Heavenly by Bodhi Smith

"heavenly" a new impression from bodhi smith
 
"for just one reason so clear to me now, my life over the past couple of years has become more heavenly, more spiritual. my passions have come alive and i am full of more love in my heart than i ever ever thought possible...i have recovered emotionally, spiritually, and metaphysically. and i now notice all these signs from the universe. i have no expectations. i look forward to nothing except my next breath...i know my place. i know my path. i love my journey. i am no longer sleepwalking through life. i am awakened. i see. i love. i trust. i understand. i smile. i live. i believe. i am amazed. i am fascinated once again. i am all alive like the teenage romantic inside of me. i am at peace. i am cosmically connected finally. i am thankful for that one reason: i have learned to just let things be, accepting what is truly real, embracing what is important and letting go of everything else...such a huge weight is released from my chest...embracing reality and letting go of fantasy is truly heavenly" ― bodhinku, letting go is heavenly 
 
“our heart knows why we are here. whoever listens to his heart, follows the signs, and lives his personal legend, will understand that he is taking part in something, even if he doesn't comprehend it rationally. there is a tradition which says that, the second before our death, we realize the true reason for our existence. and at that moment, heavenly love is born" ― paulo coelho, warrior of the light 
  
“i can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people" ― sir isaac newton, mathematical principles of natural philosophy 
  
"take a deep breath, inhaling slowly, counting one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four...and then slowly exhale counting the same 1001-1002-1003-1004...repeat this 222 times...and i guarantee you will feel better about everything, because you will see that just breathing is heavenly..." ― bodhinku, heavenly
 
my choice of the perfect tune to listen: (sitting on) the dock of the bay by dennis brown  this is a really cool reggae cover of the famous otis redding song (links to that version are below)
 
there are so many songs that i could include here to go along with this new impression, but the one that came to my mine first, was "(sitting on) the dock of the bay" by otis redding for its calming spiritual qualities about just letting go, and accepting life as it is...such a poignant and meaningful classical tune,so applicable to today's current situation in this world right now...and i cannot wait to be able to get back out into nature and feel this calm connection to the universe again, one that is so very difficult to discover right now while hiking on paths of concrete alongside noisy cars with only surrounding views of planted trees and sculpted landscapes among buildings and pavement...
 
"sittin' in the mornin' sun, i'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes. watchin' the ships roll in, then i watch 'em roll away again...i'm sittin' on the dock of the bay watchin' the tide, roll away. i'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time... left my home in georgia, and i headed for the frisco bay beause i've got nothin' to live for. looks like nothin's gonna come my way, so i'm just come sittin' on the dock of the bay watchin' the tide roll away. i'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time. looks like nothin's gonna change, everything seems to stay the same. i can't do what ten people tell me to do, so i guess i'll remain the same...i'm sittin' here restin' my bones and this loneliness won't leave me alone. this two thousand miles i roamed just to make this dock my home...now i'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay watchin' the tide roll away. sittin' on the dock of the bay, i'm wastin' time" ― otis redding, (sitting on) the dock of the bay  
 
"there is another language beyond language, another heavenly place beyond heaven. precious gems come from another mine, the heart draws light from another source...what's inside" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi  
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MEANING
"sit on the end of a dock at night, and throw your toes into the water, and just think less, feel more, breathe...take in the stars, the milky way, the universe, everything in reflections of light and memories...breathe, let it be. for this is true meaning, right now, embrace it and fall in love with that heavenly peace welling up inside you" ― bodhinku, heavenly peace
  
pictured in the far background across lake tahoe here is the ski resort of heavenly in the mountains...so there is a literal meaning...
 
but for me, as you know, the meaning is much more profound. and if you have been reading my words so far, you will understand that the deeper meaning is about finding a heavenly frame of mind in your life...despite all the ugliness happening around us, and the government restrictions forced upon us, and the opinions of so many following what they believe as truth (although it might just be brainwashing)...step away, let it all be, find the tranquility inside of you...we all have it inside each of us... the universe sends us messages and signs, just read them and see the bigger picture... that all of this which is happening is just a tiny insignificant moment in time...what is more significant is what you have inside of yourself, that is all that is beautiful...find it, realize it, and listen to that inner voice, because you will find the truth inside of you...let go, accept, and just love what you have now, and who you are inside...that is the message and deeper meaning of my image today..

and here is a quote from bodhinku to deeper realize this meaning, because honestly, it is truly all about you, do what is best for yourself, that which you know as real truth in your own heart, and you will truly help out everyone around you, everyone else in this world will benefit for your own selfish decision to believe in yourself...
 
"all of this which is happening is just a tiny insignificant moment in time...what is more significant is what you have inside of yourself, that is all that is beautiful...find it, realize it, and listen to that inner voice, because you will find the truth inside of you...let go, accept, and just love what you have now, and who you are inside...that is the message and deeper meaning" ― bodhinku, a truth inside 

"when love comes suddenly and taps on your window, run and let it in. but first shut the door of your reason. even the smallest hint chases love away like smoke that drowns the freshness of the morning breeze. to reason love can only say, the way is barred, you can't pass through. but to the lover it offers a hundred blessings. before the mind decides to take a step, love has reached the heavenly heavens. before the mind can figure how love has climbed the holy mountain...but i must stop this talk now and let love speak from its nest of silence"  ― 
jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi   
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STORY BEHIND THE IMPRESSION
"it is truly all about you, do what is best for yourself, that which you know as real truth in your own heart, and you will truly help out everyone around you, everyone else in this world will benefit from your own selfish decision to believe in yourself..."― bodhinku, be selfish  
 
this is lake tahoe high up in the eastern sierra mountains from the end of a dock, with california under the stars, such a beautiful thing i feel everyone should take the time to try to see...still a virtually unspoiled place in california/nevada, especially at night when all the tourists and visitors go to sleep and the commitment of noise falls to zero, and the silence of heavenly peace rises to perfection...when you visit here, under these conditions, you will truly know what "one day" was meant to be...
 
"if you concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy person. you'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens...life will be a party for you, a heavenly festival, because life is the moment we're living right now” ― paulo coelho, the alchemist 
 
“whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heavenly love" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi 
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MORE QUOTES FOR EXTRA MEANING  
some more music which you might like to listen, heavenly by cigarettes after sex...(just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the song)  

"wanting your love to come into me, feeling it slow, over this dream. touch me with a kiss. touch me with a kiss. now you're above feeling it still. Tell me it's love, tell me it's real. touch me with a kiss, feel me on your lips. 'cause this is where i wanna be, where it's so sweet and heavenly...i'm giving you all my, giving you all my, giving you all my love...all my love...needing you now to come into me. feeling it slow, over this dream. touch me with a kiss, feel me on your lips. when you're above feeling it still. tell me it's love, tell me it's real. touch me with a kiss, touch me with a kiss. 'cause this is where i wanna be where it's so sweet and heavenly. i'm giving you all my, giving you all my, giving you all my love...all my love...and when you're far away, i still feel it all. and when you're far away, i still feel it all the same, and when you're far away, far away, i'm giving you all my, giving you all my, giving you all my love" ― 
cigarettes after sex, heavenly
 
"as you start to walk on the way, the way appears...the art of knowing, is knowing what to ignore" ― siddhartha gautama buddha, the dhammapada
 
"if you are quiet enough, you will hear the flow of the universe. you will feel its rhythm. go with this flow. you will notice things. the path to happiness lies ahead" ― siddhartha gautama buddha, the dhammapada
 
"be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. when you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you" ― lao tzu, tao te ching  
 
"when life becomes too complicated and we feel overwhelmed, it’s often useful just to stand back and remind ourselves of our overall purpose, our overall goal. when faced with a feeling of stagnation and confusion, it may be helpful to take an hour, an afternoon, or even several days to simply reflect on what it is that will truly bring us happiness, and then reset our priorities on the basis of that. this can put our life back in proper context, allow a fresh perspective, and enable us to see which direction to take" ― dalai lama xiv, the art of happiness
 
"the madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings" ― plato, phaedrus  
  
“you are the only solution to all the sadness in my heart and awfully—also, its only cause" ― beau taplin, buried light
 
"but above all else, i only wish for your happiness, even if you require my absence to find it" ― beau taplin, the wild heart     

"in relationships, needing our partners to be a thousand different things and then floundering in the mire when they fail to live up to those expectations..in buddhist writings and many other spiritual insights, i’ve heard so many times through the years that we should give up expectations we have on others, to provide for yourself, so you don’t have to rely on anyone and thus not be disappointed when reality and expectation do not mix...that always seems to be an overly simplistic suggestion to me. it always seems to come down to doing everything yourself no matter what the cost or sacrifice. i wonder sometimes how the world would be if we didn’t expect the services that we have come to rely upon to be there. like if you had to figure out how to put up a cell phone tower yourself because you couldn’t expect the equipment to be there via the company you pay for the service through...while i agree that our own support of ourselves becomes a foundation on which we stand such as self-love, worthiness, respect, etc., i don’t think its possible to do away with expecting things from others the exchanges we make back and forth in a relationship are what a relationship is. otherwise its just a bunch of people standing there staring at one another sort of numb not really sure what to do...which is pretty well what happens at the end of a relationship; you cease to rely on the other for a variety of reasons and find yourself solely responsible for your own everything. which i admit, can be a daunting reality to embrace at first, but a necessary one. it’s not that you have to do it alone either, without the support or love of those that you still hold dear. but you have to put yourself in the focus spot and make the next steps about what is best for you and your own healing...it doesn’t matter in the end who is to blame for the thorns when things fall apart and the petals fall to the ground. when we lay the funeral flowers on the grave of a relationship, it’s because of the culmination of things that build up over time to weigh down the structures that once solidly stood in place...to me blame isn’t going to help start new life over, though it may distract the hurt and anger for a while giving it something to chew on. for me at least better to allow the bleeding to occur than to staunch it and honor what once was, allowing the grief to ebb and flow as it naturally needs to even if you have been dealing with the end for awhile now. to cut yourself off from the flow of what you are experiencing to me means taking it with you in a doggy bag to deal with down the road. and that’s not fair to the brilliant life you have waiting for you on the horizon. ..there is always silver linings to these troubled times, though they can he extremely hard to see through the chaos and the raging storm...when you set out to create a life on your own, you get to build it to your own specs. yes, it can be scary. yes, you may have no idea where to start. but one piece at a time even the most crumbling of situations will be put to right. these torrents will not destroy you and you will thrive once more. know that...and one day soon, when you have your life built back up from the chaos that once was, a well-meaning soul will bring a bouquet of house-warming flowers to your door in celebration of this new chapter unfolding in your life reminding you that petal by petal, all things grow in their perfect time" ― 
c. ara campbell   

"bitter love, a violet with its crown of thorns in a thicket of spiky passions, spirit of sorrow, corolla of rage: how did you come to conquer my soul? what heavenly torment brought you? why did you pour your tender fire so quickly, over my life’s cool leaves? who pointed the way to you? what flower, what rock, what smoke showed you where i live? because the earth shook—it did—, that awful night; then dawn filled all the goblets with its wine; the heavenly sun declared itself; while inside, a ferocious love wound around and around me— till it pierced me with its thorns, it sword, slashing a seared road through my heart”  been sleeping in your soul" ― pablo neruda, twenty love poems and a song of despair
 
"when we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. and yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? life moves very fast. it rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds" ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes
 
“heaven and earth are meeting in a storm that, when it's over, will leave the air purer and the leaves fertile, but before that happens, houses will be destroyed, centuries- old trees will topple, paradises will be flooded" ― paulo coelho, aleph   
 
“just understanding life as it is, and living it with courage; not escaping from it, not hiding from it, facing it with courage, whatsoever it is, good or bad, divine or evil, is totally heavenly" ― osho, absolute tao
 
"after all, if there is nothing heavenly, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you" ― nicholas sparks, the longest ride  
 
"if freckles were lovely, and day was night, and measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie, life would be delight, but things couldn't go right for in such a sad plight i wouldn't be i...if earth was heavenly and now was hence, and past was present, and false was true, there might be some sense but i'd be in suspense for on such a pretense, you wouldn't be you...if fear was plucky, and globes were square, and dirt was cleanly and tears were glee, things would seem fair, yet they'd all despair, for if here was there, we would not be we" ― e. e. cummings, 100 selected poems
 
“heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads" ― henry david thoreau, walden  
 
"if the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. for man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern" ― william blake, the marriage of heaven and hell  
 
“the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heavenly hell, a hellishly heaven...” ― john milton, paradise lost  
 
“the best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and god. because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that god wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. as longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, i know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. and i firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles..." ― anne frank, the diary of a young girl  
 
"though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” ― alfred lord tennyson, idylls of the king and a selection of poems 
 
"the least you can do is go into the arts. i'm not kidding. the arts are not a way to make a living. they are a very human way of making life more bearable. practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow...sing in the shower. dance to the radio. tell stories. write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. do it as well as you possible can. you will get an enormous reward. you will have created something, something heavenly" ― kurt vonnegut, a man without a country  
 
“the only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone" ― mitch albom, the five people you meet in heaven 
 
“sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. you're just passing it on to someone else” ― mitch albom, the five people you meet in heaven
   
“sacrifice is a part of life. it's supposed to be. it's not something to regret. it's something to aspire to" ― mitch albom, the five people you meet in heaven 
  
“let it go, man...holding in anger is a poison...it eats you from inside...we think that by hating someone we hurt them..but hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves...just fucking let it go" ― mitch albom, the five people you meet in heaven  
 
“we are all the pieces of what we remember. we hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. as long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss”― cassandra clare, city of heavenly fire  
 
"earth's crammed with heavenly thoughts...but only he who sees, takes off his shoes” ― elizabeth barrett browning, aurora leigh  
 
“no tree, it is said, can grow heavenly unless its roots reach down to hell" ― carl jung, psychology and alchemy 
   
“he wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; i wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. i said
his heavenliness would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: i said i should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine" ― emily bronte, wuthering heights  
 
“i can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people" ― sir isaac newton, mathematical principles of natural philosophy  
 
"i have realized; it is during the times i am far outside my element that i experience myself the most. that i see and feel who i really am, the most! i think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! but it's only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail" behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! and meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they're shooting stars! that's why i enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that i am able to see that i'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly i illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! i discover a smile i didn't know i had, i uncover a feeling that i didn't know existed in me...i see myself. i'm a shooting star. a meteor shower. but i'm not going to die out. i guess i'm more like a comet then. i'm just going to keep on coming back" ― c. joybell c 
 
"nobody knows like a woman how to say things that are both sweet and profound. sweetness and depth, this is all of woman; this is heavenly" ― victor hugo, les miserables 
 
"soar like an eagle beyond skies of heavenly reach; as wings of dreams dance with winds of reality” ― shah asad rizvi  
 
“if the heavenly stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of god which had been shown! but every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smiles” ― ralph waldo emerson, nature and selected essays 
 
"i love this world, even as i hear the great wind of leaving it rising, for there is a grainy taste i prefer to every idea of heaven: human friendship" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi  
 
"lose yourself, lose yourself in this love...when you lose yourself in this love, you will find everything heavenly...lose yourself, lose yourself. do not fear this loss, for you will rise from the insecure depths inside you, and embrace the endless heavens" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi   
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"discover the heavenly you have inside you...quiet your mind and listen to your inner voice as it reflect the messages of the universe--those truths you know deep inside your soul" ― bodhinku, heavenly inside    
 
the impression which you see here are two separate exposures taken at separate times and put together as one...in my photography i always use filters to create longer exposure effects and to balance the light in my composition in camera...i often use as many as four filters at time, and i always use at least one filter...no filters were used in the exposure of the stars, but for the exposure of the dock on the lake, to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i used two filters...
 
for this, i chose to use the magnetic 3.0nd progrey antarctica filter (and progrey g-120z holder) to allow for a much longer exposure (10 stops) to smooth out the waters of lake tahoe and allow for a pristine reflection of the stars.. plus in combination with the 0.9gnd progrey g120 aurora filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, as the sky was much more brighter, about 3 stops brighter than the rest of the darker parts and shadows of the dock in the foreground of the image composition...
 
i wish to openly thank my sponsors who have always supported me through both the good and bad times...for truly this semi-long exposure impression would not be possible without the use of my trusty dolica tripods in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...
 
"weird that this is neither here nor there...i am by no way condoning alcoholism, but ever notice the clarity drinking a good beer, glass of wine, or doing a shot of liquor provides?? sometimes i need that poison in me, it cleans me out, so i can go on..." ― bodhinku, cleansing
 
"contemplate without thinking. stop the world. slow down everything. shut off the noise. relax. seize this moment. reconnect. feel and sense what surrounds you. listen to all the colors of light that envelope you. see the melody and harmony that floats about unnoticed. taste the solitude of all this wonderment. smell the beautiful silence. now discover your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith with all your senses. this is my world. awaken!" ― bodhinku, my world
 
above all else as always, i hope this message and impression find you well.

namaste,
bodhi
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