Inspirational World

A personal muse on the beauty of the world, beauty in all its forms. The beauty of nature in all its magic, the beauty of humans in all we all are able to achieve through culture, society, technology, love, and peace. Inspirational in nature - a glimpse into the uplifting and beautiful world that we ALL live in.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

pre eclipse cycle cresent3

I slept beneath the radiant southern stars on the Sunday night, to awaken at first light to an intensely beautiful morn.

Wandering through a paddock to the shore of this dam, mist rising off the water, silhouette of a eucalypt reflecting off its mirror as the sun's first rays caressed the horizon, I set up my tripod to shoot.

Before me was the slimmest crescent moon possible to be seen, the last before the lunar cycle preceding the impending solar eclipse commenced - poignant as I am about to travel to Turkey to witness totality.

As I turned the camera on and placed my finger upon the trigger, the battery died... Devastation.

Never mind, enjoy the moment, drink it in... but at the same time, lets try to warm the battery with energetic hands as we savour the sight and foretaste of the eclipse to come. Replace battery, pray a silent prayer, aim, turn on, shoot, hold breath...

Click.

Joy.

The moment to share with loved ones and people all over the world.

And a spring in my step as I walked in full appreciation of the beauty of the area, the birds, the animals, the trees, glory abundant.

Friday, February 24, 2006

meet dragon - no fly


meet dragon - no fly
Originally uploaded by Beautiful wwworld.
The insect world always fascinates and inspires me. What prompted this blog was when the spot I was staring at the wall (little else to stare at when you're on the toilet) started to move. It was then that I realised it was an insect about half a milimetre in length. This train of thought led to the "Life in the Undergrowth" documentary series by David Attenborough, which features an insect far smaller than a pin head, able to leap above the Eiffel tower (in relative terms).

If you realise the amazing insect societies that thrive below and all around us, each full of individuals themselves remarkable feats of evolution, you start to realise how wondrous life on earth is. Remember that there's no way that humankind would survive without the insects!

As for this photo, its part of a beautiful story explained here:
This beautiful dragonfly was drowning in some water. When I rescued him and placed him out to dry in the sun, he obliged me with some pictures before he was dry enough to fly off. As a wonderful reward, I was fortunate enough to see another land at eye level, 1 foot away from me, which then proceeded to vertically launch, zap through mid air to catch an insect in its mouth, after which he returned to the ledge in front of my nose to chew and swallow the insect before my eyes. Wow!!! (That dragonfly is the next in this 'insects' set). I just love the detail in this picture, you can even see the hairs on his leg. Hold your finger up to the screen for relative sizes!

and concluding here:
Matrix Dragonfly


In less inspirational news, be sure to google "march 20th" and hit "I'm feeling lucky". Lets all celebrate!!!

Oh, and if you're fond of kittens, you may not like this: http://www.dansdata.com/kitten.htm

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

First Blog - inner and outer purpose


Its difficult to make your first blog entry, so difficult to know what to say. I'm sure there's been countless blogs about this very subject written, blogs about blogs about how to write a blog that tells someone how to make their first blog entry. Given that there are also plenty of blogs starting out like this one, I'll proceed.

The intention of this blog is to distill some of the inspirational beauty that life has to offer - its a method of encouraging myself to observe it, and part of an internal purpose to share it with the world.

This morning is a prime example of the simpleness of this approach yielding personally uplifting results - As simple as observing someone at the tram stop wearing a dog suit, accompanied by a person clad in see-through plastic. Ahhh diversity, got to love it. I'm sure those people were getting all sorts of attention and were the subject of many a lunch-break conversation - lending moments of happiness to the busy people of our city (bless 'em).

I was reading my book today - A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Power of Now), and before jumping off the tram, a guy expressed interest in it. I knew that I had caught the tram rather than cycled to work this morning for a reason, but between him, the dog, and the cute girl with strawberry-blonde dreadlocks neatly tied up to match her business attire, I had my reason - and basked in the pleasure this brought.

This realisation, as well as a conversation the previous evening with a heart friend Sal - who showered my in appreciation and love after I just allowed my intuition to guide her through her present momentary crisis, helped me have a minor epiphany. I feel highly motivated to give something to the world, to use my skills to best effect to contribute something of value to the world which has given me so much. I'm fortunate that I've been able to allign my contribution (my work) to my passion - environmental conservation - through working in renewable energy, green buildings, and sustainable living. In this I feel that I've discovered my outer purpose (for the moment), but there's much more to me and to life than this - this is what lies within and drives and guides us.

Eckhart tolle summed it up thus: "I am not saying here that helping others, caring for your children, or striving for excellence in whatever field are not worthwhile things to do. For many people, they are an important part of their outer purpose, but outer purpose alone is always relative, unstable, and impermanent. This does not mean that you should not be engaged in those activities. It means you should connect them to your inner, primary purpose, so that a deeper meaning flows into what you do."

So perhaps this blog forms some part of my inner purpose - which I feel for the moment is to inspire people to live to their potential, in everyday life and in their work. As I sat back and reflected in the afterglow of this realisation, I was pleased to observe the hand grips on the tram moving in synchonous motion, like linked pendulums - a phenomenon which brings me calmness and pleasure.