A Personal Recipe of Spirit

Earl Moore

A Personal Recipe of SpiritPhotographs and Writings

by Earl Moore

All photographs copyright © 2009 by Earl MooreAll rights reserved

Book design by Earl Moore

May 2009

This book is dedicated to all my loving family. They are the true source of my spirit and the drive for getting up each day.

A Personal Recipe of Spirit

When standing upon a beach gazing out across an ocean to the distant horizon my mind ex-tends to imagine what lies beyond. In those mo-ments I feel uniquely small as one of the grains of sand upon the beach.

However, this book isn’t of beaches or things of the mind--it’s of mountains and forest--of the very ingredients which recharge and raise my own personal spirit. The ingredients for your own recipe of spirit may vary, so feel free to adjust for taste.

The title, “A Personal Recipe of Spirit” only announced itself after the initial layout of the book. As with most late arrivals to a meal there was some shifting required to accommodate it. I hope the new seating arrangement is acceptable.

I backed into this subject. These photo were taken as part of a wonderful day spent in the Asheville, NC area of western North Carolina during a weekend visit with my daughter. It was a day that left me feeling emotionally recharged and light of spirit. Only later, while reviewing the photographs, did I began putting

cause and effect for these feelings together and with this realization the concept of this book as my Solo Photo Book Month (SoFoBoMo) ‘09 was born.

So here I share my own personal recipe of spirit.

Technical Details:

The start date for this SoFoBoMo ‘09 book was May 2nd, 2009.

All photos are from the Western Carolina Arboretum and the Asheville Botanical Gar-dens, Asheville, NC and were taken among the rain showers on May 2nd, 2009 with a Nikon D700, Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.5, and Nik-kor 24-70mm f/2.8.

Post-processing was done with Adobe Light-room 2.3 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 on an Apple Mac Pro computer running OS X Leopard.

Adobe Indesign CS4 was used for book as-semble with text writtened and edited initially in Nisus Writer Pro v1.2.

Introduction

Ingredient List

Forest Foliage and Natural Mountain Vistas - Page 10

Paths to Stroll and Places for Contemplation - Page 16

Structures and Shelters - Page 24

Soothing Waters - Page 38

Life’s Energy and Beauty - Page 44

If asked what this personal Recipe of Spirit would be if it was a food I’d probably say it was a hearty bread. Perhaps a breakfast bread with fruit and nuts and a touch of applesauce icing drizzled over the top.

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Forest Foliage and Mountain Vistas

• Place a heaping amount of Mountian Views in your local vicinity

• Add a generous measure of Forest Foliage • Mix until you feel the morning’s mist upon your

skin and the green leafy aroma penetrates to the very core of your being

• Allow to sit until you experience a clearing of thought and stress.

While I acknowledge and enjoy the individual beautyflatcountryoffers,Idonotconnecttoitas with mountains or rolling foothills. I’ve always lookedtothemountainswhenneedingcomfort,inspiration or renewed energies.

“Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” - John Muir - Environmentalist

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Paths to Stroll and Places for Contem-plation

• Take the mixture of Forest Foliage and Mountain Vistas and slowly add Paths to Stroll until mar-bled to suit individual taste

• Sprinkle in Places for Contemplation allowing them to be absorbed

• Allocatesufficienttimeforingredientstobeac-tive

• Rotate,turnormoveasnecessary

As a small boy strolling with my father and grand-father I remember being told the way I carried myself reminded them of my great-grandfather. Perhaps he’d been a thinking-walker also.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads”. - Henry David Thoreau

“Few people even scratch the surface, much less ex-haust the contemplation of their own experience.” - Randolph Bourne

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Structure and Shelter

• FrametheForestFoliage,MountainVistas,Paths to Stroll and Places to Comtemplate with calming and rustic structure

• Allow connections to form between what you know,feelandbelieve.

• Ensure Shelter exists for processing under all conditions

Every life needs structure and a certain amount of security for growth and happiness. What could be better then ducking under a shelter during a spring rainstorm or to know that you’re not alone on the path you walk--the spirit grows.

All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stim-ulates the persons in that space. - Philip Johnson

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order. - Susan Taylor

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Sitting by a Bush in Broad Sunlight

When I spread out my hand here today,I catch no more than a rayTo feel of between thumb and fingers;No lasting effect of it lingers.

There was one time and only the oneWhen dust really took in the sun;And from that one intake of fireAll creatures still warmly suspire.

And if men have watched a long timeAnd never seen sun-smitten slimeAgain come to life and crawl off,We not be too ready to scoff.

God once declared he was trueAnd then took the veil and withdrew,And remember how final a hushThen descended of old on the bush.

God once spoke to people by name.The sun once imparted its flame.One impulse persists as our breath;The other persists as our faith.

Robert Frost

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Soothing Waters

• apply the quiet cooling effects of water to temper the mixture

• allow yourself to indulge in their quiet calmness

Water is magical and enchanting. It drawsourattention,imaginationsandspiritstomomentsofquietreflection.Liquid water is never rigid but in con-stant motion. Light plays on its sur-face much as our spirit touches our hearts and consciousness.

Water is persistence.

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” - Leonardo da Vinci

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The underlying attraction of the movement of water and sand is biological. If we look more deeply we can see it as the basis of an abstract idea linking ourselves with the limitless me-chanics of the universe.

- Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

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Lifes Energy and Beauty

• this is the icing of the recipe--the sweetness of new be-ginnings

• nurturethebeautyandenergytofuelyourownthoughts,feelings and spirit

Feast upon the “Recipe of Spirt”

Sinceearliesttimesflowershavebeenendowedwithmagi-cal,supernaturalordivineproperties.Flowerswereseentopossess an in-dwelling spirit or soul which determined each shapeandform,wayorhabitofgrowth,andpurposeintheworld in relation to human life.

Flowers and blooms represent new beginnings and new di-rections. Many are thought to have healing powers but for sure their beauty touches the human soul and causes our

spirits to soar.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom? - Nhat Hanh

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A Passing Glimpse

I often see flowers from a passing carThat are gone before I can tell what they are.

I want to get out of the train and go backTo see what they were beside the track.

I name all the flowers I am sure they weren’t;Not fireweed loving where woods have burnt--

Not bluebells gracing a tunnel mouth--Not lupine living on sand and drouth.

Was something brushed across my mindThat no one on earth will ever find?

Heaven gives its glimpses only to thoseNot in position to look too close.

Robert Frost

A Personal Recipe of Spirit was created as part of the Solo Photo Book Month (SoFoBoMo) 2009 project.

About the author

I’m Earl Moore, a regular guy who’s had a number of professions and his fair share of life experiences.

I’ve always appreciated the beauty and special quali-ties of life and it’s those I try and capture through photography.

I also use photography to learn and understand more about myself.

I have a loving wife, who’s also my best friend, and four great children I both love and respect. I also have two dogs who accept me as I am and continue to teach me new things.

I’m a lucky man!

Personal Weblog: http://meanderingpassage.com

Meandering Passage Media