.
All things are but masks at Gods beck and call,
They are symbols that instruct us that God is all - Attar - Invocation - from The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid ud-Din Attar



Photo Copyright Sharon Mau
http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com/
This is a Rights-Managed Image protected by copyright.
My images do not belong to the public domain.
Images may not be reproduced, downloaded, distributed, transmitted, copied, reproduced in derivative works, displayed, published or broadcast by any means or in any form without prior written consent from the artist Sharon Mau - Mahalo



Cosmic Love
Bright, flowing and free, love transcends all pain of the heart.
The universe, filled with the love of Spirit, knows me well.
Daily greetings from the sun, nightly nods from the moon,
I am a part of the great cycle of life.
As the tree sprouts to life, so do I.
As the flower grows, so do I.
As the leaves fall to the earth once more, so do I.
Nature, Spirit and I are one in the never ending dance of love.



Blissful Independence
I was born to express the freedom of Spirit.
When I reach out to you with love,
I feel this cosmic energy stream freely through me.
When I release painful burdens from the past,
I am the flowing water of the river and not a rock on its shores.
When I live in joy,
I create heaven on Earth.
The blissful independence of God lives through me.



Intuition
I see the physical world, but I look deeper.
I hear words spoken, but I listen deeper.
I feel the impact of actions,
but I sense deeper.
I know many things about life, but I discern deeper.
I am an observer of life, noticing patterns, choices, and paths.
I am a participant of life, living in the heart of the moment.
I am a discerner of life, perceiving the underlying love empowering all moments.
I look for love, allowing it to guide my way.



Illumination
I seek Gods inspiration,
the seed of creativity.
I search for wisdom,
the power of new growth.
I look within to discern lifes truths.
I nurture hope, the divine expectation.
I have faith in life everlasting.
I know love, Gods eternal promise.
I am blessed on the path of illumination.


For the Love of Spirit
I open my heart to Spirit.
I trust in the love of Spirit.
I know that Spirit moves through me for my highest and best good.
I follow Spirit in each and every step I take.
I am Spirit in action.


Journey with Spirit
We journey into the heart of God,
Soaring on the wings of Spirits love.
Embracing our forgotten memories,
We remember Gods guiding hand.
Spirits light leads us home.


Who I Am
I am the light of peace.
I am the breath of Spirit.
I am the strength of a thousand horses.
I am the courage of a new day.
I am the love of a child.
I am who I am.


In the Silence
In the silence, I turn to you.
My inner heart, my inner mind knows the truth.
I am whole, complete in every way.
I am love, greeting all I meet with open arms.
I am silence, rich with simplicity.
In the silence, I remember these words:
Let all who come to me feel my spirit touching their soul.





Remembering
I remember who I am.
I use my power for peace.
I am blessed with spiritual vision.
I accept my inner truth.
I act in good faith.
I see love in all things.
When I remember, I create heaven here and now.

Aloha Have a Great Weekend What Time is it

January 12th, 2013



The World Clock - Time Zones

Free World Clock for Your Website


Make your own time zone clock and post it here :))

HAWAII STANDARD TIME
HAST



WAILUKU
HAST


Marketing Options

December 15th, 2012




15 December 2012
Sharon Mau

On the subject of Behind the Scenes - Control Panel - Marketing options on fineartamerica and artistwebsites



On fineartamerica - Behind the Scenes - control panel under Marketing currently we have the following options:

Facebook Applications
Slideshows & Widgets
E-Mail Campaigns
Jobs
Artwork Page Sponsorships
Ordering Catalogs
Affiliate Program
Discount Codes
Sharing Buttons
Limited Time Promotions

And currently on fineartamerica we have the following sharing buttons

Facebook
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Google +
Pinterest



On artistwebsites - Behind the Scenes - control panel under Marketing currently we have the following options:


Facebook Applications
Slideshows & Widgets
E-Mail Campaigns
Ordering Catalogs
Affiliate Program
Discount Codes


On artistwebsites among other things we have no "Limited Time Promotions" nor do we have "Sharing Buttons"




I would like for all marketing options on both websites to be the same
If Sean does not want to include Jobs and Artwork Page Sponsorships on artistwebsites I completely understand but I do want the Sharing Buttons and Limited Time Promotions


For those marketing options I choose to enable or disable on fineartamerica I would like to also be in effect by default on artistwebsites . .

Say, for example, on sharing buttons, if I choose to have the pinterest option disabled on fineartamerica I do not want anyone to be able to pin my images on my artistwebsites gallery . . Aloha


Create Symbols and Emoticons using your Keyboard

November 17th, 2012

. ╰⊰✿ . . Aloha . . a visitor asked how to create symbols in our comments and this is my reply . . thank you so much for your kind comment . in answer to your inquiry . . to create symbols similar to emoticons using your keyboard you use your ALT key holding it down while pressing another key or series of keys on your number pad . . for example ALT+3 = ♥ . . ✿⊱╮. . . learn more . . here is an excellent resource on how to create symbols and characters using your keyboard . . Aloha . . http://www.wikihow.com/Type-Symbols-Using-the-ALT-Key

Customer Base Suggestion Sharon Mau 16 November 2012

November 16th, 2012


. . @ Charles K . . you have every right to your own opinion as we all do . as this is a discussion list . . a thread for members to post suggestions .
. . So . . I feel no one would be placed in a defensive posture for making your suggestions . . . . wishing you a good day . .

. . @ Diane T . . 'ae . yes . . I understand what you are saying . . what you are suggesting about commenting without being registered to FAA is similar to how we post on forums on msn and other websites and pages . . . often perhaps through our link through facebook or a blog or some other platform . . Yet . . If someone were not required to be logged in or registered with Fine Art America to post a comment on our work it would probably open it up for discussion forums and everywhere else we communicate in text and comments on this site so I wonder however if that would not open us up for all kinds of problems and security issues without a way for Sean (our owner) to track someone who spammed us through comments or some other such negative impact . . . . Also on another note personally I believe perhaps that is why sometimes we don't have a comment on our work from our buyer perhaps because the customer is shopping and making a purchase yet is not a member of Fine Art America . . just a thought . .

. . @ Lynn P . . perhaps we are not able to upload an image from our computer into a discussion thread on the forum because it would take up too much space on the bandwidth . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth_(computing) . . don't know if I am right about this but that's my guess . . .

. . @ Ron J . . . on the subject of of a customer list . . again . I feel it is a good idea and I second your suggestion . . as I stated above I've always wanted this so we may create a customer base hopefully for repeat sales . . . it would be nice if it was a confidential list included in our "Behind the Scenes" stats . There are several pro photographers here on Maui who have asked me if we have this capability of a customer contact list for generating a customer base intended for targeting repeat sales and customer loyalty yet have not set up a portfolio here because we do not . . So I will expand on my thoughts on this subject . .


begin quote
"The customer base is the group of customers and/or consumers that a business serves. In the most situations, a large part of this group is made up of repeat customers with a high ratio of purchase over time. These customers are the main source of consumer spending. In many cases, the customer base is considered the business's target market, where customer behaviors are well understood through market research or past experience. All actions the company takes would be through consideration of its customer base. . . All businesses begin with no customers. These start-ups begin with an abstract idea that slowly evolves into something someone will buy. As these products evolve from abstract ideas into primitive objects that are then further refined, the business that created the product begins to gain customers. The satisfied customers become the repeat buyers and core customer of the company. This is the process that creates the customer base. The main buyers of a company are rarely set in stone. Most often, successful start-ups begin with low-end or downmarket customers with low income and low costs. As the products or services that are being bought are polished and remade, a company gains higher-end customers who gain interest in the product as it reaches higher levels of functionality, use, and/or value of some kind. As the shift to these higher priority customers continue, they begin to be a larger source of income for the company, and slowly become the main base whom the business lends the most importance. This process, of moving from low-end customers to more expensive and more profitable customers, is known as upstreaming, and is an integral part of the theory of disruptive innovation. Businesses work very competitively to keep their core market intact. The sellers will research their buyers to increase customer awareness. Keeping products customer oriented has become so huge a priority, in fact, that it has become a large focus of business schools to teach all types of business administrators, from manager to marketer, to keeping the customer in mind for the improvement and creation of sellable products" end quote . . reference source Wikipedia . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_base

From this reference the most important aspects of creating a customer base are clearly beneficial for those of us who are trying to build and develop our business . . Most important points for me on this subject are:

quote
1) The satisfied customers become the repeat buyers and core customer of the company [ie. . the company is me, or the company is you, whoever the member is that the buyer is purchasing from in this case is the "company"]

2) The sellers will research their buyers to increase customer awareness. Keeping products customer oriented has become so huge a priority, in fact, that it has become a large focus of business schools to teach all types of business administrators, from manager to marketer, to keeping the customer in mind for the improvement and creation of sellable products.

"Throughout the lifespan of one company, the people that are being sold to are studied so that they can be provided with more attractive products or services. The main market doing the buying is, of course, that companys consumer base. Analyzing and understanding such customers is the main method of keeping them, and is why most assets are poured into Research and Development (R&D)." end quote by Wikipedia .

. There are many valid resources for referencing and defining this subject yet there is no better way of saying it . . I would like to have a customer base .

I propose in our Behind the Scenes stats where we currently view our

Balance, Sales, Purchases, Payment Information, Tax Information


Perhaps along with the sale under the Sales tab where we see subcategories for

Date: Image: Configuration: Customer Location: Price: x Total:

. . there would be added a reference or a link for contacting the customer who purchased it .
We don't need to see their Name, Address, Phone Number or any other identifying personal information . that information could be held securely for the buyer as absolutely confidential .

Where we currently see Customer Location as only the name of the city and state or borough or country, we may have a new link similar to the hyperlink we have on our portfolio homepage near our biography . . where we see, such as on mine,

Sharon Mau - Fine Artist
Member Since: 04/03/2010
Add to Watch List
Send Private Message
Join E-Mail List
Visit Website
Contact

The Contact link is what I am referring to . . it could be a confidential Contact link (meaning one where the sender cannot see the private email address of the recipient . . it is private, one that we could utilize which would arrive in the customer's personal email inbox where we could send a thank you note or other professional message and the customer would then have the option and choice to respond to us or not . .

Just as we have with our Contact link . . (when messages arrive in our personal email inbox it reveals the senders email address to us . . We may choose to ignore it thereby preserving and protecting our privacy and our confidential email address by not revealing it in a reply, or we may respond to the message with a reply thereby revealing our confidential email address for the purpose of developing a more personal connection with our buyer thereby establishing a professional customer base. . (It is an option)

For the same reason our buyer could choose whether or not to respond to our contact, if they choose to remain anonymous they would not respond. If they choose to respond and establish a connection they would reply. . . If we wish, for this purpose, we could set up a personal business email account for this site that would be separate from our personal private email account . . such as gmail, etc. . . Yet the most important point is that there would be a method established here on Fine Art America enabling us (the members) to contact our customers for an opportunity to establish an affinity/rapport with our customers for an opportunity to establish a customer base for the purpose of general feedback, special requests, customer satisfaction, suggestions for new material, etc. and repeat sales . . .

Copyright Symbol

October 17th, 2012

"In addition to proper application of the various copyright symbols and trademark symbols you will often have to fine-tune them for the best visual appearance. Learn how to type the copyright, trademark, and registered tradmark symbols found in most standard Mac and Windows fonts.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: A few seconds to type or code copyright symbol.
Here's How:

Create the TM trademark symbols using Option-2 on the Mac. Under Windows, create TM trademark symbols using ALT 0153 (hold down the ALT key and type 0153 on the numeric keypad).
Create the circled C copyright symbols using Option-G on the Mac. Under Windows, create circled C copyright symbols using ALT 0169.
Create the circled R registered trademark symbols using Option-R on the Mac. Under Windows, create circled R registered trademark symbols using ALT 0174.
Create TM trademark symbols in HTML with & #0153; (ampersand-no space, pound sign, 0153, semi-colon) or with Unicode: & #8482; (no spaces).
Create circled C copyright symbols in HTML with & #0169; (ampersand-no space, pound sign, 0169, semi-colon).
Create circled R registered trademark symbols in HTML with & #0174; (ampersand-no space, pound sign, 0174, semi-colon).
In some fonts the copyright symbols may need to be reduced in size to keep from overpowering adjacent text.
The TM trademark symbols are superscripted. If you prefer to create your own trademark symbols, type the letters T and M then apply superscript style in your software.
The circled C copyright symbols should be on the baseline, not superscripted.
The circled R registered trademark symbols can be on the baseline or superscripted (raised slightly and reduced in size).
If unable to see certain copyright symbols or if they display incorrectly, check your font. Some fonts may not have some of these copyright symbols mapped to the same position.
The circled P copyright symbol for sound recordings is not standard in most fonts. It can be found in some specialty fonts or extended characters sets. Although not yet widely supported in Web browsers, & #8471; (with no space) is the Sound Recording Copyright Symbol in Unicode ℗.
Tips:

For copyright symbols that rest on the baseline, try matching the size to the x-height of the font.
For copyright symbols that are superscripted, reduce their size to about 5560% of your text size.
. In some browsers some of these copyright symbols may not appear correctly depending on the fonts installed.
Windows users can use Windows Character Map to locate the copyright symbols in any font.
Although often used on the Web and in print, (c) c in parentheses is not a legal substitute for the circled c copyright symbol.


Correct Form For The Copyright Symbol

The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all the following three elements:
The copyright symbol (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr."
The year of first publication of the work. In the case of compilations or derivative works incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the compilation or derivative work is sufficient. The year date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article.
The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner.
Example: copyright 2002 John Doe

The or "C in a circle" notice or symbol is used only on visually perceptible copies." Information Source: about.com Desktop Publishing

More information on Copyright Symbol here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol

Keywords and Tags suggestions

August 10th, 2012

When building your consideration sets for generating traffic to your portfolio it is important to always use essential keywords and to add your name to your tags/keywords along with your image title and good accurate descriptive keywords . .
In the IPTC keyword field there are 500 characters allowed including spaces . . Here on FAA it is best to separate tags by commas .
Use plurals as well if you wish . .
If it is a floral add the common name/s as well as the Kingdom . Order . Family . Genus . Species and Binomial name . . . along with the colour . .
Consider if you were conducting a search on google on a specific subject what words would you type into the search engine to find it . . use those words . . .
Utilize historical tags along with conceptual . commercial . location . literal . colloquial . attributes . interactions .
If it is a photograph add the tag/s photograph . photography . macro . fine art photography . black and white photography . long exposure . . . etc . . as it applies . . .
For search engine optimization describe your image . . and then use selective words with relevancy from your description as your tags . .

Online Contest National TV Photo Contest

May 16th, 2012

The Lotus Flower
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=1468031

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=992241

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=2135479

Fine Art Photography Links

April 21st, 2012

contents
pages
links
Page Link
C2 http://corbingurkin.com
3 http://www.blackriverimaging.com
4 http://WPPIonline.com
4 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
4 http://WPPIenEspanol.com
4 http://www.photoplusexpo.com
4 mailto:rangefinder@halldata.com
5 http://www.sigmaphoto.com
5 http://Twitter.com/Sigma_Photo
5 http://Facebook.com/sigmacorporationofamerica
6 http://www.99facesofoccupywallst.org
7 http://www.forbeyon.com
8 http://www.fujifilm-xpro1.com
10 mailto:lwendle@pdnonline.com
10 http://wppionline.com
10 http://pdnonline.com
11 http://PlusIII.PocketWizard.com
11 http://PocketWizard.com
12 http://www.chimeralighting.com
12 http://www.facebook.com/chimeralighting
15 http://nikonusa.com/D4
16 http://www.millerslab.com/luxeframes
18 http://BehindTheShutter.com
19 http://BehindTheShutter.com
20 http://www.bayphoto.com/metalprints
20 http://www.bayphoto.com
21 http://joephotoweddings.com
21 http://bayphoto.com
22 http://www.higherpictures.com
22 mailto:jack@jackphoto.com
22 http://www.clicgallery.com
22 http://www.foundfolios.com
22 http://www.niksoftware.com
22 http://www.snapseed.com
23 http://www.meridianpro.com
24 http://myphotoexhibits.com
24 http://www.tamron.com
24 http://www.myphotoexhibits.com
24 http://www.fisheyeconnect.com
24 http://www.FundySoftware.com
24 http://www.adobe.com
24 http://www.hasselblad.com
24 http://PaintboxTV.com
24 http://www.paintboxtv.com/store
25 http://www.chromaluxe.com
26 http://www.wppionlinecontest.com
27 http://www.phaseone.com/en/Workshops-Training/PODAS/Workshops.aspx
27 http://www.blissbooks.net
27 http://www.velvetraptor.com
27 http://www.schneideroptics.com
27 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
29 http://www.acilab.com
30 http://www.iprolens.com
30 mailto:john@johnrettie.com
31 http://www.retouchup.com
33 http://www.visionart.com
33 http://www.visionartforum.com
33 mailto:visionart@visionart.com
34 http://www.thamesandhudson.com
35 http://www.fundysoftware.com
35 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
37 http://www.jimcornfield.net
37 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
37 http://lensbaby.com/edge80
39 http://www.whcc.com
41 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
43 http://www.daveblackphotography.com
43 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
44 http://www.daveblackphotography.com
44 http://www.eliaswessel.com
44 http://www.fredmarcus.com
44 http://www.timothy-hogan.com
44 http://www.brinkmann.net/products
44 http://www.inovalight.com
44 http://www.radioshack.com
44 http://www.streamlight.com
44 http://www.thegunlight.com
44 http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop-at-the-ranch
44 http://www.kelbytraining.com/course/dblack_lightpaint
45 http://animoto.com/photography
46 http://CNET.com
46 http://DigitalCameraReview.com
46 http://DPReview.com
46 http://Imaging-Resource.com
46 http://PopPhoto.com
47 http://onOneSoftware.com
48 http://spencerboerup.com
49 http://www.blackriverimaging.com
53 http://www.PortraitProfessionalStudio.com
54 mailto:Jacqueline.Tobin@nielsen.com
55 http://AlbumsInc.com
56 http://mpixpro.com/deidrelynn
59 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
61 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
63 http://vimeo.com/14325323
63 http://www.forgela.com
63 http://www.ryanschude.com
63 mailto:prsskinner@bigpond.com
63 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
64 http://www.bayphoto.com
65 http://www.bayphoto.com
67 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
69 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
70 mailto:Jacqueline.Tobin@nielsen.com
70 http://www.kevinkertz.com
70 mailto:kevin@kevinkertz.com
71 http://www.hhcolorlab.com
72 http://www.SimplyStudio.com
73 http://SimplyStudio.com
77 http://WWW.HENSELUSA.COM
78 http://www.rockynook.com/theportrait/ch4/
79 http://www.dynalite.com
81 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
83 http://kenreddingphoto.com
83 http://www.scottcramerphotography.com
83 mailto:dreamcatcherimaging@yahoo.com
83 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
85 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
87 http://www.plumcomm.com
87 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
87 http://vimeo.com/m/37586106
87 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5bYzaLDC3M
89 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
91 http://www.software-cinema.com
91 mailto:montizambert@telus.net
91 http://www.montizambert.com
91 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
93 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
95 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
96 http://kissthegroom.com
97 http://blossom-publishing.com
99 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
100 http://VisualDepartures.com
101 mailto:melissa.kittson@nielsen.com
101 http://WWW.OUTDOORPHOTOEXPO.COM
102 http://www.theicelight.com
102 http://www.henselusa.com
103 http://www.k5600.com
103 http://www.fjwestcott.com
103 http://www.thegunlight.com
103 http://www.rtsphoto.com/rotolight
103 http://www.omegabrandess.com
103 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
103 http://www.phottix.com
104 http://www.omegabrandess.com/Phottix-Odin
104 http://www.promarkbrands.com
104 http://www.broncolor.com
104 http://www.calumetphoto.com
104 http://www.litepanels.com
105 http://www.multiblitzusa.com
105 http://www.manfrotto.com/dado-kit-6-rods
105 http://www.zenfolio.com/ebook
105 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
106 http://www.rangefinderweddingcontest.com
107 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
109 http://rangefinderbacktoschool.com
109 http://Rangefinderonline.com
110 http://www.meetup.com/Renegade-Photo-Shoots-Bay-Area/
111 http://www.paulcbuff.com
111 mailto:info@paulcbuff.com
113 http://www.cru-dataport.com
113 http://www.thecandidframe.com
113 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
113 http://www.facebook.com/speedotronlighting
113 mailto:sales@speedotron.com
115 http://facebook.com/RTSInc
115 mailto:rtsinc@rcn.com
115 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
115 http://www.rtsphot.com
116 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
117 http://BehindtheShutter.com
117 http://www.clikelite.com
117 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
119 http://WWW.PHOTOPLUSEXPO.COM
119 mailto:melissa.kittson@nielsen.com
119 http://photoplusexpo.com/proposals
120 http://BandH.com/catalog
121 http://www.BandH.com
123 http://www.bestfriendsphotocontest.com
124 http://www.picscliq.com
124 http://bronimaging.com/fobadealers
125 http://www.adorama.com
127 http://Adorama.com/learn
127 http://Adorama.com
128 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
129 http://adorama.com/sell
129 mailto:used@adorama.com
130 http://asmp.org/wppi-photoserve-offer
130 http://www.wppionline.com/membership.shtml
130 mailto:arlene.evans@nielsen.com
131 http://cpq.com
131 http://www.meridianpro.com
131 http://www.fullcolor.com/sports
131 http://www.fullcolor.com
131 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
131 http://pacificmount.com
131 http://www.pictobooks.com
131 http://onlinephotofix.com
132 http://www.blackriverimaging.com
132 http://africa-photo-adventures.com
132 http://www.whcc.com
132 http://www.wppionline.com
133 http://www.wppienespanol.com
133 http://www.SpeedlightSolutions.com
133 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
133 http://www.pclwest.com
133 mailto:sales@vistaphotolab.com
133 http://www.vistaphotolab.com
133 http://www.bayphoto.com
133 http://simplycolorlab.com/VividChallenge
134 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
134 http://www.fullcolor.com/picapac
134 http://www.fullcolor.com
134 http://www.visionart.com
134 http://www.visionartforum.com
134 mailto:visionart@visionart.com
134 http://www.LustreColor.com
135 http://studio4sale.xanga.com/
135 http://www.upilab.com
135 mailto:Sales@upilab.com
135 http://WWW.YOUTHSPORTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
135 http://WWW.PicAcademy.com
135 http://web.me.com/lvmegabyte/Ballinphort_Academy/Home.html
135 mailto:Web@photopkg.com
135 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
135 http://www.canvasmount.com
136 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
136 http://www.dennymfg.com
136 http://www.facebook.com/dennymfg
136 http://www.chicagocanvas.com
136 mailto:email@chicagocanvas.com
136 http://www.wppionline.com
137 http://www.rangefindermag.com
137 http://www.rangefinderonline.com
138 http://www.pollychandler.com
138 http://www.davidcarol.com
138 mailto:David@davidcarol.com
C3 http://WWW.MILLERSLAB.COM/SPORTSANDEVENTS/OVERVIEW
C4 http://Profoto.com/US/Cantrell
C4 http://Profoto.com/US

Butterflies on Maui

March 25th, 2012

. Aloha .

. . . . wishing each of you a beautiful day . . I am going to out to work in my garden soon and I am happy most everyone is experiencing spring weather at last . . Here on Maui it is always Spring and that is a good thing . I do enjoy the increased amount of rain we have right now in Makahiki season . . I have been trying to get a photograph of the beautiful butterflies with a blossom on the Orchid trees . . it isn't easy and the tradewinds have been high lately so not such good weather for trying to shoot macros of flowers and insects . . hopefully I will have one soon . . interestingly enough although we do have a few moths we don't have many Pulelehua - Butterflies on Maui .
. only a few varieties . .

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

Citrus Swallowtail - Swallowtail chrysalis



. . Aloha . . :))

Sharon Mau
1131HST
25 March 2012

Interesting reading

March 22nd, 2012

"Poetry Is Not a Luxury"
by Audre Lorde
The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. It is within this light that we form those ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized. This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are, until the poem, nameless and formless-about to be birthed, but already felt. That distillation of experience from which true poetry springs births thought as dream births concept, as feeling births idea, as knowledge births (precedes) understanding.

As we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny, and to flourish within it, as we learn to use the products of that scrutiny for power within our living, those fears which rule our lives and form our silences begin to lose their control over us.

For each of us as women, there is a dark place within where hidden and growing our true spirit rises, "Beautiful and tough as chestnut/stanchions against our nightmare of weakness" and of impotence.

These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through darkness. Within these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep.

When we view living, in the european mode, only as a problem to be solved, we then rely solely upon our ideas to make us free, for these were what the white fathers told us were precious.

But as we become more in touch with our own ancient, black, non-european view of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and therefore lasting action comes.

At this point in time, I believe that women carry within ourselves the possibility for fusion of these two approaches as keystone for survival, and we come closest to this combination in our poetry. I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.

For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.

Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.

As they become known and accepted to ourselves, our feelings, and the honest exploration of them, become sanctuaries and fortresses and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas, the house of difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action. Right now, I could name at least ten ideas I would have once found intolerable or incomprehensible and frightening, except as they came after dreams and poems. This is not idle fantasy, but the true meaning of "it feels right to me." We can train ourselves to respect our feelings, and to discipline (transpose) them into a language that matches those feelings so they can be shared. And where that language does not yet exist, it is our poetry which helps to fashion it. Poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.

Possibility is neither forever nor instant. It is also not easy to sustain belief in its efficacy. We can sometimes work long and hard to establish one beachhead of real resistance to the deaths we are expected to live, only to have that beachhead assaulted or threatened by canards we have been socialized to fear, or by the withdrawal of those approvals that we have been warned to seek for safety. We see ourselves diminished or softened by the falsely benign accusations of childishness, of non-universality, of self-centeredness, of sensuality. And who asks the question: am I altering your aura, your ideas, your dreams, or am I merely moving you to temporary and reactive action? (Even the latter is no mean task, but one that must be rather seen within the context of a true alteration of the texture of our lives.)

The white fathers told us, I think therefore I am; and the black mothers in each of us-the poet-whispers in our dreams, I feel therefore I can be free. Poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary awareness and demand, the implementation of that freedom. However, experience has taught us that the action in the now is also always necessary. Our children cannot dream unless they live, they cannot live unless they are nourished, and who else will feed them the real food without which their dreams will be no different from ours?

Sometimes we drug ourselves with dreams of new ideas. The head will save us. The brain alone will set us free. But there are no new ideas still waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves, along with the renewed courage to try them out. And we must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the heretical actions our dreams imply and some of our old ideas disparage. In the forefront of our move toward change, there is only our poetry to hint at possibility made real. Our poems formulate the implications of ourselves, what we feel within and dare make real (or bring action into accordance with), our fears, our hopes, our most cherished terrors.

For within structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, feelings were meant to kneel to thought as we were meant to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets. And there are no new pains. We have felt them all already. We have hidden that fact in the same place where we have hidden our power. They lie in our dreams, and it is our dreams that point the way to freedom. They are made realizable through our poems that give us the strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare.

If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is a luxury, then we have given up the core-the fountain-of our power, our womanness; we have give up the future of our worlds.

For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt, of examining what our ideas really mean (feel like) on Sunday morning at 7 AM, after brunch, during wild love, making war, giving birth; while we suffer the old longings, battle the old warnings and fears of being silent and impotent and alone, while tasting our new possibilities and strengths.



from "Sister Outsider: essays and speeches" page 36. Published by Crossing Press, 1985.




The holiness of the flower is illustrated by the legend that when the Buddha walked on the earth he left lotuses in his trail instead of footprints.

Read more: Flowers in Mythology - Myth Encyclopedia - Greek, god, story, legend, names, ancient, symbolism, Hindu, Japanese, world http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LxdwT4wAdBUJ:www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Flowers-in-Mythology.html+first+sun+born+of+a+lotus+flower&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us#ixzz1pse7gWym

Makaha Sons Of Niihau Ke Alaula

February 29th, 2012

Ulaino Alaula

E Kumuola, e ku'u tutu,
Poha mai ka 'onohi 'ula,
Wehi 'ia ke alaula,
Mai ka mole, ke kikowaena,

Ha'alulu ke kumu honua,
Haku 'iku'i i ka' 'aina nei,
Wehe 'ia ke alaula,
Hoaka 'O Kamawaipolani,

Hane'ene'e hele i kai.
'Oni me ka muliwai 'ola,
Wehi 'ia ke alaula,
Uhi pono i ke ea,

Puana ke ha'ina,
Ho'okukaulani i hei kapu,
Wehe 'ia ke alaula,
No nahanauna nei.

Oh, Kumuola, My tutu,
Burst with rays of fire,
Opened a flaming pathway
From the source, the center

The foundation trembled,
Echoed throughout the land
Opened a stream of life
Appeared Kamawaipolani

Moving toward the sea,
Onward like a living river
Opened a seaward path
Enveloped in lifes' breath

The story is told,
Restore this sacred domain
Opened the path of life
For the generations of this land


Makaha Sons Of Ni'ihau:Ke Alaula

Happy New Year from Maui Welcome to 2012

January 1st, 2012

Happy New Year Maui . . !! Wow . this island is lit up with fireworks . it is spectacular !!! Wish you could see it . it is fabulous . . Aloha . . welcome to 2012 :))))))))
















. . Aloha my friends . thank you so much . . I wish you every happiness and tremendous success in this brand new year . . may all your dreams come true . . ♥ . . . We have an amazing view from our large lanai . we are on a ridge on the slopes of Haleakala and over the tree tops I can see the ocean on both sides of the island . . I watched beautiful fireworks over Ma'alaea . Pukalani . a bit of Makawao . above us over near Kula . Keokea . and to the north a spectacular show over near Haliimaile . over the tree tops toward Paia and Hookipa was flashing light and colours over the ocean . down in the isthmus there was a fabulous display in Kahului . Wailuku . Waiehu . Waihee . all the way over to Kahakuloa . . it was so cool . I was wishing I could see Hana side . and it seems everyone on the island was laughing . . shouting for joy . coughing from breathing so much of the smoke :) . . singing . . celebrating . I could hear children . so many happy voices being carried through the wind . . it was so much fun I was laughing out loud . I actually had tears in my eyes . . I feel so blessed to be living here on this beautiful island . . and here I was safe and sound in the comfort of my my own home enjoying a delicious cup of coffee looking out over the island and watching the show . it was so much fun . and I could imagine how amazing it would have appeared from the air . . To highlight this spectacular fireworks display we enjoyed a beautiful waxing crescent moon over West Maui tonight . . it was fantastic . . wishing you the very best . Aloha ;))) . . . Sharon Mau


● .  ★ :. °☾ °☆ . ● .★ ¸. ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸★:. ☾ °★
¸. * ● ¸ .Wishing you a Brilliant New Year ° ☆☾ ° . . • ° ★ 
.★ ° :.  . • °  . ★ ° . .☾ °☆ . * ● ¸ . ☾ ° ★ ° :. . ☆
... . ○ ● ¸ . ☆ ° ★ ° . .    . ☾ °☆  . * ● ¸ .   ★ ° :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * .      .   °  .... ● .    ° ☾ °☆  ¸. ● .  ★  ★ ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸  ★  :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * . .  ¸ .   °  ¸. * ● ¸ .    ° ☾ °  ¸. ● ¸ .  ★ ° :.  . • °   .  * :. . ¸ . ● ¸    ★  ★☾ °★ .     .  °☆  . ...● ¸ .   ★ ° .  • ○ ° ★  .        * .  ☾ °  ¸. * ● ¸     ° ☾ °☆  . * ¸.   ★  Once you have seen this, you have been sprinkled with Peace, Love, and Happiness . . Now go forth and sprinkle other people too!!!★ ° . .    . ☾ °☆  . * ● ¸ .   ★ ° :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * .      .   °  . ● .    ° ☾ °☆  ¸. ● .  ★  ★ ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸  ★  :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * . .  ¸ .   °  ¸. * ● ¸ .    ° ☾ °  ¸. ● ¸ .  ★ ° :.  . • °   .  * ° .° ☆¸ . °¸. ● ¸
¸. * ● ¸  ★ ° ☾ °☆  . * ¸. . ★. * :. ★. ¸ . ● ¸ ☆ 




● .  ★ :. °☾ °☆ . ● .★ ¸. ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸★:. ☾ °★
¸. * ● ¸ .Aloha everyone . thank you so much . . Happy New Year ° ☆☾ ° . . • ° ★ .★ ° :.  . • °  . ★ ° . .☾ °☆ . * ● ¸ . ☾ ° ★ ° :. . ☆
... . ○ ● ¸ . ☆ ° ★ ° . .    . ☾ °☆  . * ● ¸ .   ★ ° :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * .      .   °  .... ● .    ° ☾ °☆  ¸. ● .  ★  ★ ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸  ★  :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * . .  ¸ .   °  ¸. * ● ¸ .    ° ☾ °  ¸. ● ¸ .  ★ ° :.  . • °   .  * :. . ¸ . ● ¸    ★  ★☾ °★ .     .  °☆  . ...● ¸ .   ★ ° .  • ○ ° ★  .        * .  ☾ °  ¸. * ● ¸     ° ☾ °☆  . * ¸.   ★  Once you have seen this, you have been sprinkled with Peace, Love, and Happiness . . Now go forth and sprinkle other people too!!!★ ° . .    . ☾ °☆  . * ● ¸ .   ★ ° :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * .      .   °  . ● .    ° ☾ °☆  ¸. ● .  ★  ★ ° ☾ ☆ ¸. ¸  ★  :.  . • ○ ° ★  .  * . .  ¸ .   °  ¸. * ● ¸ .    ° ☾ °  ¸. ● ¸ .  ★ ° :.  . • °   .  * ° .° ☆¸ . °¸. ● ¸
¸. * ● ¸  ★ ° ☾ °☆  . * ¸. . ★. * :. ★. ¸ . ● ¸ ☆ 

Aloha and Happy Holidays to all my family and friends

December 13th, 2011

Mele Kalikimaka -- Aloha mai e all my beloved family and dearest friends,


I wish all of you a beautiful holiday season with much love and Aloha.

It is almost Christmas and I am missing my children so much. I love you so much, you are my legacy and my most treasured gifts in life :))


Between us, together Jacob and I have 10 children and we have 14 mo'opuna (grandchildren).

Here is my message for all our children who we love so much ...


We were all young once. We carry the memories in our hearts of our beauty in our youth and the sweet innocence of our childhood. Many of us long for those carefree days. We remember the sweet puppy breath of our first baby dog. We remember all the days we played outside digging holes in the ground and building forts, making mud pies and climbing trees, riding horseback and singing silly songs, splashing in the rain puddles along the streets, our first bicycle, playing tag, the magic of the colourful lights on a Christmas tree, the sweet aroma filling the house with fresh baked cookies, exploring our world and tasting the earth.... We remember marveling at the beauty of a Butterfly taking flight and landing in our hair. We all remember the first time we sat out on the cool grass in the darkness gazing up at the moon and realised for the first time that it was round, the magic of that moment that we understood the wonder of a planet suspended in the sky. We all remember our fear and sense of wonder the first time we saw the ocean .. the "big water"... we cherish all those precious things and the people we have loved all our lives. This is what we see when we gaze into the mirror. No one can ever really know what is in the heart of another person. While it is true the Universe is always listening, we are the only ones on this earth who really know ourselves. We are known to others by the power of our intentions. We are known and remembered forever by our words and our actions. Words are powerful. Be careful what you say. It is not as important how we look as what is in our hearts, and the words we project, for thought becomes form and that which we focus on we give power to. Always remember the Power of Now. Be here in the moment. Focus on this very moment on this very day, every day, for it is really all you have. We are all human and none of us are perfect. It is important to always try and do our best. We all make mistakes, and when we make them, we must accept our responsibility for our actions and move forward. There are no promises and no guarantees for how much time we have in this life to make a positive difference in the lives of others during our time here on this Earth. Love is the only really important thing in life. So when you look at your parents, when you gaze into your Mother or your Father's eyes, try and see the sweet innocent child in them. It will open your eyes to your past and to your future. No matter how old we are, we are all children.


As the Observer, we all see the child in us. The innocence, the purity and the very essence of our soul is what we see when we look into our own eyes. Just as when I look at my husband, I see and love the boy within the man. Just as when I gaze into the eyes of my own dear children and see my own immortality. In my heart I am still an innocent little girl.


There are many people on this beautiful earth who are so kind and gracious to me. For all my family and friends, I love you so much. And for those who truly love me, for those who really care to know me, for all those who see and recognise my kind and altruistic nature, and for those who have extended their gracious kindness in return, you are the ones I focus on this holiday season. I love my family and friends. I miss my family. I am so grateful for everything, for all the people in this world I love, for my children and my children's children, for all that is good and wonderful and for all the many blessings in my life.... I am thankful.



Aloha mai no, aloha aku

When love is given, love is returned


I wish you L O V E


Aloha wau ia 'oe


Sharon Mau
2010



"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve

and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
" inspirational quotes by Henry David Thoreau


D R E A M and keep smiling ✿(◠‿◠)

*`*.☆ ♥ ☆.** Mele Kalikimaka *`*.☆ ♥ ☆.*`*






*`*.☆ ♥ ☆.** Mele Kalikimaka *`*.☆ ♥ ☆.*`*


























*`*.☆ ♥ ☆.** Mele Kalikimaka *`*.☆ ♥ ☆.*`*









(`.) (`.)
*`.(`.).
`.. Love ..`..☆♡








































"Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself."
~ Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas"
























































Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself -- Norman Wesley Brooks -- Let Every Day Be Christmas




Belles fleurs de couleurs romantiques lumiere naturelle Contest Winners Announcement 14 September 2011

September 14th, 2011






Aloha everyone . our dynamic and very popular group Dimensions has successfully launched and hosted the :: Belles fleurs de couleurs romantiques lumire naturelle :: . . Fine Art Floral Contest . . There are many lovely submissions and I enjoyed viewing them . thank you so much for your interest and participation and for submitting your beautiful imagery . Please join me in congratulating our talented contest winners


First Place Winner: Romantico by Angela Doelling AD DESIGN Photo and PhotoArt

The theme for our lovely floral art contest is "Belles fleurs de couleurs romantiques lumire naturelle" . which translates to - beautiful colours flowers romantic natural light - . . Romantico is an exquisite work of floral art . an elegant beauty which so perfectly represents this contest theme . . soft and romantic with lovely soft shades of pink and a marvelous light masterful touch on layering and textures . it is very beautiful . . congratulations Angela on your First Place winning entry
Art Prints


Second Place Winner: Magical Lotus Flower by Byron Varvarigos

. . it is a wonderful exposure with marvelous balance and no shadows on the petals. a sensational beauty selected for Byron's photographic technical excellence and for the blossom's perfection in nature . . love the complimentary background colours with deep green foliage showcasing this exotic pink Lotus as such a perfect bloom and the natural light and colours are aesthetically appealing . . it is a very beautiful photograph Byron . congratulations on your Second Place winning entry
Photography Prints


Third Place Winner: Waterlilies by Renate Nadi Wesley

. . Love the light dancing on the water shimmering with the marvelous reflections of blue sky and clouds on the surface of the pond . . the wonderful soft shadows and natural colours are peaceful and aesthetically appealing . . marvelous balance with the lily pads and the delicate pink Lotus blossoms . it is poetic . delightful work Renate . soothing and so gentle . the longer I gaze at it the more I see . it is truly a very beautiful work of art Renate . Congratulations on your Third Place winning entry
Photography Prints



As I described in the contest guidelines . the only requirement for this contest is the image must be so beautiful it is breathtaking . . the winning images are truly breathtaking and will be featured on the Dimensions group homepage . thank you everyone and congratulations again to our winners .



Aloha mai e . .


Sharon Mau
1707HST 14 September 2011

Belles Fleurs De Couleurs Romantiques Lumiere Naturelle

August 17th, 2011

belles fleurs de couleurs romantiques lumire naturelle






Aloha . greetings from the beautiful tropical island of Maui . . I invite you to an exciting new contest to submit your finest most beautiful original work . you must own full copyright on your submissions . . images accepted to the Fine Art America Hawaii Group Gallery may be in published in :: Square Format :: or universal :: Dimensions :: . .

. The subjects are:



Floral

Beautiful

Flowers

Romantic Colours

Natural Light




. . Welcome to the :: belles fleurs de couleurs romantiques lumire naturelle :: fine art floral contest . . .


. You are invited to submit your very best . fine art photography all mediums of artistic expression are welcome . . . each artist may submit 3 images . .


. featuring beautiful tropical flowers and a universal display of exquisite botanicals nature's finery from all around the world . . . your beautiful flowers may be from any region in the world . . we welcome only your very best work . the only requirement is the image must be so beautiful it is breathtaking . . . the winners will be featured on the Hawaii group homepage .


Aloha mai e . .


Sharon Mau . .


1259HST
17 August 2011



Iceland link By Michel Rajkovic Photographies

August 14th, 2011

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150104493138594.306351.57880063593

My Groups Open Invitation 03 July 2011

July 3rd, 2011

This is an open invitation to join and submit your finest and most beautiful images to the groups I host as well. With more exposure on FAA we have more opportunities for making sales as well as friendships as we enjoy our international social network, we all share a great passion for fine art and visual communication . after all . that is the primary reason most of us are here . as well as to build a dynamic storefront . develop friendships . market our work and enjoy sales .

There are a wide variety of subjects of interest, literally something for everyone, and each group gallery is specialized. Have a look at the group's Featured Work galleries for an understanding of the content and professional quality I am looking for in each group. As you will see, the new groups I have launched and host on FAA are interesting . some are young groups as I work to campaign them to recruit new members and showcase the very best images FAA has to offer our viewers. I am interested in quality and not quantity . I would rather have a small specialized group with a beautiful fine art gallery than a incomprehensibly large group with thousands of unmoderated images flooding the groups that few people would wish to wade through in search of a fine art print . I am very pleased we now have a moderation queue . . I feature on the groups homepage and once an image is featured it remains on the homepage as a representation of the best of the best in the gallery . as we still do not yet have a group feature gallery

The groups are not only devoted to fine art photography and beautiful well composed candid photography, as well as landscapes, seascapes, florals, ,macro, monotone, tropical art and still life studio work, etc. but also to traditional style fine art paintings, sketches, watercolours, as well as digital art, fine art impressionist style photography, and all other artistic mediums. I actively promote the beautiful works of those artists I admire.

Mouse over the group titles below, they are live links. Click on them and you will navigate to the group homepage. As I said . each group is specialized so please be sure to review the group guidelines


Dimensions
Starz
Square Format
Monotone
Hawaii
Polynesian Connection
Tropical Paradise
Greeting Cards
Still Life Fine Art and Food Photography
Reflections of Beauty
Sensational Sun
Forests
Plumeria
Hibiscus
Americas Rural Urban Wild Free
Wetlands Ponds Lakes and Rivers
Alaska Beyond Your Dreams
Atmospheric Optics
Jolly Olde Saint Nicholas
The Unicorner






Aloha kakou, warm greetings from the beautiful island of Maui

It is wonderful how the activity feed works on Fine Art America .
There are beautiful images streaming through the image feed every day.
I love that about it, and I actually seek out images on this site for that very reason, to view and admire them, learn from them, sometimes purchase them . and if I resonate with it . when I really love the work, I favourite them and may recruit the photographer and/or artist to join and showcase their work in my groups. It is one of the things I love about this virtual community. If I could redesign the image feed it would stream my favourites of those on my watchlist as well as the recent art from the homepage :))

Depending on my interest of the day, often I type random keywords into the search browser on this site and discover the most extraordinary beauty. Often this work is also buried in the back pages of other groups archives with no comments for over two years. I smile to myself when I comment and favourite the work and then find within days it is featured in other groups or on the homepage. It is like breathing life into their work. I think due to the sheer volume of art streaming in on this site the life span for an image on this site is about 7 minutes :)))

We must work to keep our work alive and on the front pages so that it is not buried in the depths of obscurity. The portfolio collections on this site are a tremendous source of creative inspiration and I am constantly amazed, dazzled and inspired by the many brilliant and talented photographers and artists on this site. I have learned so much from other photographers .

My groups are specialized and they are continuously being refined and redefined. I enjoy them all. With the many subjects in content there is quite literally something for everyone. And like many Hosts on Fine Art America, of those groups which I moderate, I have my favourites for the subject and content and Dimensions is on the top of the list. although now that I have launched :: Monotone :: and :: Starz :: this may change . . . I know this may come as a surprise considering I live on the beautiful tropical island of Maui and I host the Hawaii group as well as Tropical Paradise and Polynesian Connection . yet the lovely tropical islands of the world are included within Dimensions as well as many other beautiful cultures and subjects and places around the world. I love them all. Dimensions covers such a wide range of content, subjects and styles, it is a multi-faceted international community with many interests. Some websites have described our groups as little villages and it is so true, the artists are wonderfully inspiring.

For those of you who have featured my work, and for those who have visited me, responded and left wonderful comments and notes on my work, mahalo nui loa, thank you very much. I cherish every single message . Hopefully you will understand about Time and slow wireless connection as so much of my free time online is devoted to viewing and featuring and promoting other artists work. For those who have purchased my work I extend to you my heartfelt gratitude :))

The images you see in the various galleries and featured in all the groups I host are chosen carefully and featured based on their own individual merit with my compliments to you. For me this is not a popularity contest. I look at the image first and then I view the entire portfolio of the Artist. I am familiar with every single member of all my groups, not on a personal level of course, yet I recognise each one and thank you for joining, mahalo for your enthusiasm, and for contributing your beautiful artistic expressions.

There is so much more to moderating and hosting groups than many people realise. I do enjoy it very much. Most of all I enjoy bringing a smile to someones day with a feature . That is the fun part .

After hosting for a couple of years I have learned so much from all of you! This experience has certainly broadened my scope, opened my heart and widened my horizons as well as my interests . My primary goal is to offer talented photographers and artists an additional option to showcase your work. It is my gift of Aloha for you.

I wish for you to know I keep all these things in mind for consideration when moderating images. It is amazing how many members on this site totally ignore the hosts . While it is nice to hear from those members I promote . it is not required to receive a feature . yet I am an artist too and your gracious reciprocity . your wonderful encouragement and positive feedback means so much to me . For me it is purely and simply an honest straightforward altruistic approach and a sincere appreciation for images of beautiful Fine Art and the talented photographers and artists who create them.

Now perhaps you have a better understanding and an idea of what goes on behind the scenes.
As a Host, this is what I do and I love doing it


So, you may look at it this way . Consider the groups as Fine Art Galleries, as specialized wonderful shoppes where you may walk in from the street . enter and browse around at your leisure, very much like a beautiful fine art gallery you would enter in Wailea or Munich, Venezia, Lahaina, Manhattan, Black Stone River Valley, Cape Town, Melbourne, Honolulu, Paia, Aix-en-Provence, Udaipur, London, San Francisco, Sidney, Tempe, Tres Ritos, La Paz, Ontario, Harrisburg, Hilo, Kyoto, Rome, Barcelona, Karachi, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, etc. etc. ....... The only things missing are the complimentary Clos du Mesnil and pupu



Mahalo nui loa and Aloha kakou.
Thank you so much for your kindness, and most of all your creative vision and beautiful art



Aloha mai e, E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe.
May blessings be with you always.

Aloha mai e
Sharon Mau
first published on RB 25 August 2009


Forests group features

June 5th, 2011

. your lovely image is featured in :: Forests :: . congratulations . Whispers of the Enchanted Forests . . votre belle image est aussi dans:: Forts::. flicitations. Chuchotements de la fort enchante

Sensational Sun group features

June 5th, 2011

. it is a beautiful sunset on the marina . be sure to add it to :: Reflections of Beauty :: as well as :: Dimensions :: . you are featured in :: Sensational Sun :: it is a gorgeous image . congratulations . . c'est un beau coucher de soleil sur le port de plaisance . assurez-vous de l'ajouter :: Rflexions de la Beaut :: ainsi que :: Dimensions :: vous tes aussi dans :: Sensational Sun :: c'est une image magnifique . flicitations .

Malamalama O Ka La

June 5th, 2011



Malamalama O Ka La








. thank you so much my darling friend . it was amazing for a moment before the sky was silver . and then suddenly it transformed into this beautiful burnished bronze in a golden glow casting the palms in silhouette in midday with sparkling golden sands . it was a beautiful evening on the beach with a cool tropical breeze over the ocean . I love the sound of the incoming waves as the ocean rocks . the brilliant sunlight was so intense over the horizon I could not gaze directly at it . . I love our beautiful island home . with love and aloha for you my sweet friend . blessings for you . This island is the gathering place of the winds * Time lays no claim upon the earth's spell of wonder * Earth's seasons are like the tides of the sea, ke kai, -- timeless and everlasting * When man has come and gone, the land will remain * Pele makes the land which is shaped by the ocean. * If you want to hear the secret voice of the wind, ka makani . you must first learn to listen * In your time upon this earth . remember to walk with dignity * Whale song calls me in my dreams * The luminescence of the ocean at night glows like Pele's fire upon the sands * The land is perpetuated in life * Whisper to the wind your secret longings Malamalama O Ka Lā enlightenment of the sun .. excerpts from the Hawaiian Book of Days :: Aloha :: Sunset Paako Beach Honuaula Makena Maui Hawaii .. Copyright (C) 2011 Sharon Mau - All Rights Reserved P H O T O G R A P H Y http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com/ http://sharonmau.imagekind.com/store http://www.zazzle.com/ourjrny* http://www.sharonmau.blogspot.com/ Enjoy my work? Join me on my fan page http://www.facebook.com/sharon.mau




English to Welsh translation
. diolch yn fawr fy ffrind darling. roedd yn anhygoel am funud cyn i'r awyr yn arian. ac yna yn sydyn ei drawsnewid i mewn i hyn efydd prydferth llathredig mewn glow euraidd castio y palmwydd yn silwt mewn canol dydd gydag dywod euraidd pefriog. roedd hi'n noson hyfryd ar y traeth gyda trofannol awel oer dros y cefnfor. Rwyf wrth fy modd swn y tonnau sy'n dod i mewn fel mr y creigiau. yr haul wych oedd mor ddwys dros y gorwel y gallwn ni gaze uniongyrchol arno. . Rwyf wrth fy modd ein cartref ynys hardd. gyda chariad a Aloha i chi fy ffrind melys. fendithion i chi. Mae'r tir hwn yn y man casglu y gwyntoedd * Amser yn gosod unrhyw hawliad ar sillafu y ddaear o * rhyfeddod Ddaear yn tymhorau yn debyg y llanw y mr, ke kai, - * bythol a tragwyddol Pan fo dyn wedi mynd a dod, mae'r tir yn parhau Pele * yn gwneud y tir sy'n cael ei lunio gan y mr. * Os ydych chi eisiau clywed llais cyfrinach y gwynt, ka makani. mae'n rhaid i chi yn gyntaf ddysgu i wrando * Yn eich amser ar y ddaear hon. cofiwch i gerdded gyda gn urddas * Whale galwadau i mi yn fy mreuddwydion * Mae ymoleuedd y cefnfor yn tywynnu nos fel Pele's tn ar y * tywod yw'r tir yn parhau mewn bywyd * Whisper i'r gwynt eich cyfrinach longings goleuedigaeth :: Malamalama O Ka La :: ALl Ka o'r Dydd Sul .. dyfyniadau o Lyfr Hawaiian y Dyddiau:: Aloha:: Sunset Beach Paako Honuaula Makena Maui Hawaii .. Hawlfraint (C) 2011 Sharon Mau - Pob Hawl http://www.zazzle.com/ourjrny http://sharonmau.imagekind.com/store Reserved FFOTOGRAFFIAETH http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com/ * http:/ / www.sharonmau.blogspot.com/ Mwynhewch fy ngwaith? Ymunwch mi ar fy dudalen fan http://www.facebook.com/sharon.mau

Copyright Notice Sharon Mau 2011

May 28th, 2011

All images titles and ideas in my galleries are the 'intellectual property' of Sharon Mau and are therefore protected by international copyright laws .

No part may be used without the written authorization of Sharon Mau to include copying, duplicating, publishing, reproducing, storing in a retrieval system or transmitting by any means whatsoever. Purchasing a print conveys only the right to display the print as supplied. It does not convey any right to reproduce, copy or publish the image in any form at any time for any purpose .

Elemental Sorpresa Equilibrio Universale Elemental Balance Universal Surprise

May 22nd, 2011

Elemental Sorpresa Equilibrio Universale


Elemental Balance Universal Surprise


Waikamoi Rainforest

Maui Hawaii





~ Ode To Enchanted Light ~


under the trees light has dropped from the top of the sky . . light like a green latticework of branches . . shining on every leaf . drifting down like clean white sand . . a cicada sends its sawing song high into the empty air . the world is a glass overflowing with water . . poetry by Pablo Neruda


Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's unique style was recognized in 1971 when he won the Nobel prize for Literature

His poems are often passionate odes to love and nature . and he was once noted by the New York Times as the most influential and inventive poet of the Spanish language

222

May 22nd, 2011

IMG_0222 Elemental Sorpresa equilibrio universale Sharon Mau Self Portrait Copyright 22205222011 All Rights Reserved Elemental Balance Universal Surprise Copyright A022222

Square Format Featured Artists

May 22nd, 2011

. . :: Aloha :: . . to all our talented members . . congratulations to our featured artists . . . thank you so much everyone for your interest in the :: Square Format :: group . . . there are many beautiful features on the group homepage . this is your invitation to be inspired . view the features . mingle and meet each other . offer kind encouraging feedback in comments to all our talented artists . get to know each other . . open a dialogue . . we all enjoy receiving positive feedback and encouragement .


. . we share a common interest for the visual impact . creative balance and aesthetic beauty of square vision . . .


. I look forward to seeing your new work . . if you have creative ideas for an upcoming contest . let me know in a reply here .




You are invited to explore the :: Square Format :: group homepage feature gallery . it is filled with visual treasures . . . :))


. . .


:: Aloha ::

Sharon Mau

"What keeps me alive is found between the images, between the words, between thought, the emptiness of feeling, and in the emptiness of the body... there arises the fullness and significance of life... " ~ Basarab Nicolescu



Dimensions
Hawaii
Square Format
Polynesian Connection
Tropical Paradise
Greeting Cards
Still Life Fine Art and Food Photography
Reflections of Beauty
Sensational Sun
Forests
Plumeria
Hibiscus
Americas Rural Urban Wild Free
Wetlands Ponds Lakes and Rivers
Alaska Beyond Your Dreams
Atmospheric Optics
Jolly Olde Saint Nicholas
The Unicorner



Sufi Poetry

May 8th, 2011

"Jelal-ud-Din Rumi has said centuries ago, that before man fire, water, earth, air, are objects; before God they are living beings that work at His command. The meaning of what Rumi has said is that all objects, all places are as gramaphone records: what is put into them they speak; either your soul hears it or your mind, according to your development." - Sufi Master, Hazrat Inayat Khan

"The Stairway of Existence" "We Are not In pursuit of formalities Or fake religious Laws, For through the stairway of existence We have come to God's Door. We are People who need to love, because Love is the soul's life, Love is simply creation's greatest joy. Through The stairway of existence, O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz Have You now come, Have we all now come to The Beloved's Door. (The Stairway of Existence - A poem by Hafiz) :: Copyright (C) 2011 Sharon Mau P H O T O G R A P H Y http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com : Dimensions : http://fineartamerica.com/groups/dimensions.html Hawaii : http://fineartamerica.com/groups/hawaii.html Polynesian Connection : http://fineartamerica.com/groups/polynesian-connection.html Tropical Paradise : http://fineartamerica.com/groups/tropical-paradise.html .. E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe .. Aloha



"Once in the dream of a night I stood Lone in the light of a magical wood, Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang; And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang, And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed, And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed In that magical wood in the land of sleep. Lone in the light of that magical grove, I felt the stars of the spirits of Love Gather and gleam round my delicate youth, And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth; To quench my longing I bent me low By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow In that magical wood in the land of sleep." ~ By Sarojini Naidu






Attar of Nishapur (1145 - 1221 ce) saint and mystic, one of the most voluminous authors in Persian literature on religious topics. His best-known work, Conference of the Birds, is an elaborate allegory of the soul's quest for reunion with God

So long as we do not die to ourselves,
and so long as we identify with someone or something,
we shall never be free.
The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life.

Farid ud Din Attar

~~

Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself,
how will you be able to understand
the secret of your existence when you die?

Farid ud Din Attar

~~

Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.


Farid ud Din Attar - translation Margaret Smith -The Jawhar Al-Dhat

~~

In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

The whole world is a marketplace for Love,
For naught that is, from Love remains remote.
The Eternal Wisdom made all things in Love.
On Love they all depend, to Love all turn.
The earth, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars
The center of their orbit find in Love.
By Love are all bewildered, stupefied,
Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.

From each, Love demands a mystic silence.
What do all seek so earnestly? "Tis Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts,
In Love no longer "Thou" and "I" exist,
For self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul
Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love.

Farid ud Din Attar, in Essential Sufism, James Fadiman and Robert Frager

~~

Four Things to Know

Hatim al-Asamm said, "I have chosen four things to know
and discarded all other things of knowledge.
"The first is this: I know that my daily bread is apportioned
to me and will neither be increased or decreased, so I have stopped
trying to add to it.
"Secondly, I know I owe to God a debt which no one else can
pay for me, so I am busy about paying it.
"Thirdly, I know that there is someone pursuing me ---
Death --- whom I cannot escape from, so I have prepared myself
to meet him.
"Fourth, I know that God is observing me, so I am ashamed
to do what I should not."


Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'





Hafiz of Shiraz (1230-91 ce) the greatest lyric poet of Persia, who took the poetic form of the ghazal to unparalleled heights of subtlety and beauty.


I speak frankly and that makes me happy:
I am the slave of love, I am free of both worlds.

I am a bird from heaven's garden. How do I describe that separation,
my fall into this snare of accidents?

I was an angel and highest paradise was my place.
Adam brought me to this monastery in the city of ruin.

The hours' caress, the pool and shade trees of paradise
were forgotten in the breeze from your alleyway.

There is nothing on the tablet of my heart but my love's tall alif.
What can I do? My master taught me no other letter.

No astrologer knew the constellations of my fate.
O lord, when I was born of mother earth which stars were rising?

Ever since I became a slave at the door of love's tavern
sorrows come to me each moment with congratulations.

The pupil of my eye drains the blood from my heart.
I deserve it. Why did I give my heart to the darling of others?

Wipe the tears from Hafiz's face with soft curls
or else this endless torrent will uproot me.


Hafiz - Ghazal 44 - "The Green Sea of Heaven" - Elizabeth T. Gray Jr

~~

The sun
Won a beauty contest and became a jewel
Set upon God’s right hand.

The earth agreed to be a toe ring on the
Beloved’s foot
And has never regretted its decision.

The mountains got tired
Of sitting amongst a sleeping audience

And are now stretching their arms
Toward the Roof.

The clouds gave my soul an idea
So I pawned my gills
And rose like a winged diamond

Ever trying to be near
More love, more love
Like you.

The Mountain got tired of sitting
Amongst a snoring crowd inside of me
And rose like a rip sun
Into my eye.

My soul gave my heart a brilliant idea
So Hafiz is rising like a
Winged diamond.


Hafiz - “The Gift” – translation by Daniel Ladinsky

~~

We are the guardians of His Beauty

We are the protectors
Of the Sun.

There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:

To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.

Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me
Saying,

"Hafiz,
Don't just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing -

Help unfurl my heart into the Friend's Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!"

We are the companions of His Beauty
We are the guardians
Of Truth.

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,
Every woman, child, vein and note
Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,
The harbinger of
Light.


Hafiz - "The Subject Tonight is Love" - Daniel Ladinsky

~~

Mortal never won to view thee,
Yet a thousand lovers woo thee;
Not a nightingale but knows
In the rose-bud sleeps the rose.

Love is where the glory falls
Of thy face: on convent walls
Or on tavern floors the same
Unextinguishable flame.

Where the turban'd anchorite
Chanteth Allah day and night,
Church-bells ring the call to prayer,
And the Cross of Christ is there.


Hafiz - "Persian Poems" - R.A. Nicholson

~~

Come,
let's scatter roses and pour wine in the glass;
we'll shatter heaven's roof and lay a new foundation.
If sorrow raises armies to shed the blood of lovers,
I'll join with the wine bearer so we can overthrow them.
With a sweet string at hand, play a sweet song, my friend,
so we can clap and sing a song and lose our heads in dancing.

Hafiz (Ghani-Qazvini, no 374) ' the Shambhala Guide to Sufism' Carl.W Ernst, Ph.D.





Jami (1414 - 1492 ce) (Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami) commonly called the last great classical poet of Persia, saint and mystic, composed numerous lyrics and idylls, as well as many works in prose. His Salaman and Absal is an allegory of profane and sacred love. Some of his other works include Haft Awrang, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, Layla wa -Majnun, Fatihat al-Shabab, Lawa'ih, al-Durrah al-Fakhirah.

~~

Who is man?
The reflection of the Eternal Light.

What is the world?
A wave on the Everlasting Sea.

How could the reflection be cut off from the Light?

How could the wave be separate from the Sea?

Know that this reflection and this wave are that very Light and Sea.

Jami, Diwan, tr by W.C. Chittick

~~

Hidden behind the veil of mystery, Beauty is eternally free from the slightest stain of imperfection. From the atoms of the world, He created a multitude of mirrors; into each one of them He cast the image of His Face; to the awakened eye, anything that appears beautiful is only a reflection of that Face.

Now that you have seen the reflection, hurry to its Source; in that primordial Light the reflection vanishes completely. Do not linger far from that primal Source; when the reflection fades, you will be lost in darkness. The reflection is as transient as the smile of a rose; if you want permanence, turn towards the Source; if you want fidelity, look to the Mine of faithfulness. Why tear your soul apart over something here one moment and gone the next?

Jami, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

Whether your destiny is glory or disgrace,
Purify yourself of hatred and love of self.
Polish your mirror; and that sublime Beauty
From the regions of mystery
Will flame out in your heart
As it did for the saints and prophets.
Then, with your heart on fire with that Splendor,
The secret of the Beloved will no longer be hidden.

Jami, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'



Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273 ce) saint and mystic, inspiration for the Mevlevi Order of the whirling dervishes, highly revered for the great Mathnawi which is a grand tribute to the depth of spiritual life.


The Jesus of your spirit is inside you now.
Ask that one for help, but don't ask for body-things...

Don't ask Moses for provisions
that you can get from Pharaoh.

Don't worry so much about livelihood.
Your livelihood will turn out as it should.
Be constantly occupied instead
with listening to God.

Rumi, Mathnawi II:450-454

~~

Listen for the stream
that tells you one thing.

Die on this bank.
Begin in me
the way of rivers with the sea.

Rumi - Coleman Barks - from "Say I Am You"

~~
You've no idea how hard I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.

What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.

So- I've brought you a mirror.

Look at yourself and remember me.

- Jalaluddin Rumi, Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, pg141

~~

Longing is the core of mystery.
Longing itself brings the cure.
The only rule is, Suffer the pain.

Your desire must be disciplined,
and what you want to happen
in time, sacrificed.

Rumi - The Essential Rumi - Coleman Barks

~~

Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
with the exultation of your Spirit.

By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself
in the mountains and the desert.

These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
and feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.

I'm sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
the sheikhs and mullahs roam
the dark alleys of these towns
not finding what they seek.

You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart.


Rumi - 'The Love Poems of Rumi' - Deepak Chopra & Fereydoun Kia

~~

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You're covered with a thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quiteness is the surest sign
that you've died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

Rumi - The Essential Rumi - Coleman Barks

~~

The Morning Wind Spreads
The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it's gone.

Rumi - 'The Essential Rumi' - Coleman Barks

~~

Everyone is overridden by thoughts;
that's why they have so much heartache and sorrow.
At times I give myself up to thought purposefully;
but when I choose,
I spring up from those under its sway.
I am like a high-flying bird,
and thought is a gnat:
how should a gnat overpower me?


Rumi - Mathnawi II, 3559-3561 - 'Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance' - Camille and Kabir Helminski

~~

I wonder
from these thousand of "me's",
which one am I?
Listen to my cry, do not drown my voice
I am completely filled with the thought of you.
Don't lay broken glass on my path
I will crush it into dust.
I am nothing, just a mirror in the palm of your hand,
reflecting your kindness, your sadness, your anger.
If you were a blade of grass or a tiny flower
I will pitch my tent in your shadow.
Only your presence revives my withered heart.
You are the candle that lights the whole world
and I am an empty vessel for your light.


Rumi - "Hidden Music" - Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

~~

Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,
With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.
The colours of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow immortality
At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I.
The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;
We shall show them the Moon itself, thou and I.
Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy,
Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.
All the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts with envy
In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I.
This is the greatest wonder, that thou and I, sitting here in the same nook,
Are at this moment both in ‘Iraq and Khorasan, thou and I.

Jelaluddin Rumi, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson

~~

Awakened by your love,
I flicker like a candle's light
tryin to hold on in the dark.
Yet, you spare me no blows
and keep asking,
"Why do you complain?"


Rumi - "Whispers of the Beloved" - Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

~~

My heart tells me it is distressed with Him,
but I can only laugh at such pretended injuries.

Be fair, You who are the Glory of the just.
You, Soul, free of "we" and "I,"
subtle spirit within each man and woman.

When a man and a woman become one,
that "one" is You.
And when that one is obliterated, there You are.

Where is this "we" and this "I"?
By the side of the Beloved.
You made this "we" and this "I"
in order that you might play
this game of courtship with Yourself,
that all "you's" and "I's" might become one soul
and finally drown in the Beloved.

All this is true. Come!
You who are the Creative Word: Be
You, so far beyond description.

Is it possible for the bodily eyes to see You?
Can thought comprehend Your laughter or grief?
Tell me now, can it possibly see You at all?
Such a heart has only borrowed things to live with.

The garden of love is green without limit
and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy.
Love is beyond either condition:
without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.

Rumi - Mathnawi I, 1779-1794 - The Rumi Collection - Kabir Helminski



Saadi of Shiraz (1215 -1292 ce), a great poet of Persia, author of the Gulistan (Rose-Garden) and the Bostan (Orchard), who also wrote many odes and lyrics.


O bird of the morning, learn love from the moth
Because it burnt, lost its life, and found no voice.
These pretenders are ignorantly in search of Him,
Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned.

Sheikh Muslih-uddin Sa'di Shirazi - The Gulistan of Sa'di

~~

How could I ever thank my Friend?
No thanks could ever begin to be worthy.
Every hair of my body is a gift from Him;
How could I thank Him for each hair?
Praise that lavish Lord forever
Who from nothing conjures all living beings!
Who could ever describe His goodness?
His infinite glory lays all praise waste.
Look, He has graced you a robe of splendor
>From childhood's first cries to old age!
He made you pure in His own image; stay pure.
It is horrible to die blackened by sin.
Never let dust settle on your mirror's shining;
Let it once grow dull and it will never polish.
When you work in the world to earn your living
Do not, for one moment, rely on your own strength.
Self-worshiper, don't you understand anything yet?
It is God alone that gives your arms their power.
If, by your striving, you achieve something good,
Don't claim the credit all for yourself;
It is fate that decides who wins and who loses
And all success streams only from the grace of God.
In this world you never stand by your own strength;
It is the Invisible that sustains you every moment.


Saadi, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'





Sanai (1118 -1152 ce) (Abû'l-Majd Majdûd b. Adam Sanâ'î) is revered as one of the first great mystical poets of Persia. He produced many lyrical poems and a religious epic, The Walled Garden of Truth.

Don't speak of your suffering -- He is speaking.
Don't look for Him everywhere -- He's looking for you.

An ant's foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a streambed, He knows it.

If there's a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He'll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy --
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones.

Sanai



~~

'The Puzzle'

Someone who keeps aloof from suffering
is not a lover. I choose your love
above all else. As for wealth
if that comes, or goes, so be it.
Wealth and love inhabit separate worlds.

But as long as you live here inside me,
I cannot say that I am suffering.

Sanai, translation by Coleman Barks - 'Persian Poems'

~~

'The Way of the Holy Ones'

Don't speak of your suffering -- He is speaking.
Don't look for Him everywhere -- He's looking for you.

An ant's foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a streambed, He knows it.

If there's a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He'll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy --
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones.

Sanai, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

Those unable to grieve,
or to speak of their love,
or to be grateful, those
who can't remember God
as the source of everything,

might be described as a vacant wind,
or a cold anvil, or a group
of frightened old people.

Say the Name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground,
waking. Let your mouth be given
its gold-yellow stamen like the wild rose's.

As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
there's no more thirst.

There's only unselfed patience
waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesn't listen to advice
from people passing in the street.


Sanai - "Persian Poems" - Coleman Barks




Yunus Emre - (1241 - 1321 ce). Yunus' poetry made a great impact on Turkish culture.



The drink sent down from Truth,
we drank it, glory be to God.
And we sailed over the Ocean of Power,
glory be to God.

Beyond those hills and oak woods,
beyond those vineyards and gardens,
we passed in health and joy, glory be to God.

We were dry, but we moistened.
We grew wings and became birds,
we married one another and flew,
glory be to God.

To whatever lands we came,
in whatever hearts, in all humanity,
we planted the meanings Taptuk taught us,
glory be to God.

Come here, let's make peace,
let's not be strangers to one another.
We have saddled the horse
and trained it, glory be to God.

We became a trickle that grew into a river.
We took flight and drove into the sea,
and then we overflowed, glory be to God.

We became servants at Taptuk's door.
Poor Yunus, raw and tasteless,
finally got cooked, glory be to God.

Yunus Emre, translated by Kabir Helminski and Refik Algan - 'The Drop That Became Sea'

~~

Ask those who know,
what's this soul within the flesh?
Reality's own power.
What blood fills these veins?

Thought is an errand boy,
fear a mine of worries.
These sighs are love's clothing.
Who is the Khan on the throne?

Give thanks for His unity.
He created when nothing existed.
And since we are actually nothing,
what are all of Solomon's riches?

Ask Yunus and Taptuk
what the world means to them..
The world won't last.
What are You? What am I?

Yunus Emre, translated by Kabir Helminski and Refik Algan - 'The Drop That Became Sea'

~~

We entered the house of realization,
we witnessed the body.

The whirling skies, the many-layered earth,
the seventy-thousand veils,
we found in the body.

The night and the day, the planets,
the words inscribed on the Holy Tablets,
the hill that Moses climbed, the Temple,
and Israfil's trumpet, we observed in the body.
Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Quran-
what these books have to say,
we found in the body.

Everybody says these words of Yunus
are true. Truth is wherever you want it.
We found it all within the body.

Yunus Emre, yranslated by Kabir Helminski and Refik Algan - 'The Drop That Became Sea'

~~

I am before, I am after
The soul for all souls all the way.
I'm the one with a helping hand
Ready for those gone wild, astray.

I made the ground flat where it lies,
On it I had those mountains rise,
I designed the vault of the shies,
For I hold all things in my sway.

To countless lovers I have been
A guide for faith and religion.
I am sacrilege in men's hearts
Also the true faith and Islam's way.

I make men love peace and unite;
Putting down the black words on white,
I wrote the four holy books right
I'm the Koran for those who pray.

It's not Yunus who says all this:
It speaks its own realities:
To doubt this would be blasphemous:
"I'm before-I'm after," I say

Yunus Emre

~~

Your love has wrested me away from me,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

I find no great joy in being alive,
If I cease to exist, I would not grieve,
The only solace I have is your love,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Lovers yearn for you, but your love slays them,
At the bottom of the sea it lays them,
It has God's images-it displays them;
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Let me drink the wine of love sip by sip,
Like Mecnun, live in the hills in hardship,
Day and night, care for you holds me in its grip,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Even if, at the end, they make me die
And scatter my ashes up to the shy,
My pit would break into this outcry:
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

"Yunus Emre the mystic" is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my flame,
What I desire in both worlds in the same:
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Yunus Emre


Sa'd al-din Mahmud Shabistari(1288 - 1340 ce) is one of the most celebrated authors of Persian Sufism. Because of his gift for expressing the Sufi mystical vision with extraordinary clarity, his Gulshan-i raz or Secret Rose Garden rapidly became one of the most popular works of Persian Sufi poetry.



Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out, He will enter it.
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauties.


Mahmud Shabistari - 'Rose Garden of Mystery'

~~

'One Light'

What are "I" and "You"?
Just lattices
In the niches of a lamp
Through which the One Light radiates.

"I" and "You" are the veil
Between heaven and earth;
Lift this veil and you will see
How all sects and religions are one.

Lift this veil and you will ask---
When "I" and "You" do not exist
What is mosque?
What is synagogue?
What is fire temple?

Mahmud Shabistari, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'



Sheikh Ansari Jabir ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansari (1006-1088 ce) He was called Sheikh al-Islam and he was also given the title Zayn al- 'Ulama (Ornament of the Scholars) and Nasir al-Sunnah (Supporter of the Prophetic Tradition). Later on in Persian texts he was called Pir-e Herat (the Sheikh of Herat).

Some of Ansari works include Kashf al-Asrar "Unveiling of the Secrets" (Commentary of the Qur'an), Tabaquat al-Sufiyya (The Generations of the Sufis), "Munajat" (Intimate Invocations) which is incorporated into the Kashf al-Asrar and in the Tabaqat.



'The Friend Beside Me'

O God
You know why I am happy:
It is because I seek Your company,
not through my own (efforts).

O God,
You decided and I did not.
I found the Friend beside me
when I woke up!

Sheikh Ansari - Kashf al_Asrar, Vol. 5, p. 407 - 'Munajat - The Intimate Invocations' - A.G. Farhadi

~~

'Where Are You?'

O God,
You are the aim of the call of the sincere,
You enlighten the souls of the friends, (and)
You are the comfort of the hearts of the travellers---
because You are present in the very soul.

I call out, from emotion:
"Where are you?"

You are the life of the soul,
You are the rule (ayin) of speech, (and)
You are Your own interpreter (tarjaman).

For the sake of Your obligation to Yourself,
do not enter us into the shade of deception, (but)
make us reach union (wisal) with You.

Sheikh Ansari - Kashf al_Asrar, Vol. 5, p. 598 - 'Munajat - The Intimate Invocations' - A.G. Farhadi

~~

'Pursuit of the Friend'

The heart left,
and the Friend is (also) gone.
I don't know whether I should go after the Friend
or after the heart!
A voice spoke to me:
"Go in pursuit of the Friend,
because the lover needs a heart
in order to find union with the Friend.
If there was no Friend,
what would (the lover) do with (his) heart?"

Sheikh Ansari - Kashf al_Asrar, Vol. 1, p. 628 - 'Maqulat-o Andarz-ha - Sayings and Advice' - A.G. Farhadi

~~

'The Beauty of Oneness'

Any eye filled with the vision of this world
cannot see the attributes of the Hereafter,
Any eye filled with the attributes of the Hereafter
would be deprived of the Beauty (Jamal) of (Divine) Oneness.

Sheikh Ansari - Kashf al_Asrar, Vol. 7, p. 511 - 'Maqulat-o Andarz-ha - Sayings and Advice' - A.G. Farhadi

~~

'In Each Breath'

O you who have departed from your own self,
and who have not yet reached the Friend:
do not be sad, (for)
He is accompanying you in each of (your) breaths.

Sheikh Ansari - Kashf al_Asrar, Vol. 7, p. 268 - 'Maqulat-o Andarz-ha - Sayings and Advice' - A.G. Farhadi





Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya (717 - 801 ce) was born in Basra. As a child, after the death of her parents, Rabi'a was sold into slavery. After years of service to her slavemaster, Rabi'a began to serve only the Beloved with her actions and thoughts. Since she was no longer useful to the slaveowner, Rabi'a was then set free to continue her devotion to the Beloved.

Rabi'a taught that the true lover, whose consciousness is unwaveringly centered on the Beloved, is unattached to conditions such as pleasure or pain, not from sensory dullness but from ceaseless rapture in Divine Love.



Rabia was once asked, "How did you attain that which you have attained?"
"By often praying, 'I take refuge in You, O God, from everything that distracts me from You, and from every obstacle that prevents me from reaching You.'"

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?

Rabia al-Adawiyya

~~

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya. Doorkeeper of the heart:versions of Rabia. Trans. Charles Upton

~~

The source of my suffering and loneliness is deep in my heart.
This is a disease no doctor can cure.
Only Union with the Friend can cure it.

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

I have made You the Companion of my heart.
But my body is available to those who desire its company,
And my body is friendly toward its guest,
But the Beloved of my heart is the guest of my soul.

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there, always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.

To abandon all that He has fashioned
And hold in the palm of my hand
Certain proof that He loves me---
That is the name and the goal of my search.

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

~~

O Lord,
If tomorrow on Judgment Day
You send me to Hell,
I will tell such a secret
That Hell will race from me
Until it is a thousand years away.

O Lord,
Whatever share of this world
You could give to me,
Give it to Your enemies;
Whatever share of the next world
You want to give to me,
Give it to Your friends.
You are enough for me.

O Lord,
If I worship You
From fear of Hell, burn me in Hell.

O Lord,
If I worship You
From hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.

But if I worship You for Yourself alone
Then grace me forever the splendor of Your Face.

Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'





Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir (Abu Sa'id ibn Ab'il Khair ) (967 - 1049 ce) referring to himself as "nobody, son of nobody" he expressed the reality that his life had disappeared in the heart of God. This revered Persian Sufi mystic from Khorasan preceded the great poet Jalaluddin Rumi by over two hundred years on the same path of annihilation in Love.

Until you become an unbeliever in your own self,
you cannot become a believer in God.

Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir - 'Nobody, Son of Nobody' - Vraje Abramian

~~

If you are seeking closeness to the Beloved,
love everyone.
Whether in their presence or absence,
see only their good.
If you want to be as clear and refreshing as
the breath of the morning breeze,
like the sun, have nothing but warmth and light
for everyone.

Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir - 'Nobody, Son of Nobody' - Vraje Abramian

~~

Beloved, show me the way out of this prison.
Make me needless of both worlds.
Pray, erase from mind all
that is not You.

Have mercy Beloved,
though I am nothing but forgetfulness,
You are the essence of forgiveness.
Make me needless of all but You.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian

~~

Piousness and the path of love
are two different roads.
Love is the fire that burns both belief
and non-belief.
Those who practice Love have neither
religion nor caste.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian

~~

Be humble.
Only fools take pride in their station here, trapped in
a cage of dust, moisture, heat and air.
No need to complain of calamities,
this illusion of a life lasts but a moment.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian

~~

Suppose you can recite a thousand holy
verses from memory.
What are you going to do
with your ego self, the true
mark of the heretic?
Every time your head touches
the ground in prayers, remember,
this was to teach you to
put down that load of ego
which bars you from entering
the chamber of the Beloved.

To your mind feed understanding,
to your heart, tolerance and compassion.
The simpler your life, the more meaningful.
The less you desire of the world,
the more room you will have in it
to fill with the Beloved.

The best use of your tongue
is to repeat the Beloved's Name in devotion.
The best prayers are those in
the solitude of the night.
The shortest way to the Friend
is through selfless service and
generosity to His creatures.

Those with no sense of honor and dignity are best avoided.
Those who change colors constantly
are best forgotten.
The best way to be with those
bereft of the Beloved's qualities,
is to forget them in the
joy of silence in one's corner of solitude.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody"

~~

Drink from this heart now,
for all this loving it contains.
When you look for it again,
it will be dancing in the wind.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian

~~

Let sorrowful longing dwell in your heart,
never give up, never losing hope.
The Beloved says, "The broken ones are My darlings."
Crush your heart, be broken.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian

~~

If you do not give up the crowds
you won't find your way to Oneness.
If you do not drop your self
you won't find your true worth.
If you do not offer all you
have to the Beloved,
you will live this life free of that
pain which makes it worth living.

Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir - "Nobody, Son of Nobody" - Vraje Abramian



Sheikh Sultan Bahu (1628 - 1691 ce) belonged to the Qadiri Order of Sufis and is known by the title of Sultan-ul-Arifin (king of the Gnostics). Born in the Soon Valley, he wrote in both Persian and Punjabi, and is regarded as one of the most prominent Sufi poets of the Indo-Pak subcontinent.


Those who have not realized God will wander,
homeless in this world, destitute in the next.
But watch the lovers dance with ecstasy,
as they merge into the oneness of God [Allah].

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak

~~

The river of oneness has surged,
quenching the thirst of the deserts and wastelands.
If you don't nurture God's love in your heart,
you will be dry and parched like those deserts.

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak

~~

The Lord is an ocean of oneness
in which lovers swim as they please, free of care.
In their own turn, they appear in the world
to dive deep into that ocean, to gather pearls.
Among the pearls is a gem --
unique in value, unmatched in lustre --
that shines like the moon.
We are all in the employ of the Lord, O Bahu;
let us pay homage to him through our prayers.

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak

~~

Repeat the Name of God,
and always contemplate on Him
while doing your repetition --
keener than a sword is such remembrance [Zikhr, Simran].

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak

~~

Repeat the Name of God, O Bahu,
and free yourself from the worries of life.

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak

~~

Those who enshrine the Lord in their hearts, O Bahu,
have both the worlds at their command.

Lovers remain completely intoxicated
in the ecstasy of their love for the Beloved.
They offer their souls to the Beloved
while still living
and thus immortalize themselves
in this life and the hereafter.

Sultan Bahu, translated by J.R. Puri and K.S. Khak



Muhammed Ibn 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi (1165 - 1240 ce) Known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and the Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), he was born into the Moorish culture of Andalusian Spain and traveled widely throughout the Islamic countries.


O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

ibn al-`Arabi, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson

~~

All that is left
to us by tradition
is mere words.

It is up to us
to find out what they mean.

ibn al-`Arabi, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson

~~


Were it not for
the excess of your talking
and the turmoil in your hearts,
you would see what I see
and hear what I hear!

ibn al-`Arabi, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson

~~

When my Beloved appears, With what eye do I see Him? With His eye, not with mine, For none sees Him except Himself.

ibn al-`Arabi, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson



Baba Kuhi of Shiriz, a Persian dervish-poet who died around 1050 ce: (see also a brief essay Eyes of the Heart)


In the market, in the cloister--only God I saw.
In the valley and on the mountain--only God I saw.
Him I have seen beside me oft in tribulation;
In favour and in fortune--only God I saw.
In prayer and fasting, in praise and contemplation,
In the religion of the Prophet--only God I saw.
Neither soul nor body, accident nor substance,
Qualities nor causes--only God I saw.
I oped mine eyes and by the light of His face around me
In all the eye discovered--only God I saw.
Like a candle I was melting in His fire:
Amidst the flames outflashing--only God I saw.
Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly,
But when I looked with God's eyes--only God I saw.
I passed away into nothingness, I vanished,
And lo, I was the All-living--only God I saw.

Baba Kuhi, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson



Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj known as al-Hallaj (the wool-carder), he was put to death in Baghdad for having uttered ana 'l haqq (I am the Truth):


I am He whom I love,
and He whom I love is I:
We are two spirits
dwelling in one body.
If thou seest me,
thou seest Him,
And if thou seest Him,
thou seest us both.

al-Hallaj, Kitab al-Tawasin, in The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A Nicholson

~~

Thy Spirit is mingled in my spirit
even as wine is mingled with pure water.
When anything touches Thee,
it touches me.
Lo, in every case Thou art I!"

al-Hallaj, Kitab al-Tawasin, in The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A Nicholson


~~


Amir Khusrau (1253 - 1325 ce ) Indian Sufi mystic, musician, poet and scholar. He was a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, and is one of the most beloved poets of the Chishti Sufi lineage.

Love came and spread like blood in my veins and the skin of me,
It filled me with the Friend and completely emptied me.
The Friend has taken over all parts of my existence,
Only my name remains, as all is He.

~~


Moinuddin Chishti (1141 - 1230 ce) born in Khorasan. A widely beloved Persian spiritual leader who carried the Chishti lineage to India.

The noise of the lover is only up to
the time when he has not seen his Beloved.
Once he sees the Beloved, he becomes calm and quiet,
just as the rivers are boisterous before they join the ocean,
but when they do so, there are becalmed forever.

~~

The one who knows becomes perfect only when
all else is removed from in-between him and the Friend.
Either he remains or the Friend.

~~


Hazret-i Uftade (1490-1580 ce) Mehmed Muhyiddin Üftade was a widely revered Turkish saint, and founder of the Jelveti order of Sufis who emphasized the return into the midst of society after learning to overcome the lower-self.

If you desire the Beloved, my heart,
Do not cease to pour out lamentations.
Observing His existence, reach annihilation!
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Let tears of blood pour from your eyes
May they emerge hot from the furnace
Say not that he is one of you or one of us
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Let love come that you may have a friend
Your distresses are a torrent
Sweeping you along the way to the Friend
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Take yourself up to the heavens
Meet the angels
And fulfill your desires
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Pass beyond the universe, this [unfurled] carpet
Beyond the pedestal and beyond the throne
That the bringers of good tidings may greet you
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Remove your you from you
Leave behind body and soul
That theophanies may appear
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

Pass on, without looking aside
Without your heart pouring forth to another
That you may drink the pure waters
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.

If you desire union with the Beloved
Oh Uftade! Find your soul
That the Beloved may appear before you
Say “Oh He and You who is He”.



~~

Other Mystical Poetry:

When the soul is plunged in the fire of divine love, like iron, it first
loses its blackness, and then growing to white heat it becomes like
unto the fire itself. And lastly, it grows liquid, and, losing its nature, is
transmuted into an utterly different quality of being. And as the difference
between iron that is cold and iron that is hot, so is the difference between
soul and soul, between the tepid soul and the soul made incandescent by
divine love.

Richard of St. Victor - de Quattuor Gradibus Violentae Charitatis


God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Rainer Maria Rilke

He Aloha no ke Aloha Poetry

May 3rd, 2011

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive."
-- Eleonora Duse


Water of Life

"He aloha no' he aloha Ka liko pua 'iliahi E please mai ho'i 'oe ke aloha 'Oiai ana ua meha.

'Ano'ai wale ke 'ike aku A ka malu 'ulu o ka wehiwehi Ke kai honehone nei i ku'u poli Ke hone nei ku'u poli.

Pehea ka'ua e ka hoa Ka'ano'i a ke aloha Ka maile lau lipolipo i ka wao Ka hanu 'a'ala o ku'u ipo.

Ha'ina mai ka puana Na' dew drops ke aloha
Ha'ina hou ka puana
He aloha no ke aloha.

Mai loko mai 'o
http://www.huapala.org
na Bill Ali'iloa Lincoln




QUOTES

Everything you seek in this world is within you
Supreme joy blazes inside
But it is not enough merely to have an intellectual understanding of this
You have to go deep inside
The heart is the true house of God
It is the seat of happiness, the abode of unending love
Go there
~ Swami Muktananda

Whatever I am; that I want to understand. ~ Krishnamurti

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
~ Sir Isaac Newton

You become the company you keep, so keep great company.
~ Gopala Ayer Sundaramoorthy

A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms grows from a downy tip; A terrace nine stories high rises from handfuls of earth; A journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet.
~ Lao Tzu

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.
~ Alan Alda

You cannot help, you can only serve. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Let me pray not to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them."
~ Tagore

Every one wants to command, and no one wants to obey; and this owing to the absence of that wonderful brahmacharya system of yore. First, LEARN TO OBEY. The command will come by itself. Always first learn to be a servant, and then you will be fit to be a master.
~ Swami Vivekananda

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Awake awhile, be kind to your sleeping heart. Take it out into the vast fields of light and let it breathe.
~ Hafiz








http://sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com/art/all/natural+impressions+-+square+format/all

My work is protected under international copyright laws.

All photographs and artworks in this gallery are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Sharon Mau. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from myself is prohibited. All rights reserved.

My work is protected under international copyright laws.
My Works Are NOT Stock images.
My images are also protected by embedded metadata.
Please respect my copyright and do not use them without my permission in Blogs, Myspace, ecards, emails, Facebook or anywhere on the internet.

The following contact list is always growing and some are new. I offer prints, greeting cards, canvas prints and other products for sale on my websites if you would like to purchase a print, or if you would like personalized text on a greeting card you are invited to send me a message. You may also find me at the following links.

Thank you so much,
Aloha 'oe

2011 Sharon Mau - All Rights Reserved
ourjrny
The Heart Within the Art
Dimensions
Natural Impressions
The Essence of Me


http://www.sharon-mau.artistwebsites.com

http://www.zazzle.com/ourjrny*

http://sharonmau.imagekind.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sharon-Mau-Photography/108367762566505

http://www.theuntappedsource.com/ourjrny

http://sharonmau.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/ourjrny

http://twitter.com/sharonmau

http://www.blurb.com/user/ourjrny

Interesting Quotes

March 10th, 2011

"Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe




Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, howev...er accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'
Edgar Allan Poe

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
- Douglas Adams The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.


"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check." - M. C. Escher

"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it." Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide)

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. Theodore Roosevelt

"One of the many things nobody ever tells you about middle age is that it's such a nice change from being young."- Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists." G.K. Chesterton

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher." Ambrose Bierce

"Going to church every Sunday does not make you any more of a Christian than standing in a garage for an hour a week makes you a car."

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." -Francis Bacon

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling." - Gilbert K. Chesterton

"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing." - Eugene Delacroix

"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check." - M. C. Escher

"Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."
Vincent Van Gogh

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
George Bernard Shaw


On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions, who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died.

Timothy Allen Photography Human Planet

March 8th, 2011

".. as human beings we are all blessed with an inbuilt mechanism that tells us when we are moving in the right direction in life. It’s called enthusiasm, and in my opinion it forms the necessary essence of any fulfilling, creative lifestyle .. enthusiasm is the gift that allows us to live in the moment .. follow your heart .. persue the vocation in life that you feel most enthusiastic about.. if you live this way then no matter what transpires, you will be walking in the right direction in life.. just concern yourself with enjoying what you are doing in the moment. That’s the place where all the magic happens.. and if you have discovered that photography is your passion then think yourself very lucky. Many people go through life never knowing such a feeling. Don’t waste it. " - Timothy Allen

http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/

http://timothyallen.blogs.bbcearth.com/2010/11/01/the-end-is-nigh/


http://timothyallen.blogs.bbcearth.com/

The Cloud

February 20th, 2011

Hoku Ho'okele Wa'a ~ "A Canoe's Guiding Star" ~ Copyright Sharon Mau 2009 My images do not belong to the public domain. Reproduction is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Poetry on a composite image of Wai'anapanapa Maui Hawaii

The Cloud

"I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.

Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning, my pilot, sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;

Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;

And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,

Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit In the light of its golden wings.

And when Sunset may breathe,
from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardors of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest,
As still as a brooding dove.

That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.

I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the million-coloured bow;

The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb,
like a ghost from the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again."

Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ocean Oneness

February 12th, 2011

"Silence is round me, wideness ineffable;

White birds on the ocean diving and wandering;
A soundless sea on a voiceless heaven,
Azure on azure, is mutely gazing.

Identified with silence and boundlessness
My spirit widens clasping the universe
Till all that seemed becomes the Real,
One in a mighty and single vastness.

Someone broods there nameless and bodiless,
Conscious and lonely, deathless and infinite,
And, sole in a still eternal rapture,
Gathers all things to his heart for ever." ~ Poetry by Sri Aurobindo


~ May all good things come to you at this Sacred Time.
Like a Light cast upon still waters,
may the shining eyes of the Angel of Avalon seek you,
surround you
and fill you with the wonder and beauty of your heart .

May life respond to you in graceful encounter,
and may all your days be winged in the eternal moment .

May the gifts you give to the world be starlit...
may they also be small and dear as well as grand.

May you leave no stone unturned in your pursuit of Truth.

May you come to love yourself as you seek to love and embrace others.

May you be at peace in your heart and allow sacred space to others
so that they may find peace in your smile,
your touch
and your loving presence.

~ Author - Maia Christianne


Facebook Security Page and Facebook Safety

February 12th, 2011

http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=420


http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=security%20info#!/help/?safety

Tracking and Protecting our work Reporting Copyright Infringement Referrals and Features

February 9th, 2011

Aloha kakou e komo mai, a friend sent me notice recently on facebook with a link to a website where a member had posted hundreds of images gleaned from the internet, some of which were her own.


Are any of these images yours? If so, flag and report for copyright infringement

I have posted the notice on my fb Dimensions group as well


About once or twice a week I google my own name. Almost always the first link at the top of the list is to my FAA website, which is a good thing because Fine Art America is my primary storefront and Sean has so kindly optimized our ratings in the search engines. (Thank you Sean :))
google displays my location as Honolulu because here near Waiehu we are virtually off the grid and I am on a wireless connection. That is another subject..

There are a couple of Sharon Mau's out there in the world.
I am very careful about opening links, and unless I know the source I only open the google cache to view a snapshot of the page.
On the left side of the google page there are options:

* Everything
* Images
* Videos
* News
* Shopping

* Books
* Places
* Blogs
* Realtime
* Discussions

More

When I select Images there is a ton of stuff, some of it mine and some not. As I said, there is more than one Sharon Mau.
Every comment, every avatar, so much imagery is recorded it is absolutely amazing.

But the primary thing I am looking for is my own images published on someone's else's website.

If you want, you can choose SafeSearch moderate (recommended by google) To enable the SafeSearch filter visit the Google Preferences page in the SafeSearch Filtering section...


Choose any of your images ... right click on the image and view the page info
Some of my images from imagekind are displayed there. The sizes are 650px 432px
In my opinion, it seems large.

My thumbnails for my greeting cards from FAA are very small, which is good.
175px 125px

Click on the image again, and you land on my portfolio on any one of my websites, which is good.
But some of them are links to other pages. So be careful.

Look at the tabs and view Media addresses

or

Hover your mouse over the image and a pop up will appear with the image source

With about 112,000 results I could spend hours in there..........

If I choose Video I see my video on youtube

When I choose News, there is nothing about me. That's good too, I don't necessarily wish to be in the news :))

If I choose Shopping I find about 350 results, and the thumbnails are all linked to Fine Art America, Zazzle, and on page 35 a few unrelated posts.
So.. this is also good...

Next I choose
More

Books.... Lots of Mau Mau and other unrelated material....

Places... A few unrelated postings

And Hey!

I found one of mine
posted on

The Top Travel Destinations


through Amazon

when I click on my image

I land here


http://www.amazon.com/Kaanapali-Hawaii-Canvas-Print-Art/dp/B003U7LFQS%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJBRMUTEXERPW3E6A%26tag%3Dalgawe-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB003U7LFQS

which is a direct link to my FAA portfolio

Photography Prints

This is nice to see my work featured on this website, I would like to thank them for the referral :))

Mai ka aina Mai ke kai Kaanapali Maui Hawaii
is featured on The Top Travel Destinations with a link through Amazon to my FAA portfolio.

Windsurfing Hookipa is featured on artofextremesports.com http://artofextremesports.com/sports/windsurfing-hookipa-canvas-print-canvas-art-artist-sharon-mau/

Art Prints


Look How Much a Dollar Buys is featured promoted on Black Friday Clotheslines http://cheapclotheslines.cz.cc/look-how-much-a-dollar-buys-canvas-print-canvas-art-artist-sharon-mau-reviews/
through Amazon linked to my FAA portfolio
Thank you for the referral :))

Art Prints


Sharon Mau earns exclusive membership with 1stAngel Arts Magazine

Aloha Beth, thank you so much ♥♥♥

http://1stangel.co.uk/blog/sharon-mau-earns-exclusive-membership-with-1stangel-arts-magazine

Aloha O Kanaha Maui Hawaii was featured by Thomas Broadfoot III
Thank you so much Thomas :)))

http://bysilent.posterous.com/aloha-o-kanaha-maui-hawaii-art-prints-by-shar
http://www.imagekind.com/Aloha-O-Kanaha-Maui-Hawaii_art?IMID=f3e3f6a8-0209-451f-9faa-ea383b6c0e9c


Feature Top 10 Attraction on Maui
My Video is featured on
http://hawaiiupdate.info/hawaiian-music/hawaii-aloha-naau-kealii-reichel-sings-malama-e-ala-e-hawaiian-music

http://thetoptraveldestinations.com/?p=6646

Here is another for Kashmir Blue Sapphires

Featured Windsurfing Maui
Windsurfing Equipment
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christmas cards for russia
pozdravlyaus prazdnikom rozhdestva photograph by sharon mau
http://lowryandassociates.com/vs-russian-seasons-art.html
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˙·٠●★☆ ♥ ☆.* ♥ D R E A M and keep smiling ✿(◠‿◠) *.☆ ♥ ☆★●٠·˙

Song of the Universal

February 7th, 2011

"Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted, Sing me the universal. In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed perfection. By every life a share or more or less, None born but it is born, conceal'd or unconceal'd the seed is waiting. Lo! keen-eyed towering science, As from tall peaks the modern overlooking, Successive absolute fiats issuing. Yet again, lo! the soul, above all science, For it has history gather'd like husks around the globe, For it the entire star-myriads roll through the sky. In spiral routes by long detours, (As a much-tacking ship upon the sea,) For it the partial to the permanent flowing, For it the real to the ideal tends. For it the mystic evolution, Not the right only justified, what we call evil also justified. Forth from their masks, no matter what, From the huge festering trunk, from craft and guile and tears, Health to emerge and joy, joy universal. Out of the bulk, the morbid and the shallow, Out of the bad majority, the varied countless frauds of men and states, Electric, antiseptic yet, cleaving, suffusing all, Only the good is universal. Over the mountain-growths disease and sorrow, An uncaught bird is ever hovering, hovering, High in the purer, happier air. From imperfection's murkiest cloud, Darts always forth one ray of perfect light, One flash of heaven's glory. To fashion's, custom's discord, To the mad Babel-din, the deafening orgies, Soothing each lull a strain is heard, just heard, From some far shore the final chorus sounding. O the blest eyes, the happy hearts, That see, that know the guiding thread so fine, Along the mighty labyrinth. And thou America, For the scheme's culmination, its thought and its reality, For these (not for thyself) thou hast arrived. Thou too surroundest all, Embracing carrying welcoming all, thou too by pathways broad and new, To the ideal tendest. The measure'd faiths of other lands, the grandeurs of the past, Are not for thee, but grandeurs of thine own, Deific faiths and amplitudes, absorbing, comprehending all, All eligible to all. All, all for immortality, Love like the light silently wrapping all, Nature's amelioration blessing all, The blossoms, fruits of ages, orchards divine and certain, Forms, objects, growths, humanities, to spiritual images ripening. Give me O God to sing that thought, Give me, give him or her I love this quenchless faith, In Thy ensemble, whatever else withheld withhold not from us, Belief in plan of Thee enclosed in Time and Space, Health, peace, salvation universal. Is it a dream? Nay but the lack of it the dream, And failing it life's lore and wealth a dream, And all the world a dream." ~ Walt Whitman

Poetry

December 1st, 2010

#
Raison dtre

There they are, in my own handwriting: the words that have been my prayer, evening after evening. I copied them from the books I found them in, so that they would be right in front of me, issued from my hand as if they were my own words. And now I want to write them again, kneeling here before my tablet I want to write them; for in this way I can have them with me longer than when I read them, and every word will last and have time to echo and fade away.

- R. M. Rilke


"Your name was whispered before you were born, and out from the mist your image took form. The Spirit of Life had begun its quest, to learn of itself through the ultimate test: A being of light set free in creation, to master the gift of imagination..."


I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still dont know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

(Wallace Stevens)


Raison dtre

There they are, in my own handwriting: the words that have been my prayer, evening after evening. I copied them from the books I found them in, so that they would be right in front of me, issued from my hand as if they were my own words. And now I want to write them again, kneeling here before my tablet I want to write them; for in this way I can have them with me longer than when I read them, and every word will last and have time to echo and fade away.

- R. M. Rilke




Dante's Prayer Lyrics: When the dark wood fell before me And all the paths were overgrown When the priests of pride say there is no other way I tilled the sorrows of stone I did not believe because I could not see Though you came to me in the night When the dawn seemed forever lost You showed me your love in the light of the stars Cast your eyes on the ocean Cast your soul to the sea When the dark night seems endless Please remember me Then the mountain rose before me By the deep well of desire From the fountain of forgiveness Beyond the ice and fire Cast your eyes on the ocean Cast your soul to the sea When the dark night seems endless Please remember me Though we share this humble path, alone How fragile is the heart Oh give these clay feet wings to fly To touch the face of the stars Breathe life into this feeble heart Lift this mortal veil of fear Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears We'll rise above these earthly cares Cast your eyes on the ocean Cast your soul to the sea When the dark night seems endless Please remember me


Your life and my life flow into each other
as wave flows into wave,
and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you,
there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.
To see reality: -- Not as we expect it to be, but as it is.

It is to see that unless we live for each other, and in, and through each other,
we do not really live very satisfactorily.
There can really be life,
only where there really is. In just this sense, love. - Frederick Buechner

This is love:
to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of life.
In the end,
to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self...

Deafened by the voice of desire you are unaware
the Beloved lives in the core of your heart.
Stop the noise and you will hear His voice in the silence...Rumi

http://www.khamush.com/

"Your name was whispered before you were born, and out from the mist your image took form. The Spirit of Life had begun its quest, to learn of itself through the ultimate test: A being of light set free in creation, to master the gift of imagination..."

Find me on Facebook

November 30th, 2010

Aloha, I have found many ways to create the badges. My favourites:



Sharon Mau

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Global Edit Pricing Utility or Default Preload

November 11th, 2010

Aloha Sean, the global edit pricing utility or default preload seems to be only effective for the newly published work.

I have been researching SSI, javascript, PHP Dreamweaver and 'find and replace". There must be a way.

When I upload a new image, the pricing categories are now automatically generated.. autofill, and that is a good thing, thank you so much for this new function.


The issue remaining is that the global edit pricing utility is not retroactive, meaning it does not affect or change or update the existing images which are already published in my portfolio archives. That is what I need. I need the process to manage multiple web pages in my existing portfolio, and once I set the default pricing, all the existing images in my galleries will be updated.

Mahalo

Aloha 'oe,

Sharon Mau
11 November 2010

Lucky We Live Hawaii

November 9th, 2010

My artistic interests include: Love, Ohana, Spirituality, Beauty in Nature and Fine Art Photography

Many people have a surrealistic movie industry influenced unrealistic perception of the Hawaiian islands and her people.

Much of my work is to help educate, to enlighten the world, perpetuate and promote true Hawaiian culture by providing within my descriptions and commentary beautiful mele, songs and poetry, along with fascinating history and Hawaiian language which also reveals my deeply spiritual nature as well as the sources of my creative inspiration and personal interests . My husband is Kanaka Maoli, (Jacob is indigenous Hawaiian). Through my photography and conceptual art I work to embrace the world with Aloha spirit, to nurture and care for our keiki (children) and our ohana (family and friends) as well as to love and care for our beautiful tropical island home, to help malama the aina, (care for the island and ocean, from mauka to makai, from the mountains to the Pacific ocean we work to preserve and protect our unique ecosystem, our lovely tropical environment, our natural resources, water rights and indigenous plants and wildlife), and we have alot of fun along the way. After all, we are so blessed to be living on Maui :)))

Aloha Blessing Chant

November 7th, 2010

Blessing Chant


A - Aloha Mai May you always be surrounded with love

E - Ea Ea Every breath you take is sweet and good

I - Ike Pono See, Know, Recognize Goodness in You - Others - Everything

O - Ola Mau Loa May your lives Be Long

U - Uwehe E Be free from harm

Ha'awi Loko Mai ka i Wishes Given from Goodness Within

Loa'a Mai Loko Maika i Received from Goodness Within

"I ho'okahi kahi ke aloha ua mau" Be united as one, in love forever

Sharon Mau is on Etsy

November 1st, 2010

Inspiration - Sharon Mau - Etsy Studio



Joined 01 November 2010