Thank you

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported this blog by accessing it, telling your friends about it, and through your presence, prayers and inspiration. I am taking a sabbatical to pursue my interest photography, a paying-attention-to God in the world. It's possible this blogspot may evolve into a different expression of life. I will let you know! With love, Marcia

On Humility

Humility is the Heimlich maneuver for biting off more than I can chew...

An Indian farmer carries cucumbers to market.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Aztec dancers pose during a ceremony celebrating the birth of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, in Ixcateopan, Mexico.

Eduardo Verdugo/AP

Two golden retrievers wrestle in the mud, Columbia, NJ.

photo: MKBilyk

Sunset over a jetty in Turkey.

Alpur Cukur/Sony World Photography Awards

On guilt

When personal guilt in relation to a past event becomes a continuous cloud over your life, then you are locked in a mental prison. You have become your own jailer...It is such a great moment of liberation when you learn to forgive yourself, let the burden go and walk out into a new path of promise and possibility. Self-compassion is a wonderful gift to give yourself...Your soul is more immense than any one moment or event in your past. When you allow guilt to fetter and reduce you like this, it has little to do with guilt. The guilt is only an uncomfortable but convenient excuse for your fear of growth.

- from eternal echoes by John O'Donohue

Parrots at a zoo in Nanjing, China.

REUTERS

Sri Rosyati (R) and Sri Irianingsih (L), walk to the school they have run in a Jakarta slum area since 1996. The twins, from a typical middle-class background in Jakarta, have been the driving force behind the free education of more than 2,000 poor children. They have purchased the uniforms, textbooks, school equipment and everything else needed to teach the children. The twins have also helped open similar schools in 64 areas of the country.

REUTERS/Beawiharta

Muslim boys rest their heads on their desks during a language class at Al-Haramain madrassa at the Islamic Complex in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Sudanese refugee children press up against a fence in a refugee camp in Chad.

Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty

Every time we think we have touched a place of poverty, we will discover greater poverty beyond that place. Beyond physical poverty, there is mental poverty, beyond mental poverty, there is spiritual poverty, and beyond that there is nothing, nothing but mercy. - Henry Nouwen

A woman walks past merchandise on display at Mattel's

House of Barbie flagship store in Shanghai.

Aly Song/REUTERS

Daffodils in Parliament Square, London, as warm weather continues.

Stefan Rousseau/PA

Love

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts -- our passions, emotions, and feelings -- and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. Otherwise, we will keep clinging to people, things or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging.

Compassion

There is much hidden suffering in the world: the suffering of a man who dwells with others in a room of metal cages; the suffering of a teenager who does not feel secure; the suffering of countless people who lack caring friends, satisfying work, a peaceful home, a safe neighborhood, clean water, adequate food; the suffering of millions who feel lonely and wonder if life is worth living.

Once we look downward - instead of upward - on the ladder of life, we see the pain of people wherever we go, and we hear the call of compassion wherever we are.

adapted from Henri Nouwen

Joy

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing - sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death - can take that love away.

Patterns XXXVIII

Laundry hanging outside a student dormitory in Wuhan, China.

Reuters

A worker sorts timber in Russia during temperatures of minus 25 degrees celsius (-13 F).

Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

Patterns XXXVII

Thousands of old taxis abandoned in a scrapyard, Chongqing, China.

AFP/Getty

Homeless tent city in California.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Rawalpindi, Pakistan: A family travelling by motorbike.

Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Patterns XXXVI

Beijing, China: Ushers look under the tables after delegates leave the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP

Giving = Happiness = Giving

A survey of 30,000 American households found that those who gave to charity were 43 percent more likely to say they were "very happy" about their lives than those who did not give. The survey doesn't show whether giving made people happy, or happy people were more likely to give, but the anecdotal evidence is strong that many people find that when they begin to give, they free themselves from the acquisitive treadmill and find new meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

Peter Singer, Newsweek, 3/09/09

A young Buddhist monk participates in a prayer for peace, prosperity and long life at the Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

Patterns XXXV

Workers on tractors harvest soybeans in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Photograph: Maurilio Cheli/AP

Patterns XXIV

A girl walks up stairs at the CeBIT computer fair, Hanover, Germany.

Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters

Children of sex workers take part in a rally ahead of International Sex Workers Day, Kolkata, India.

Parth Sanyal/Reuters

Patterns XXXIII

A skier carves out a new path in deep snow on a Black Forest hill, St Märgen, Germany.

Winfried Rothermel/AP

Runner-up, XII International Humanitarian Photographic Award "Medicos del Mundo": A man burns incense while sitting in a small cage in Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui district.

REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Buddhist monks take part in religious exercises at a monastery near Tongren, in China’s Qinghai province, on the eve of the traditional Tibetan new year.

Reinhard Krause/Reuters

Patterns XXXII

Job seekers holding umbrellas flock into a job fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Ow, that hurts!

An ascetic Buddhist monk runs through flames during the Nagatoro (Japan) fire festival, held to celebrate the coming of spring.

Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

A drawer of antique glass eyes is displayed at the Science Museum's Object Store in London.

Macdiarmid/Getty

Patterns XXXI

Men walk their bikes on a bridge during an annual 'car free' day in Bogota, Columbia.

Luis Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

A jellyfish is irradiated with coloured light at the Blue Zoo in Beijing, a £18 million joint venture between China and New Zealand.

Diego Azubel/EPA

Hua Chi, a Chinese monk, has prayed on the same spot at a monastery near Tongren, Qinghai province, so long that his footprints are embedded in the floor.

Reuters

Patterns XXX

A woman walks the snow covered path along the National Mall in Washington March 2, 2009.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Filipino street children sleep in rows of large drainage pipes in the port city of Zamboanga, southern Philippines.

REUTERS/Stringer

Patterns XXIX

Iron ore piles at Parker Point, Dampier, Western Australia.

Christian Sprogoe /Rio Tinto Ltd/EPA

Members of The United States Marine Band listen as musician Stevie Wonder performs during a ceremony honoring him, for the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize, at the White House, February 25.

REUTERS/Jim Young

A child gets a haircut on a street in Hefei, Anhui province. It is believed to bring luck when one gets a haircut during the second day of the second Chinese lunar month, which is February 26.

REUTERS/Jianan Yu

Large chunks of ice form on Lake Superior, close to the beach at Park Point in Duluth, Minnesota.

Bob King/AP

Patterns XXVIII

Swimmers prepare to participate in the opening ceremony of the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido in London January 24, 2009.

REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

A man pans for gold on a riverside in Iga Barriere, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Patterns XXVII

Long lines form for a government job fair at the Atlanta Federal Centre.

Rich Addicks/AP

Worshipers carry a boat containing offerings for Iemanja, the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea, at Ramirez beach in Montevideo. Every year sweets, perfumes, fruits and imitation jewellery are offered to the Goddess.

REUTERS/Andres Stapff

Patterns XXVI

Chairs lined up before the Marc Jacobs Fall 2009 collection, New York Fashion Week, February 16, 2009.

REUTERS/Eric Thayer

A money changer poses for a portrait on a street corner in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Finbarr O’Reilly/REU

Patterns XXV

A worker puts finishing touches to masks made in the likeness of President Barack Obama at a costume factory assembly line in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. A total of 12,000 Obama masks will be made for the upcoming 'Brazil Carnaval' festival from February 20 to 22.

REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

A woman and her daughter carry sacks of mud in order to make pottery in Chinautla, Guatemala.

Eitan Abramovich/AFP

Happy Birthday, Parker!

Parker celebrated his 5th birthday on Sunday with his year-old golden friends, Oscar and McKaley. He hid under the table while they played.

Space junkies

This computer-generated image, released by the European Space Agency, illlustrates the 12,000 objects in orbit around the Earth.

ESA/AFP/Getty Images

Worshippers light candles in jars of honey during a holy mass for St. Haralambos' Day in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. St. Haralambos is a martyr and miracle-worker in the Greek Orthodox tradition.

Vassil Donev/EPA