Nothing Else Matters by Bodhi Smith

Aug 14, 2020

"nothing else matters" a brand new impression and blog from me...
 
"looking up into the stars, i see nothing and everything at the same time, it is truly a sign from the universe that our lives here are just one giant oxymoron...but we truly need those opposites to balance us out, help us to be at peace within ourselves, or nothing else really matters" ― bodhinku, nothing else really matters 
  
"finding something in nothing always makes for a unique and beautiful photograph" ― bodhinku, something in nothing
 
"embrace nothing. nothing is worth holding on to" ― gautama siddhartha buddha, sayings of buddha
 
"i love to talk about nothing. it's the only thing i know anything about" ― oscar wilde
 
"nothing will avail to offset this virus which is poisoning the whole world" ― henry miller, tropic of capricorn 
 
"if what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing in return" ― paulo coelho, the alchemist  
 
"this is the secret of the stars. in the end, we are alone no matter how close you seem, no one else can touch you. maybe the secret of the stars has nothing to do with being alone" ― beth revis, across the universe 
 
"you're still alive. and that means you'll love and be loved...and in the end, nothing else really matters" ― nicholas sparks, the best of me 
 
"no matter what else you believe about life, you must believe in the signs of miracles. because we are all a miracle, every one of us, living on a round rock that spins around and around at almost a quarter of a million miles per hour in an unthinkably vast blackness called space. there is nothing else like us for as far as our telescopic eyes can see. in a universe filled with spinning, barren rocks, frozen gas, ice, dust, and radiation, we live on a planet filled with soft, green leaves and salty oceans and honey made from bees, which themselves live within geometrically complex and perfect structures of their own architecture and creation. in our trees are birds whose songs are as complex and nuanced as beethoven’s greatest sonatas. and despite the wild, endless spinning of our planet and its never-ending orbit around the sun–itself a star on fire–when we pour water into a glass, the water stays in the glass. all of these are miracles" ― augusten burroughs, this is how 
 
"nothing is part of everything" ― dejan stojanovic, the sign and Its children
  
"yet, i thought, if i can die saying, "life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important. if i can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters" ― mario puzo, the godfather 
 
"i'm standing under this nothing sign, looking up into the ethereal milky way directly above it. and taken together, i know this is one of those signs from the universe...it's slapping me smack dab in the face with nothing and everything at the same time, bludgeoning me with clarity, with the idea that nothing really matters except living in love: being loved, and loving others...all i need is love, and truly nothing else matters" ― bodhinku, nothing else matters 
 
"i never opened myself this way. life is ours, we live it our way. all these words i don't just say, and nothing else matters...never cared for what they say. never cared for games they play. never cared for what they do. never cared for what they know, and i know...nothing else matters" ― james hetfield (metallica), nothing else matters
 
"nothing but the stars shining through the darkness of the night mattered to me, but when i met her, everything in my dark world became much brighter, i found a sunshine so beautiful, the morning had dawned on me at last" ― bodhinku, dawn after the darkness
 
and here are three very different versions of the same song, a classic released originally in 1992 by the heavy metal band of metallica, and these are the perfect accompaniment to connect music with the meaning of my impression and blog today: "nothing else matters" by godsmack (metallica piano cover) ...or if you prefer to here the original song by metallica: "nothing else matters" by metallica ...or even another beautiful cover: "nothing else matters" by marlisa (metallica cover) ...(just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the musical selection)....

"so close, no matter how far. couldn't be much more from the heart. forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters...never opened myself this way. life is ours, we live it our way. all these words i don't just say, and nothing else matters...trust i seek and i find in you, every day for us something new. open mind for a different view, and nothing else matters...never cared for what they do. never cared for what they know, but i know...so close, no matter how far. it couldn't be much more from the heart. forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters...never cared for what they do, never cared for what they know. but i know...i never opened myself this way. life is ours, we live it our way. all these words i don't just say, and nothing else matters...trust i seek and i find in you, every day for us something new. open mind for a different view, and nothing else matters...never cared for what they say. never cared for games they play. never cared for what they do. never cared for what they know, and i know, yeah... so close, no matter how far. it couldn't be much more from the heart. forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters." ― godsmack, nothing else matters (metallica cover) 
 
"to have meaning, the darkness needs the love of the light, just as the light needs the love of darkness, nothing else matters except them together...without their union, no impression of mine could ever exist, nor could i either..." ― bodhinku, the union  
 
"i prefer the darkness, because i am at my happiest under the stars, in the middle of nowhere, all alone with only my doggie...nothing else matters but the peace, and being in this simplicity" ― bodhinku, nothing but peace 
 
"without love, there is nothing but grief...so be in love...what else matters?"  ― jalaluddin rumi, hush don't say anything to god 
----------------------
 
MEANING
"when i looked at her glowing before me, i knew nothing else in the world mattered, or ever would" ― bodhinku, her glow  
 
obviously, the meaning of this impression is related directly to the words on the sign within the image, "nothing" along with the beautiful milky way glowing above it... i'm standing under this nothing sign, looking up into the heavenly milky way above. and taken together, i know this is one of those signs from the universe...it's slapping me directly in the face with nothing and everything at the same time, bludgeoning me with clarity, with the idea that nothing really matters except living in love: being loved, and loving others...all i need is love, and truly nothing else matters ...that is the impression i am hoping to illuminate inside you with my photograph and blog today...
 
"inside,
inside my heart,
inside my universe,
you are my dawning sun,
bringing me out of my dark night,
warming me with this sparkling happiness
i never knew possible, turning me from nothing into everything" ― bodhinku, nothing into everything  
 
and here is another meaningful song with truly meaningful lyrics to give listen...it is newer alternative music, a really deeply meaning: "everything i wanted" by billie eilish ...(just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the song)...  
 
"i had a dream, i got everything i wanted, not what you'd think. and if i'm being honest, it might've been a nightmare...to anyone who might care, thought i could fly, so i stepped off the golden...nobody cried, nobody even noticed. i saw them standing right there, kinda thought they might care..i had a dream, i got everything i wanted. but when i wake up, i see, you with me. and you say, "as long as j'm here, no one can hurt you. don't wanna lie here, but you can learn to if. i could change the way that you see yourself, you wouldn't wonder why you hear they don't deserve you"...i tried to scream, but my head was underwater. they called me weak like i'm not just somebody's daughter. coulda been a nightmare, but it felt like they were right there. and it feels like yesterday was a year ago, but i don't wanna let anybody know because everybody wants something from me now, and i don't wanna let them down. i had a dream, i got everything i wanted, but when i wake up, i see you with me. and you say, "as long as i'm here, no one can hurt you. don't wanna lie here, but you can learn to. if i could change the way that you see yourself, you wouldn't wonder why you hear they don't deserve you"...if i knew it all then would i do it again? would i do it again? if they knew what they said would go straight to my head, what would they say instead? if i knew it all then would i do it again? would I do it again? if they knew what they said would go straight to my head, what would they say instead?" ― billie eilish, everything i wanted
      
and now here are a few more quotes from bodhinku from past blogs to help add to the dark/light confusion of this blog's meaning...
 
"jai guru deva om...i meditated this morning with a smile, with visions of you carried through and across the universe since the beginning of all time and space..."  ― bodhinku, across the universe 
 
"universe's love star,
you light my world near and far
showing all we are" ― bodhinku, light of the universe (haiku)
 
"like stars of night skies
my universe in her eyes
sparkles, smiles, and sighs" ― bodhinku, my universe too (haiku)
 
"like a bright quasar
she lights my world near and far
as my heart-shaped star"― bodhinku, my universe (haiku)
 
"when i first saw
your eyes
i knew you already
from gazing upward
at all the stars

i'd been looking into
your eyes
for so long already
across the universe
my whole entire life

if stars would become
your eyes
they'd truly know already
their exact name
was always yours" ― bodhinku, eyes of the universe
 
"i gave her everything, and i ended up with nothing, but i will take that nothing any day over her, because at least nothing is real"― bodhinku, nothing is real 
 
"in trying to understand myself, and things that really make me glow with happiness, i created something special here...one fusion joined together from my psyche, dreams, visions, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and illuminations from the inner workings of my combined mind, heart, and soul" ― bodhinku, zen to me
 
"i really need to be illuminated daily by things that are inspiring to me, things than make me smile, giggle, and glow from my deepest depths...illuminating my inner shadows, those hidden dark parts of me, personal secrets that make me who i am, even if i am not proud of them" ― bodhinku, illuminated  
 
"i need a focus on all the beauty surrounding me, i need zen, rather than any sort of focus on all the other crazy ugliness that is surrounding me, as the state of affairs where i live in the state of california is permeating into my peaceful state of mind...i need zen, it is like a beautiful prayer to my inner peace...i need to meditate more now than ever...breathe, relax, let go...refocus, re-center" ― bodhinku, i need zen
 
"i gotta let it all go, let it be, focus instead on nature, and internalize my spiritual connection of the beauty around me, which will refreshen me again, enlightening me with the real meaning of my own nature...let that soothe me, calm me, and recenter me in peace" ― bodhinku, beautiful prayer to inner peace
 
"i dislike being in a state of being where i have been finding myself not at peace within myself, becoming unbalanced and unwelcomingly frustrated lately with our world...i need zen to redistribute myself evenly once again" ― bodhinku, unbalanced
 
"in the darkness of the night i find my path to peace as the stars flower my world with angelic beauty...it is in the light of day that i am tormented and lost, as the sunshine bedevils me, and bleaches out all of my dreams with blinding reality" ― bodhinku, bedevilled 
 
"i need those glowing flowers at night to be real in the morning..." ― bodhinku, real flowers
 
 "i once told her i would wait for her forever, but forever was stolen from me in the whisper of her first lie" ― bodhinku, forever stolen
    
 "a lie cannot change its nature and become truth one day, and neither can she" ― bodhinku, in her nature
----------------------
 
STORY BEHIND THIS IMPRESSION
"if nothing else...if i open my eyes, if i cry, if i think, if i sigh, if i giggle, if i dance, if i love, if i breathe, then i have lived a full days worth of life...nothing is wasted, nothing" ― bodhinku, if nothing else
  
pictured here under the beautiful milky way is an old deteriorating sign that is about 55ft tall, which along with a couple dilapidated buildings close by is pretty much the only remains of the town of "nothing" arizona...
  
this composition consists of a single exposure, captured at 9:15pm on 08-11-2020 and was not merged with any other exposures like i often do with my photography to achieve the perfect lighting of the entire scene...
 
when i arrived at the location about an hour before sunset, i used star apps with my smartphone to get the exact position i wanted for my composition ahead of time to set up my camera and then take exposures of the sign and foreground at about 15 mins after sunset to merge later with the stars when the milky way was in place over the sign about 1.45hrs later in the same camera frame...
 
but as it turned out, i did not need to do this, and was able to capture my vision in only one exposure, as i discovered as the night's darkness enveloped me that the sign was being illuminated by passing vehicles on the adjacent highway, creating a more profound and true effect i like better...and i could achieve the optimal lighting effects by timing vehicles' headlights to when they were faint on the sign as they zoomed past this forgotten location (clueless that i was even there just out of sight in the shadows)...however, it was truly frustrating getting the perfect lighting right with this method, but with much patience and by trial and error, i was able to capture a few really nice frames, and this was one of them, and my next release will be another taken with a wider angle lens later in the evening...
 
"but, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. and whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. take great care that it does not confuse your mind. and the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. that is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. remember the signs and believe the signs. nothing else matters" ― c.s. lewis, the chronicles of narnia 
  
"you think because you understand 'one' you understand 'two', because one and one make two. but you must also understand: 'and' " ― jalaluddin rumi, hush don't say anything to god  
---------------------
 
HISTORY OF NOTHING
"when you see her, everything changes...all of a sudden, it's not the stars above or gravity holding you to the planet, it's her... nothing else matters" ― stephenie meyer, twilight
    
"whoever said something is better than nothing, never stood in my shoes...for me it is all or nothing, because when you have nothing left to lose, nothing lasts forever"― bodhinku, nothing    

the original town sign of "nothing" arizona once read:
"this is the town of nothing, arizona. founded 1977. elevation 3269ft...the staunch citizens of nothing are full of hope, faith, and believe in the work ethic. thru-the-years-these dedicated people had faith in nothing, hoped for nothing, worked at nothing, for nothing"

the settlement of nothing, az was officially established in 1977 by richard "buddy" kenworthy and his group of four friends and became arizona's smallest official community. nothing was an odd experiment to create a town on the long desolate stretch of u.s.93 between phoenix and kingman, az...at the time, the town of nothing, az had a mere two buildings: one a gas station with a garage and the other a small roadside market. and to make it more official, the arizona department of transportation installed one of four motorist call boxes on u.s.93 at nothing...at its height, nothing had a population of 4. at that time, the settlement contained only that gas station, that small convenience store with a sign, and a large rock shop with another taller sign. 
 
the long-time locals in the area told travelers that nothing "got named by a bunch of drunks"...and since then, nothing is more noted for frequently being on lists of unusual place names.in the united states of america. 
by 1998, the town of nothing, az was abandoned by its four incorporating inhabitants and became another failed experiment in the desert...
 
an attempted revival of nothing occurred at some time after august 2005 when nothing was purchased by mike jensen. by april 2006, jensen had opened the rock shop along with his pizza business, run from a portable oven, with hopes of reopening the mini-mart and gas station and creating accommodations for RVs...and ironically, rumor has it that the town of nothing was abandoned in 2008 after a grease fire consumed most of it while a resident was cooking a pizza...however, officially, and probably due to its remote location, in 2011 all was abandoned again in nothing due to lack interest and monetary gain...
 
once again, "nothing" slowly began to succumb to the extremes of arizona desert. by august 2009, the building that had contained the nothing rock shop had totally collapsed and was removed. the gas station fell into severe disrepair and collapsed in 2014 and was also  removed...the sign on the "all-mart" fell down in 2017, and used to read that the population of nothing is four people, four that are obvious long since moved on. ...currently all that remains of nothing is the gutted and windowless remains of the ironically named "all-mart", the "nothing" sign, and a couple of building foundations.
 
in 2016, century 21 real estate ran a "give dad nothing" promotion where a free 24 hour lease to a piece of property at nothing, arizona could be secured for june 19, 2016 (father's day) only...the promotion was done with the participation of the current property owner and included a downloadable "certificate of nothing" and gift card...however, the promotion was unprofitable, and now the ghost town has fallen into even more disrepair... 
 
"nothing" now hosts literally "nothing" except a good stopping point for the curious (and photographers like me), and also a nice stopping point for sleepy long haul truckers as a roadside rest spot on their way from phoenix to las vegas...
 
due to a huge lack of interest with stops by motorists and travellers, nothing was totally abandoned. it is now a true ghost town. the buildings have no glass or boards over their windows, and there is no indication of inhabitants or any activity...the entire property is now surrounded by barbed wire with an adjacent tall cell phone tower beside the deteriorating 55ft-tall "nothing" sign...and that large "nothing" sign pictured in my impression here is actually the remains of signage for the nothing rock shop, which has long collapsed over a decade ago and whose concrete foundations can still be seen. 
 
and of course, nothing is currently for sale, but if the i-11 interstate project goes through, nothing will likely permanently cease all hopes of being resurrected again, creating truly an ironic end to the town by literally becoming nothing.
 
"nothing else matters
just two hearts beating as one
 
"from within my soul, while looking up to the stars, i can connect nothing to everything" ― bodhinku, nothing to everything
 
"even though he
knew not how to swim, he
jumped into the deep end,
hoping she would follow, and
save him from drowning in mediocrity,
because one day of something wonderful,
is better than a forever of nothing special" ― bodhinku, a better one day
---------------------
 
MORE QUOTES ABOUT "NOTHING" FOR EXTRA MEANING
and here is another song with lyrics that connect with the image title, and the deeper theme of this blog today..: "nothing lasts forever" by maroon 5 ...(just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the song)...  
 
"it is so easy to see dysfunction between you and me. we must free up these tired souls before the sadness kills us both. i tried and tried to let you know, i love you, but i'm letting go. it may not last, but i don't know, i just don't know...if you don't know, then you can't care. and you show up, but you're not there. but i'm waiting, and you want to. still afraid that i will desert you, everyday. with every worthless word we get more far away, the distance between us makes it so hard to stay. but nothing lasts forever; but be honest, babe, it hurts, but it may be the only way...a bed that's warm with memories can heal us temporarily. the misbehaving only makes the ditch between us so damn deep. built a wall around my heart, i'll never let it fall apart. but, strangely, i wish secretly it would fall down while i'm asleep...if you don't know, then you can't care. and you show up but you're not there. but i'm waiting, and you want to. still afraid that i will desert you, babe. everyday, with every worthless word, we get more far away. the distance between us makes it so hard to stay. but nothing lasts forever but be honest, babe...it hurts, but it may be the only way. though we have not hit the ground, it doesn't mean we're not still falling. oh, i want so bad to pick you up, but you're still too reluctant to accept my help. what a shame...i hope you find somewhere to place the blame. but until then, the fact remains, everyday with every worthless word, we get more far away. the distance between us makes it so hard to stay. but nothing lasts forever but be honest, babe...it hurts, but it may be the only way...everyday with every worthless word, we get more far away. the distance between us makes it so hard to stay, but nothing lasts forever but be honest, babe...it hurts, but it may be the only way..." ― maroon 5, nothing lasts forever  
  
“believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if i have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense" ― gautama siddhartha buddha, sayings of buddha
 
"nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded" ― gautama siddhartha buddha, sayings of buddha  
 
"if you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? what is there to fear?" ― confucius  
 
"nothing is more visible than things hidden; nothing is more manifest than things minute;  therefore, the superior man should be aware of his aloneness" ― confucius, the doctrine of the mean
  
“to know nothing is to know the peace of buddha" ― lao tzu, tao te ching
 
"i don't know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves. therefore, it is important to discover daily what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness" ― dalai lama xiv, the art of happiness  
 
"nature does nothing uselessly" ― aristotle, politics
  
"here is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing" ― aristotle  

"a wise man knows one thing, that he knows nothing" ― plato, phaedrus   
 
“at present i absolutely want to paint a starry sky. it often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. if only you pay attention to it, you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. and without my expatiating on this theme, it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.” ― vincent van gogh  
 
"anger is a real human emotion, one that is very important. sometimes it arise out of the nothing, for reasons revolving around to many other misunderstood emotions....swallowing our emotions and holding them in is not healthy. this can cause stress, illness or even death. being upset because of nothing or something ongoing in our lives in something very human. it can show us where things aren’t working out the way we want or where we need to make changes when nothing is working out. it can inspire us to action and resolution...for instance, maybe your artwork is being copied and your ideas stolen. maybe you’re having relationship issues. maybe your writing is being plagiarised. maybe there are changes happening at work. or maybe you’re just having a really bad week...while it’s never good to stay in anger permanently as a state of mind, there’s nothing wrong with experiencing it in the now...it’s ok to be angry. it’s ok to be frustrated. it’s ok to be not be okay in this moment. people who are upset aren’t wanting to stay there. however, it’s impossible to shame their frustration away. we need to allow ourselves the space to deal with what upsets us without shame or positive washing" ― c. ara campbell (with additions by bodhinku)
 
"night air, good conversation, and a sky full of stars can heal almost any wound" ― beau taplin, remedy  
 
"if nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life" ― pablo neruda, toward the splendid city
 
"my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention i need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was not wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he’d keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing" ― pablo neruda 
 
"if we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves, and of threatening ourselves with death...perhaps the world can teach us as when everything seems dead but later proves to be alive" ― pablo neruda   

"oh, beloved, and there is nothing but shadows
where you accompany me in your dreams
and tell me the hour of light" ― pablo neruda, 100 love sonnets
 
"when i had nothing to lose, i had everything. when i stopped being who i am, i found myself" ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes
 
"no one owns anything. anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever, finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them...and if nothing belongs to me, then there's no point wasting my time looking after things that aren't mine"   ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes 
 
"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!" ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes  
 
"nothing happens by chance" ― paulo coelho, brida
 
"i was not i, i was nothing--and that seemed to me quite marvelous" ― paulo coelho, the zahir
 
"one always has to know when a stage comes to an end. if we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters...whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished....did you lose your job? has a loving relationship come to an end? did you leave your parents' house? gone to live abroad? has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden? you can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. you can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that. but such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill....none of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. what has passed will not return: we cannot forever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back....things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away. that is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts, and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place....let things go. release them. detach yourself from them. nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else....nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, something that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the "ideal moment." before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person, nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. this may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important....closing cycles. not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust. stop being who you were, and change into who you are” ― paulo coelho
 
"but if i don’t think about love, i will be nothing" ― paulo coelho, warrior of the light
 
"the world is nothing but your own magnified mind" ― osho, book of wisdom
 
"in the world of matter, nothing succeeds like the ego...in the world of consciousness, nothing fails like the ego" ― osho, the responsibility of being oneself
 
“nothing is good. nothing is bad. when this dawns in your consciousness, suddenly you are together, all fragments have disappeared into one unity” ― osho, awareness: the key to living in balance
 
"and meditation is nothing but enjoying your beautiful aloneness. celebrating yourself; that’s what meditation is all about" ― osho, love, freedom, aloneness
 
"nothing in life is ever wasted, especially steps taken towards truth" ― osho, come, come, yet again come 
 
“if you want to learn anything, learn trust--nothing else is needed. if you are miserable, nothing else will help--learn trust. if you don't feel any meaning in life and you feel meaningless, nothing will help--learn trust. trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole to descend upon you" ― osho, zen: the path of paradox
 
"respect life, revere life. there is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life" ― osho, the book of nothing
 
"unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense" ― e. e. cummings, 100 selected poems
 
"that's why i loved being with you. we could do the simplest things, like toss starfish into the ocean and share a burger and talk and even then i knew that i was fortunate. because you were the first guy who wasn't constantly trying to impress me. you accepted who you were, but more than that, you accepted me for me. and nothing else mattered...not my family, or your family, or anyone else in the world. it was just us" ― nicholas sparks, the best of me
 
“but even though she was attractive, there was something else about her that caught his eye. she was intelligent, he could sense that right away, and confident, too, as if she were able to move through life on her own terms. to him, these were the things that really mattered. without them, beauty was nothing" ― nicholas sparks, message in a bottle 
 
"he closed his eyes as she put her hand on his shoulder, and in that instant, nothing else mattered. not the song, not the place, not the other couples around him. only this, only her. he gave himself over to the feel of her body as it pressed against him, and they moved slowly in small circles on the sawdust-strewn floor, lost in a world that felt as though it had been created for just the two of them" ― nicholas sparks, the lucky one  
 
"i am nothing special, of this i am sure. i am a common man with common thoughts and i've led a common life. there are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but i've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough..." ― nicholas sparks, the notebook
 
"it is nothing to die. it is frightful not to live" ― victor hugo, les miserables 
 
"to love or have loved, that is enough. ask nothing further. there is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life" ― victor hugo, les miserables  
 
"nothing can be sadder or more profound than to see a thousand things for the first and last time" ― victor hugo, les miserables  
 
"you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way" ― richard bach, jonathan livingston seagull  
 
"bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us. nothing is the worst thing that can happen to us" ― richard bach, one  
 
“nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream" ― richard bach, illusions 
 
"perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" ― antoine de saint-exupery, the little prince
 
"true love begins when nothing is looked for in return"― antoine de saint-exupery, the little prince 
 
"people have stars, but they aren't the same. for travelers, the stars are guides. for other people, they're nothing but tiny lights. and for still others, for scholars, they're problems...but all those stars are silent stars. you, though, you'll have stars like nobody else...since i'll be laughing on one of them, for you it'll be as if all the stars are laughing. you'll have stars that can laugh!...and it'll be as if i had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh..." ― antoine de saint-exupery, the little prince   
 
“i love you..i have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. i thought an hour ago that i loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that, i knew that what i felt before was nothing compared to what i felt then. but ten minutes after that, i understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. your eyes are like that, did you know? well they are. how many minutes ago was i? twenty? had i brought my feelings up to then? it doesn't matter, for i love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago, that there cannot be comparison. i love you so much more now then when you opened the door into my heart, there cannot be comparison. there is no room in my body for anything but you. my arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. my mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? i will do that. do you want me to crawl? i will crawl. i will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but wine, i will go to araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. anything there is that i can do for you, i will do for you; anything there is that i cannot do, i will learn to do. i know for me there is only you... [and with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done; she looked right into his eyes]" ― william goldman, the princess bride  
 
"i believe that nothing happens by chance. deep down, things have their own secret plan, even though we don't understand it" ― don miguel ruiz, the four agreements
 
"there is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally" ― don miguel ruiz, the four agreements  
 
“love gives nothing but itself, and takes nothing but from itself. love does not possess, nor would it be possessed. and do not think that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. love has nothing but the desire to fulfill itself" ― khalil gibran, the prophet  
 
"life is nothing but an affair of mystery; shared with companions of music, dance and poetry"― shah asad rizvi  
 
"where it is a work of beauty, it has no question to answer; it has nothing to do, but to be" ― rabindranath tagore

"love adorns itself;
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.
love does not claim possession,
but gives freedom.
love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.
love's gift cannot be given,
it waits to be accepted" ― rabindranath tagore, collected poems and plays
 
"you smiled and talked to me of nothing, and I felt that for this, I had been waiting long" ― rabindranath tagore, fireflies
 
"you alone are enough. you have nothing to prove to anybody"― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome
 
" let nothing dim the light that shines from within"― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome
 
 "the world owes you nothing, and every gift is exactly that, a gift" ― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome
 
"you need to learn that you cannot have anything without working for it. the only way you can be taken advantage of is if you think you can get something for nothing" ― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome  
 
"my dear, i have nothing to say.
my heart burns
like the evening sky." ― sanober khan, turquoise silence

"the magic fades too fast
the scent of summer never lasts
the nights turn hollow and vast
but nothing remains...nothing lasts" ― sanober khan, turquoise silence
 
"nothing can bring the hurt of loneliness upon a man so swiftly as to pass a strange house in the dark and witness, in the lamplight from within, a family breaking evening bread together" ― og mandino, the greatest salesman in the world
 
"be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility...humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate. just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness" ― c. joybell c.  
 
"anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. on flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. be human"― c. joybell c.  
 
"humans are strange things. they have sex with each other; but are too ashamed to say sorry to one another, they see what they have when they've lost what they have; but not while they have it, they are the most proud on the outside during the times they are the most insecure on the inside, and they would rather die manipulating others than be brave enough to be honest. they can't even look in the mirror properly. all they see are their shells in the mirror; nothing else."― c. joybell c.
  
"all the fires of hell could burn for a thousand years and it wouldn't equal what i feel for you in one minute of the day. i love you so much there is no pleasure in it. nothing but torment. because if i could dilute what i feel for you to the mil­lionth part, it would still be enough to kill anyone. and even if it drives me mad, i would rather see you live in the arms of that cold, soulless bastard than die in mine" ― lisa kleypas, seduce me at sunrise  
 
"and, no one can predict of any certainty what will happen next. and, none of it will change how i intend to spend the rest of my life. i will live it on my terms. and you... you can have all of me or nothing. i won't be an invalid any longer. not even if it means losing you" ― lisa kleypas, seduce me at sunrise
  
“you could run to the farthest corners of the earth. there's no place you could go where i wouldn't love you. nothing you could do to stop me" ― lisa kleypas, love in the afternoon  
 
"he had never experienced the pain of unsatisfied desire before. it hurt. it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt, and there seemed to be no remedy" ― lisa kleypas, dreaming of you  
 
"there's nothing worse than breaking a promise to someone who cares about you"― lisa kleypas, tempt me at twilight
  
and with all of this plethora of quotes, you are only about halfway through ones i have selected by other authors with a deeper meaning about "nothing"...so,  here is another beautifully poignant song with beautiful apropos lyrics to give listen, a true classic of wisdom to help anyone find some peace in their life in times of trouble, or ego, or nothing going right, by breathing and just letting things be: "let it be" by the beatles ... (just click on any of words in the blue links to listen to the song)...  
 
"when i find myself in times of trouble, mother mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom: let it be. and in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me speaking words of wisdom: let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be...whisper words of wisdom: let it be...and when the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer: let it be...for though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see. there will be an answer: let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. there will be an answer, let it be let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be...whisper words of wisdom: let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be...whisper words of wisdom: let it be...and when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me. shine until tomorrow: let it be...i wake up to the sound of music, mother mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom: let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be. there will be an answer, let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be...whisper words of wisdom: let it be" ― the beatles, let it be
 
"in life, we have to be strong and bright enough to face our dark times. eclipses may come and eclipses may go, nothing should stop our inner strength’s flow" ― munia khan, attainable  
 
"renew, release, let go. yesterday’s gone. there’s nothing you can do to bring it back. you can’t “should’ve” done something. you can only do something. renew yourself. release that attachment. today is a new day" ― steve maraboli, unapologetically you   
 
"nothing can disturb your peace of mind unless you allow it to" ― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart  
 
"nothing makes a person happier than having a happy heart" ― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart
     
"shine your light and make a positive impact on the world; there is nothing so honorable as helping improve the lives of others" ― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart     
 
"we don’t truly appreciate what we have until it’s gone…be grateful for what you have now, and nothing should be taken for granted"― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart  
   
"nothing can be more hurtful to your heart than betraying yourself"― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart  
"nothing takes you away from dwelling in the past or worrying about the future like living in the present"― roy t. bennett, the light in the heart         
 
"one is necessary, one is a piece of fate, one belongs to the whole, one is the whole...there exists nothing which could judge, measure, compare, condemn our being, for that would be to judge, measure, compare, condemn the whole…but nothing exists apart from the whole" ― friedrich nietzche, twilight of the idols 
 
“nothing is impossible” ― walt disney
 
 “laughter is timeless. imagination has no age. and dreams are forever” ― walt disney
 
"there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept" ― ansel adams  
 
"i am nothing, and not even that" ― chuck palahniuk, fight club  
 
“there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" ― william shakespeare, hamlet 
 
 “life ... is a tale...told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" ― william shakespeare, macbeth  
 
"and nothing is, but what is not" ― william shakespeare, macbeth  

"i do love nothing in the world so well as you--is not that strange?”
― william shakespeare, much ado about nothing  
 
"nothing will come of nothing: speak again" ― william shakespeare, king lear 
 
“true, i talk of dreams,
which are the children of an idle brain,
begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
which is as thin of substance as the air
and more inconstant than the wind..." ― william shakespeare, romeo and juliet 
 
"nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable" ― william shakespeare, much ado about nothing
   
"it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught"  ― oscar wilde
 
"there is nothing else than now. there is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. how old must you be before you know that? there is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. this is how you live a life in two days. and if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life" ― ernest hemingway, for whom the bell tolls 
 
"the thing is to become a master, and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing" ― ernest hemingway, the sun also rises
 
 "hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee" ― ernest hemingway, a farewell to arms
 
"i learned a little of beauty...enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth..." ― f. scott fitzgerald, the great gatsby  
 
"i am tired of knowing nothing and being reminded of it all the time" ― f. scott fitzgerald, tender is the night
  
"the strongest guard is placed at the gateway to nothing. maybe because the condition of emptiness is too shameful to be divulged" ― f. scott fitzgerald, tender is the night 
  
"there’s nothing sadder to me than associations held together by nothing but the glue of postage stamps. if you can’t see or hear or touch her, it’s best to let her go” ― john steinbeck, east of eden  
 
"and don't worry about losing. if i is right, it happens...the main thing is not to hurry. nothing good gets away" ― john steinbeck, the grapes of wrath
 
"everyone loves something for nothing...even if it costs everything” ― stephen king, needful things
 
"and suddenly it didn't seem to matter any more, nothing would matter if she could turn over, turn over and see the stars, turn over and look once and die" ― stephen king, carrie
 
"nothing had ever spoiled it, somehow. it could be spoiled, he knew that, but in spite of the reputed fragility of the creative act, it had always been the single toughest thing, the most abiding thing, in his life...nothing had ever been able to pollute that crazy well of dreams: no drink, no drug, no pain" ― stephen king, misery 
 
"nothing lasts forever...except maybe for love...and desire" ― stephen king, it  
 
"nothing is ever lost...nothing that can't be found" ― stephen king, the dead zone  
 
“in many ways, the world is nothing but a pile of shit. but it can also be very beautiful" ― stephen king, thinner  
 
"for her, sex was nothing more than an itch. and this phsychological and physiological neutrality of hers at once relieved her of so many human emotions and sentiments and desires. sexual neutrality was the essence of coldness in an individual. it was a great and wonderful thing to be born with" ― ian fleming, from russia with love
 
"nothing is forever. only death is permanent. nothing is forever except what you did to me" ― ian fleming, diamonds are forever  
 
"don't lose faith in your stars" ― ian fleming, live and let die
 
"the stars winked down their cryptic morse and he had no key to their cipher" ― ian fleming, moonraker 
 
"you love her, even if you don’t believe you do. you’re used to her, and a lot of love is nothing more than habit" ― john saul, suffer the children  
 
"sometimes i feel like there is so much to be afraid of, and sometimes i feel like there is nothing left to fear" ― veronica roth, allegiant
  
"the way i feel about you will never change. of course i love you...and there's nothing you can do about it" ― stephenie meyer, twilight  
 
"because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. it was an impossibility" ― stephenie meyer, twilight    
 
"i deny nothing, but doubt everything" ― lord george byron
 
"which is the best man to deal with,-he who knows nothing about a subject, and, what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, or he who really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all?"― henry david thoreau, walden
 
“to do nothing is the way to be nothing" ― nathaniel hawthorne
 
"doing nothing often leads to the very best of something" ― a.a. milne, winnie the pooh 
 
"because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that god or satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will did it. it was you. i have not broken your heart. it was you,  you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. so much the worse for me that i am strong" ― emily bronte, wuthering heights
 
"but afterwards, is there nothing more for me in life, no true home, nothing to be dearer to me than myself?" ― charlotte bronte, villette 
 
"i have said that the soul is not more than the body. and i have said that the body is not more than the soul. and nothing, not god, is greater to one than one's-self is," ― walt whitman, leaves of grass
  
"without ambition, one starts nothing. without work, one finishes nothing. the prize will not be sent to you. you have to earn it with diligence" ― ralph waldo emerson   
 
"nothing can bring you peace but yourself. nothing can bring you peace but the triumph over your principles" ― ralph waldo emerson   
 
"i can connect nothing with nothing" ― t.s.eliot, the waste land and other poems
 
"i could not speak, and my eyes failed, i was neither living nor dead, and i knew nothing" ― t.s.eliot, the waste land and other poems
 
"the fountains mingle with the river,
and the rivers with the ocean;
the winds of heaven mix forever,
with a sweet emotion;
nothing in the world is single;
all things by a law divine
in one another's being mingle:—
why not i with thine?

see! the mountains kiss high heaven,
and the waves clasp one another;
no sister flower would be forgiven
if it disdained its brother;
and the sunlight clasps the earth,
and the moonbeams kiss the sea:—
what are all these kissings worth,
if thou kiss not me? ― percy bysshe shelley
 
"nothing beside remains. round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away" ― percy bysshe shelley
 
"nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change" ― mary wollstonecraft shelley, frankenstein  
"where there is nothing, there is hope and faith, and god" ― w.b. yeats, the wind among the reeds
"i shall find the dark grow luminous, the void fruitful when i understand i have nothing" ― william butler yeats, the unicorn from the stars
 
"if anything is possible, then nothing is interesting" ― h.g. wells, the time machine
 
"you have dwelt overmuch upon pain. pain is a swift distress; it ends and is forgotten. without memory and fear, pain is nothing, a contradiction to be heeded, a warning to be taken. without pain, what would life become?” ― h.g. wells, the undying fire  
 
"everybody is nothing until you love them" ― tennessee williams, the glass menagerie
 
"i don't want realism. i want nothing but magic" ― tennessee williams, a streetcar named desire
 
 “letting nothing ever inside, i didn't lie in my heart...” ― tennessee williams, a streetcar named desire
 
“i want to rest. i want nothing. i want to breathe quietly again" ― tennessee williams, a streetcar named desire
  
“i'm nothing! i'm nothing, can't you understand that? there's no spite in it any more. i'm just what i am, that's all" ― authur miller, death of a salesman 
 
“nothing can be given or taken away; nothing has been added or subtracted; nothing increased or diminished. we stand on the same shore before the same mighty ocean, the ocean of love...we move with eyes shut and ears stopped; we forget that we have wings; we pray as if god were deaf and blind, as if he were in a space. no wonder the angels in our midst are unrecognizable...one day, it will be pleasant to remember these things"― henry miller, tropic of capricorn
 
"art teaches nothing except the significance of life"― henry miller, tropic of capricorn
 
"i made up my mind that i would hold onto nothing, that i would expect nothing" ― henry miller, tropic of capricorn
 
"the more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement" ― elizabeth gilbert, eat, pray, love  
 
"be always drunken. nothing else matters: that is the only question. if you would not feel the horrible burden of time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually....but drunken with what? with wine, with poetry, with love, with virtue, or as you will. but be drunken" ― eugene o'neill, long day's journey into night
 
"long ago, when an early galaxy began to pour light out into the surrounding darkness, no witness could have known that billions of years later some remote clumps of rock and metal, ice and organic molecules would fall together to make place called earth; or that life would arise and thinking beings evolve who would one day capture a little of that galactic light, and try to puzzle out what had sent it on its way. and after the earth dies, some 5 billion years from now, after it's burned to a crisp, or even swallowed by the sun, there will be other worlds and stars and galaxies coming into being...and they will know nothing of a place once called earth" ― carl sagan, cosmos
 
"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
 
"there's nothing i hate more than nothing. nothing keeps me up at night. i toss and turn over nothing. nothing could cause a great big fight" ― edie brickell  
 
"the universe is a journey from nothing and back to nothing” ― khalid masood  
 
"i'm not sure what i am. i just know there's something dark in me. i hide it. i certainly don't talk about it, but it's there always, this dark passenger. and when he's driving, i feel alive, half sick with the thrill of complete wrongness. i don't fight him, i don't want to. he's all i've got. nothing else could love me, not even...especially not me. or is that just a lie the dark passenger tells me? because lately there are these moments when i feel connected to something else...someone. it's like the mask is slipping and things...people...who never mattered before are suddenly starting to matter. it scares the hell out of me" ― jeff lindsay, darkly dreaming dexter  
 
“have you ever wanted something so bad, you think you’d die if you don’t have it? that the mere thought of it keeps you up at night. you can’t sleep, you can’t eat, you can’t drink. you are so consumed by that desire, and nothing else matters, and you’re not sure life is worth living if you can’t have it" ― katie ashley, the proposition 
 
“when the first time i saw you, when you had been just a total stranger...suddenly, somehow everything completely disappeared and i realized that i found it... true love...from that moment on, nothing else matters..." ― rati tsiteladze 
 
"the mistakes you make now count. not for everything, and not forever. but they do matter, and they shape you...if you take nothing else from what i've been through, at least remember this: make your choices well. because you'll always be accountable for them. that's what being an adult is all about" ― sarah dessen, the moon and more  

"the same feeling of not belonging, of futility, wherever i go: i pretend interest in what matters nothing to me, i bestir myself mechanically or out of charity, without ever being caught up, without ever being somewhere. what attracts me is elsewhere, and i don’t know where that elsewhere is" ― emil m. cloran, the trouble with being born  
 
“the most important thing about art is to work. nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying" ― steven pressfield, the war of art  
 
"all of old. nothing else ever. ever tried. ever failed. no matter. try again. fail again. fail better" ― samuel beckett, worstward ho  
 
"he threw his arms around her. they kissed, and for a moment nothing else mattered. an asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and she wouldn't have cared" ― rick riordan, the mark of athena
 
"all that existed was him; all she felt, hoped, breathed, wanted, and saw was him. nothing else mattered" ― cassandra clare, city of glass  
 
"passion is a feeling that tells you: this is the right thing to do. nothing can stand in my way. it doesn't matter what anyone else says. this feeling is so good that it cannot be ignored. i'm going to follow my bliss and act upon this glorious sensation of joy" ― dr. wayne w. dyer  
 
"he pulled me against him. then he bent down, breath warming my lips. my pulse was racing so fast i could barely breathe. i was sure he'd stop again and i tensed, waiting for that hesitation, stomach twisting. his lips touched mine, and still i kept waiting for him to pull back...his lips pressed against mine, then parted. and he kissed me. really kissed me- arms tightening around me, mouth moving against mine, firm, like he'd made up his mind that this was what he wanted and he wasn't backing down again...i slid my arms around his neck. his tightened around me and he scooped me up, lifting me off his feet, kissing me like he was never going to stop, and i kissed him back the same way, like i didn't want him to ever stop...it was a perfect moment, one where nothing else mattered. all i could feel was him. all i could taste was his kiss. all i could hear was the pounding of his heart. all i could think about was him, and how much i wanted this, and how incredibly lucky i was to get it, and how tight i was going to hold onto it...this was what i wanted. this guy. this life. this me. i was never getting my old life back, and i didn't care. i was happy. i was safe. i was right where i wanted to be" ― kelly armstrong, the reckoning  

"i want you too much. i want you with me, in my life, in my bed. if i can have that, nothing else matters" ― sylvia day, reflected in you  
 
"it didn't matter if she was hundreds of miles away, or whether she'd hurt him, or said goodbye, or anything else. nothing would change the way he felt. the moment she had taken his hand on the roof at marron's, she'd changed everything. no matter what happened, she'd always be the one...nothing else matters” ― veronica rossi, through the ever night  
 
“i could recognise his soul in mine as much as he could find me in his. our sole existences seemed to have been for this very moment when nothing else mattered" ― x. williamson, distract my hunger
  
“nothing else ever mattered to me, and you weren’t even real. all i ever wanted was you" ― sarah rees brennan, unspoken  
 
"i try to be everything that i can, but sometimes i come out being nothing" ― juice wrld, come and go
    
"i love doing nothing, actually. doing nothing is such a better thing when i am not working" ― ziggy marley 
 
"when the light returns to its source, it takes nothing of the darkness it has illuminated" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi
 
"love said to me, there is nothing that is not me. b1e silent.” ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
"the fault is in the one who blames. spirit sees nothing to criticiz." ― jalaluddin rumi, a bridge to the soul
 
"someone who does not run toward the allure of love walks a road where nothing lives" ― jalaluddin rumi, the music and silence of the heart
 
"nothing can help me but that beauty. there was a dawn i remember when my soul heard something from your soul. i drank water from your spring and felt the current take me" ― jalaluddin rumi, poems of ecstasy and longing
 
"knock, and your beloved will open the door. vanish, and your beloved will make you shine like the sun. fall, and your beloved will raise you to the heavens. become nothing, and your beloved will turn you into everything" ― jalaluddin rumi, in the arms of the beloved
----------------------
 
ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"yesterday is nothing but today's memory... and tomorrow is nothing but today's dream...so live today like nothing else matters" ― bodhinku, live today  
 
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...for this exposure, to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i used one progrey gnd filter in the capture of this composition...
 
this composition is comprised of a single exposure, captured at 9:15pm on 08-11-2020 and was not merged with any other exposures like i often do with my photography to achive the perfect lighting of the entire scene...
 
when i arrived at the location about an hour before sunset, i used star apps with my smartphone to get the exact position i wanted for my composition ahead of time to set up my camera and then take exposures of the sign and foreground at about 15 mins after sunset to merge later with the stars when the milky way was in place over the sign about 1.45hrs later in the same camera frame...
 
but as it turned out, i did not need to do this, and was able to capture my vision in only one exposure, as i discovered as the night's darkness enveloped me that the sign was being illuminated by passing vehicles on the adjacent highway, creating a more profound and true effect i like better...and i could achieve the optimal lighting effects by timing vehicles' headlights to when they were faint on the sign as they zoomed past this forgotten location (clueless that i was even there just out of sight in the shadows)...however, it was truly frustrating getting the perfect lighting right with this method, but with much patience and by trial and error, i was able to capture a few really nice frames, and this was one of them, and my next release will be another taken with a wider angle lens later in the evening...
 
and for this impression, i chose to use a 0.9 reverse gnd progrey aurora filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, and stop down the much brighter lower sky, about 3 stops brighter than the rest of starry sky due to light pollution on the horizon from coming and going vehicles in the area, along with the progrey g-120z magnetic holder to hold the filter and secure it to my nikon d810 mounted with a nikkor 24mm f/1.4 prime lens...
 
i wish to openly thank my sponsors who have always supported me through both the good and bad times...for truly this 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...
 
"to have someone do wrong to you is nothing, unless you continue to remember it...let it go. let it be, be free of it." ― bodhinku, let it go and be    
 
"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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