Silence by Bodhi Smith

Dec 13, 2019

"silence" a new impression from bodhi smith...
 
i had a difficult time with quotes about silence for my impression, but the difficulty was not in finding the quotes...it was quite the contrary...for the primary difficulty was in trying to narrow down the ones i wanted to use, since there were so very many beautiful quotes written about silence, love, and the stars that i found which were truly insightful into the meaning of my new impression here...i did not do a very good job narrowing their numbers down, as you will clearly see (and hopefully read), this is probably one of my longest blogs to date as a result...i truly hope you enjoy all the reading with my impression "silence", all the quotes, and the musical tunes found with in here...
 
"touch the silence with your mind, and you will begin to understand the one who you call yourself" ― bodhinku, touch the silence  
 
“filled with rapture, his soul yearned for freedom, space, vastness. over him the heavenly dome, full of quiet, shining stars, hung boundlessly. from the zenith to the horizon, the still-dim milky way stretched its double strand. night, fresh and quiet, almost unstirring, enveloped the earth...the silence of the earth seemed to merge with the silence of the heavens, and the mystery of the earth was one with the mystery of the stars" ― fyodor dostoyevsky, the brothers karamazov
 
"and i, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
i felt myself a pure part
of the silence,
i wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind” ― pablo neruda, the book of questions
 
"look at the stars, and let that silence penetrate you...look at the dark night and let that velvety darkness surround you, envelop you, dissolve you. this is the way of the simple heart" ― osho, the buddha said...
 
btw, here is the perfect tune to listen to as you read my new blog, this is such a powerful song in message and meaning, with beautiful lyrics, "sound of silence" by disturbed (just click on the song title, it is a link to the lyric video) 
 
above i have chosen an updated, much more modern version,
a more passionate cover of the famous song, but you only need to 
by simon and garfunkel ...

“hello darkness, my old friend. i've come to talk with you again. because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while i was sleeping. and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains within the sound of silence...in restless dreams i walked alone. narrow streets of cobblestone beneath the halo of a street lamp, i turned my collar to the cold and damp. when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light that split the night and touched the sound of silence...and in the naked light i saw ten thousand people, maybe more. people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs that voices never share, and no one dare disturb the sound of silence..."fools" said i, "you do not know, silence like a cancer grows. hear my words that i might teach you. take my arms that i might reach you"...but my words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence. and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made. and the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming, and the sign said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sounds of silence”― disturbed, sound of silence (lyrics by paul simon)
 
"lose yourself, lose yourself! escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. then, you will see your own light as radiant as a billion stars. now enter that silence. this is the surest way to lose yourself....what is your life about, anyway? nothing but a struggle to be someone, nothing but you running from your own silence" ― jalaluddin rumi, in the arms of the beloved
-------------------
 
MEANING
"silence is hearing everything devoid of noise, really listening to purity and what was meant to be heard" ― bodhinku, silence
 
the meaning behind the title of the image, "silence" is clearly simple...as these statures on easter island are majestic in their silence, while standing under the beautiful silence of the milky way with all the starlight shining down
 
rapa nui, isla de pascua (a.k.a. easter island) is one of those places that is so peaceful, yet mysterious and silently beautiful...all the noise of the commercial western capitalist world disappears into the unspoiled silence of tranquility and awe...
 
there is a lesson and a truth to be learned from the silence of there statures under the stars on easter island...because, our would today does not seem to know how to embrace silence. people do not understand the beauty and necessity of silence anymore. they think they have to be talking all the time, texting all the time, posting pictures of themselves, pictures of what they ate, what they did, what they saw, who they are with, who they lost, what they want, what they are thinking, what they are feeling, what they have accomplished, where they have been, where they are, where they are going...
 
it seems people are scared of silence, or see silence as what happens when they are cut off and no longer connected to the world through their cell phones and social media. now silence means isolation, and isolation means loneliness, and that is not right.
 
what happened to a quiet hike in nature, or a pleasant walk on the beach? what happened to being with your significant other, or friends, or family and enjoying time with them? what happened to sharing beautiful moments without using your cellphone to respond to someone who is not even present with you? what happened to enjoying a beautiful sunset without having to take a picture of it and miss out on the real moments? all just so you can create a picture to share with the world, and flatten down a moment you will not remember as clearly had you just lived it instead of trying to record it...
 
these smartphones are making us dumb socially, ruining the chances for real connections. you disconnect from your loved ones as soon as you connect to the internet on your cellphone...you check out of the real world of interactions and living moments with them...you instead check into the noise of misunderstanding, misinterpreting, and miscommunication with someone who is not even physically present, instead of staying present in the moment and being with those around you 110%...
 
behaviors are not only breaking down socially, but are crossing over the line into being rude and inconsiderate of others, and this should not be socially acceptable...i am personally tired of having to listen to the conversation of another person telling about their life while i am on a public bus, or plane, or in a park, or in a store, or while pumping gas ...or seeing a family of four eating dinner in a restaurant and all of them are on their phone doing something else while waiting for their food to be delivered...or watch a person in the checkout line of the grocery store totally ignore the clerk the entire time without even acknowledging their existence because they are in the middle of messaging someone...or have my view of a beautiful sunset disrupted by people with cellphones on selfie sticks trying to take look-at-me images to put on their Instagram pages as they chatter incessantly about being somewhere they always wanted to be and want to show the world their victory...
 
enjoying silence is a practice people need to embrace...quiet your inner thoughts and chatter within your mind, and outwardly you will reflect a calmer being. in silence you will become a better listener. you will see, feel, and experience more deeply each moment you live...and when another people understand to share in silence with you, you can often hear them more clearly than you could with a conversation full of words, and enjoy your time more richly with them.
 
"each of us needs to calm our busy mind and find our own sacred silence. because all these smartphones we carry in our pockets and in our hands are truly just breaking down our connections to each other, and further separating us from living in a natural world...being connected through an internet, with email, and social media, and texting, and twittering is only dumbing down society with extra useless busy noise. it's only the illusion of being connected, because this connection is not reality, and it's barely a virtual reality which regrettably people are seeing as their here-and-now world...people need to disconnect and silence their cell phones, unplug and let go...
 
since there are as many stars in the night sky as there are people on the planet, what if we could unite as human beings and just be like a deep still pond silently reflecting the stars of the night sky...be a reflection of the cosmos' silence and connections. be calm, not busy. be still and silent. keep our reflection and connection pure and clear...because, like ripples across the surface, cell phones are making noisy waves that are only muddling our reflection, making things all fuzzy and uncertain, breaking apart the peaceful silence we desperately need today...
 
you see...without silence, there is no listening. without listening, there is no understanding. without  understanding, there is no connection. without connection there is no meaning. without meaning there is no direction. without direction there is only floundering about and no stillness. without stillness, there is no clear reflection. without a clear reflection, there is no clarity. without clarity, there is no reason. without reason there is only chaos. with chaos, there is just useless noise. with useless noise, there can be no silence, and without silence there is no listening, no understanding. no conscious connection...
 
there needs to be a silence, a time for breathing the same air, to permit a period of reflection in order to truly connect with other souls. we need to carry our connections in our hearts, not in our hands...silence needs to be the connection, not the disconnection..." 
------------------- 
 
STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
"i know the beauty of silence...it is meant to get me out of my damn head, squash my overthinking, and remind me to refocus instead on the beauty all around me, surrounding me with its silence" ― bodhinku, beauty of silence  
 
since visiting rapa nui, i have found my dreamland place in reality and i have frequently revisited it in my subconscious ever since almost nightly to this isolated and remote island in the southern pacific ocean. it is here where there are the moai (spiritual statues) who are forever looking inward with their backs to the sea, protecting the island from spiritual invaders. these are guardians of the night forever and always singing a silent lullaby with a distinct but hidden rhythm that i can both hear and see in my mind's eye...an enchanting beat much the same a symbiotic heartbeat that draws me closer like a lover. to fall in line with the rhythm, i only have to sigh and i am rejoined in rejoicing. it is metaphysical music to my ears, and nourishment for my soul, and a silence i want to hear more and more often in my life these days. there is such a beautiful rhythm in a melody of my heart. after being lucky enough to have visited this island now three different times and bring it home in my memories, these visions of mystics now seemingly watch over me, sing their silent songs of wisdom to me, help to see me through my dreams, guide me through the doorways in my mind, and my reality with their rhythm into my heartbeat...my lucidity of life....can you hear them singing in silence? can you? can you see the echo in your mind?  
 
my first visit in the summer (remember the southern hemisphere seasons are opposite of those enjoyed in the northern hemisphere), december of 2015 was special, and i left the island in awe, not wanting to leave...so i returned, twice more, once in the fall (april) of 2018 and again in winter (june-july) of 2019...and each time i arrive, i always have to leave, and i leave, but i leave wanting more, i'm not done yet, not even close...i want to go back again because i know i still have things i want to do, and unfinished moments there to spend, to live, to just be...i am not even close to being done with rapa nui, isla de pascua (a.k.a. easter island) in my life, i feel like this is all just only the beginning for me, my relationship with rapa nui is only just starting to develop like a grand and epic love story...for greater adventures and so many more beautiful moments still lie ahead of me the rest of my life, together this island and me...
 
however, i have noticed regrettably now-a-days, that most people create a "bucket list" of places to go, and it also seems more and more people are adding  rapa nui, isla de pascua (a.k.a. easter island) to their list... but personally i hate the term, because it means you are going to visit somewhere you have always wanted to go before you die or "kick the bucket," then check it off your list as a "been there, done that" item, and move on to the next item on the list, and then never go back again...but to me, this is crazy, for after that initial magical romantic "first kiss" visit to a place, it is all the revisiting moments that are my best times, and much more meaningful and magical moments always happen during the times when i revisit places i have already been... especially as a photographer when my best impressions happen after i go to a location numerous times...i can relate more of myself to the place with more visits, plus i do not have pressure that i "must capture that image now" for fear i will never get another chance...going back over and over just makes a place more familiar, more personal, more beautiful as you discover more each time about yourself and the place, discoveries which you did not notice the first time...

this past summer in june-july 2019, like i said above, i made the trip to easter island (rapa nui) for my third time in a span of four years...but why in the world would anyone travel to one of the most remote places on our planet, spending a nice sum of money to get there once again, when they have already been there twice already? simply put, and as i alluded to it above,  the place to me is silently dreamy to me...and i will be going back again very soon...ella esta mi isla de suenos

is one of my favourite places to go on this earth, i have such a strong affinity for it...there is just something about it that draws me in, draws me back to it time and time again, i truly love it there...a mystique that i just cannot stay away from no matter how hard i try, and i find again and again, that  i am compelled to travel to this tiny and remote south pacific island, returning  over and over and over, so strangely beautiful, captivating, fascinating, and magical for my soul...ella esta mi isla de suenos...  
 
for me, what is missing from rapa nui (easter island) is what makes it so appealing, so beautiful to me...there are no neon signs, no billboards of advertisements, no city lights, no freeways or speeding cars (maximum speed limit on island is 60 km/hr), no commutes or road rage...no buildings taller than 10 meters high, no corporate parks or warehouses, no mcdonalds or fast food chains, no starbucks or walmart or department stores or giant supermarkets with huge parking lots, no cell phone towers and satellite dishes, no drones flying around...no western corporatocracy, no traffic lights or smog, no drive-thrus or 7-11 convenience stores, no beggars or homeless people on the streets or trash and litter anywhere, no graffiti spray painted about...no condos and apartment complexes or housing developments, no big luxury resorts or even any hotel chains, no outlet stores and auto malls...no amusement park, zip-lines, wax museums or red-light district, no crazy noise and street corners full of protestors...always so very few people scattered out on this tiny island that is only 23km across...
 
and that is exactly the reason why this is my favourite island, the simple fact that easter island does not have those kind of amenities, those distractions, those noises...so it still keeps away many people who would not appreciate it for being such an unspoiled place on this planet, a true breath of fresh air, sweet silence, and peace...the whole island is considered a national park by its parent country of chile, so it is protected by legislation to keep out development and exploiting commerce...i just hope it stays that way...but no matter what the future holds, rapa nui, a.k.a. easter island, a.k.a. isla de pascua, is simply an unspoiled dream, so silently beautiful to me...
 
“we need to find peace, and it cannot be found in noise and restlessness. peace is the friend of silence. see how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grow in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... we need silence to be able to touch souls” ― mother teresa
 
“oh please just let me sit here under the stars, on the threshold of two worlds. lost in the eloquence of silence."
 
“in this world, we are surrounded by fast-paced, empty static energy. they're like the empty calories of the soul. you have empty calories for your body, like a bag of potato chips for example, then you have empty calories for your soul, which are found in the static energy that doesn't really add to our emotional, spiritual, mental experience of living our lives. we have magical moments of connection with people, with nature, with spirit, but then we rush out of those moments all too fast, in order to go straight back into the busy lanes that are full of things not worthwhile! empty energies! so when we do that, we forget our magical, nourishing soul moments all too fast and we start caring about things that we shouldn't care about too much, stepping outside of the moments of silence that we encounter, and going back into the empty noise. so i think that we need to picture ourselves as rocks in the river; we can let all of that rush by us, while we stay fortified where we are, lingering in the warmness of the noontime sun, the chill of the dawn, the reflections of the stars—like a rock in a river—let it all just rush by. be silent." ― c. joybell c.
 
"quietly in silence, i adore the milky way...i have been obsessed with staring at her beauty for these past couple of years. i am amazed and fascinated by how beautiful she is, no matter what position in the sky, or location on this planet she is found. and i am further obsessed in trying to create photographic impressions of her to show the world just how much i am in love with everything about her...she is the most beautiful thing my eyes have ever witnessed, glowing and lighting up my sky like nothing ever has before, or ever will again. she speaks to me with her silence, so much clearer than any mere mortal words with her thoughts permeating into my own. i love being with her all night long, just humbled by her grace and majesty, so magical and mystical, as she sings her silent songs to me and blinks at me with a billions eyes full of love...i feel her, i see her, i listen to her, and then i simply breathe, and my spirit is wrapped up into the whispers of her sighs, and i exhale her love...i simply adore her. all of her" ― bodhinku, milky way silence
-------------------  
 
HISTORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
"fifteen wise men all stand in silence, under the flowing light of the milky way silently glowing down upon them, enlightening them...they speak of nothing, but they are heard...the wisdom found is in their silence, these fifteen wise men standing there silently listening to the silent night...listen, and you can hear" ― bodhinku, silent wisdom
 
the original name for easter island is te pito te henua...in rapanuian this means "the end of the world"...and again, one thing that attracts me for more future returns to the island is its remoteness, keeping the entire small island relatively unspoiled from the reaches of greedy capitalism and destructive corruption...the entire island has a beautiful silence to it...

so, last july 3rd there was a partial solar eclipse (about 85%) on easter island, and i wanted to see it for myself, and capture impressions with my camera as well, so i booked my third trip to rapa nui and paid the island another visit...but of course, i managed to get many more fascinating images of the island besides the beautifully unique ones of the eclipse i was lucky enough to capture (and which i will be releasing soon, so keep your eyes out for them)

pictured here are the 15 ancient moai (statues) on the ahu tongariki glowing under the silence of the stars in the dark southern hemisphere sky...located on the southeastern shore of the island, the ahu tongariki is the largest ahu (ceremonial sacred platform) on rapa nui (easter island). its moai (statues) were toppled during the island's civil wars in the 1600's. the fifteen moai, along with their pukao (hats), were toppled (as were all other moai on the island) during a tribal war and the eventual defeat of the "long-ears" tribe that had been ordering the other tribes to build more and more moai and each time bigger and bigger. once the entire tribe had been killed, they then pushed all of the moai off their bases, sometimes placing rocks where they fell to try and break them. fortunately none of them were broken at ahu tongariki and they remained on the ground during the next centuries.

then to make matters worse, after the valdivia earthquake in chile on 22 may 1960 (the largest in recorded history at 9.5 on the richter scale), a large tsunami took the fallen statues and the pukao and scattered them all further inland, some a couple of hundred meters from their original location.

 in october 1992, an agreement was signed to restore the moai of ahu tongariki to their original standing positions. work was finally completed in 1996 after help from chilean archaeologists, japanese archaeologists, and the people of easter island. it has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 ton moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. as they always have, all the moai here face sunset (with their backs to sunrise) during summer solstice.
 
“no one has the right to dictate what other persons should perceive, create or produce...but all should instead be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit” ― ansel adams
 
“silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.” 
-------------------
 
MORE MEANINGFUL QUOTES
and if you have been reading my blogs before, you are aware that in a very large part, this image composition was strongly influenced by my spiritual love of rapa nui, but also influenced along with another favorite song of mine form the late 1980's, silent lucidity by the progressive metal band, queensryche... i implore you to please also give this meaningful and inspirational tune a good listen...i have always loved the subconsciously surreal quality of this song about lucid dreams, but i also love the vision about a silent guardian watching over each of us in our dreams...after 30 years of loving this song, i know who that guardian is now...and i hope you enjoy and think about the accompanying quotes i have included here to compliment this dreamy composition..."wide awake we face the day. the dream is over...or has it just begun?"
 
"there's a place i like to hide, doorway that i run to in the night. it's a place where you will learn to face your fears, retrace the years, and ride the whims of your mind. commanding in another world, suddenly, you hear and see this magic new dimension...i will be watching over you. i am gonna help you see it through. i will protect you in the night. i am smiling next to you, in silent lucidity..." 
 
“deep in the meadow, hidden far away
a cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
forget your woes and let your troubles lay
and when it's morning again, they'll wash away
here it's safe, here it's warm
here the daisies guard you from every harm
here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
here is the place where i love you.” ― suzanne collins, the hunger games
 
“silence the angry man with love. silence the ill-tempered man with kindness. silence the miser with generosity. silence the liar with truth"
 
“learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are silently calm" ― gautama siddhartha buddha
 
“love is patient, love is silent, love is kind. it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not loud, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. love is both the darkness and the light out of the darkness. love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” ― gautama siddhartha buddha
 
“silence is a true friend who never betrays” ― confucius  
 
“when there is silence, one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself" ― lao tzu
 
“stop thinking, allow silence to enter your mind, and end your problems" ― lao tzu
 
“when words become unclear, i shall focus with photographs. when images become inadequate, i shall be content with silence" ― ansel adams
 
“we sit in silence and watch the stars, i suppose because there are no words, not in all the languages on earth, that can properly describe the feeling of being in love. and perhaps those little burning lights out there in the dark, are the closest we come to something that does” 

"there’s something in your sweet definite gaze that settles my heart and vibrates life through my veins. those bright, round eyes are the envy of even the stars. and when they have grown wise and worn, and wrinkle at their corners, they will enchant me perfectly just the same" ― beau taplin, bright eyes
 
“i trust in the universe to unfold as it should, to reveal my path and guide me silently along on my journey. but i also recognize that sometimes fate requires a little push. that while the cosmos may quietly provide me with the blueprint to my destiny, it is my duty to speak up, to get my hands dirty, and build something of it.”― beau taplin, the blueprint
 
"remember who you are, remember past the lies that they taught you that you needed to be. remember the sacred lineage that flows within you. remember the simple truth of who you are deep down in the core of your being, and awaken. the silent winds are calling you and stirring deep your blood. without speaking, the ancients whisper wisdom into your veins, do you hear their sage words? are you ready to bear sacred witness to your own unfolding? the time has come to usher in the alchemy of your rebirth. are you ready? will you listen to the silent winds? there is so much more that exists beyond the rules and regulations that have been created to hold you prisoner. a vast, lush forest tangled with truth and promise waits to welcome you home. it is there that i witness the truth of you, deep within the arms of the silence; never can they tear us apart, my king, warrior and muse, primal, naked and raw. adoring teacher, nurturing lover and gaia’s eternal son”  
 
"whole in its splendor of silence, bound together with the synchronicity of ragged breath, pounding heart and unbridled passions. broken open only in longing, shattering every illusion, unwilling to wear the veils or masks of the past. desire crashes like waves upon a shore taking my breath away; a storm that is at once exhilarating in its power as it is nourishing with its life-giving rains. here is the playground of the soul; the raw, wild expanse of form and feeling balancing on the knifes edge of sanity, rising in the blinding culmination of ecstasy. here is a place of unity; two rivers that merge as one and flow like liquid fire to the sea. here is a journey to the stars; every sound a prayer to the divine, every act of worship upon the altar of the other in deepest reverence and purest love. this is what they must mean by eternity; this sacred space formed by beating hearts, breathless rasps, and open souls joined of one smile. these are the moments of radiant bliss spoken in all ages of the world and silently breathed into the syllables of all languages" ― c. ara campbell
 
"you are coming; i can feel you on the breeze. these ages apart have been the longest, loneliest that i can remember. and they too shall fade as love weaves light from darkness stitching together the well worn tapestries of our spirits and all that went before dissolves...until the day you are in my arms once more, you lie cradled in my heart; and i am lost in eternal ribbons of memory. the landscape of time and space is a reminder of your existence. your place among the heavens as the brightest of stars, the true north that guides this vessel back home once more"" ― c. ara campbell
 
"we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, to find that enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song. but in that dance, and in that song, the most ancient rites of our conscience fulfill themselves in the awareness of being human" 
 
“give me silence, water, hope...give me struggle, iron, volcanoes” 
 
“we all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at silence" 
 
"i did not know what to say, my mouth had no way with names...my eyes were blind, and something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings...and i made my own way, deciphering that fire and i wrote the first faint line, faint, without substance, pure nonsense, pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing...and suddenly i saw the heavens unfastened and open, planets, palpitating planations, shadow perforated, riddled with arrows, fire and flowers, the winding night, the universe...”
 
"you emerge from the things
filled with my soul
you are like my soul
a butterfly of dream
i like for you to be still
and you seem far away
a butterfly cooing like a dove
and you hear me from far away
and my voice does not reach you
let me come to be still in your silence
and let me talk to you with your silence
that is bright as a lamp
simple, as a ring
you are like the night
with its stillness and constellations
your silence is that of a star
as remote and candid" 
 
“let us look for secret things somewhere in the world, on the blue shore of silence, or where the storm has passed, rampaging like a train...” 
 
“i repeated: come with me, as if i were dying,
and no one saw in my mouth the moon that was bleeding,
no one saw the blood that was rising into the silence.
oh love, now let us forget the star with thorns!”
 
“love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star...” ― e. e. cummings, 100 selected poems
 
“we sit silently and watch the world around us. this has taken a lifetime to learn. it seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. the young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. it is a waste, for silence is pure. silence is holy. it draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking” ― nicholas sparks, the notebook
 
“he looked at the stars again, and he realized that it's not the stars that create silent light, but rather light that creates the silent stars" ― don miguel ruiz, the four agreements
 
“i understand the voice of your stars and the silence of your trees" ― rabindranath tagore
 
“let my thoughts come to you, when iam gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence”

“let thy love play upon my voice and rest on my silence
let it pass through my heart into all my movements
let thy love like stars shine in the darkness of my sleep and dawn in my awakening
let it burn in the flame of my desires and 
let it flow in all currents of my own love
let me carry thy love in my life as a harp does its music, and
let me give silence back to thee at last with my life” 
 
“the world is the ever-changing foam that floats on the surface of a sea of silence” ― rabindranath tagore, fireflies
 
“we know that love is everywhere; but certainly we feel love's presence most when love's works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where love's worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest love's infinitude,  love's omnipotence, love's omnipresence.” ― charlotte bronte, jane eyre
 
"if you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. all the stars are a-bloom with flowers...” ― antoine de saint-exupery, the little prince
 
"in the silence we listen to ourselves. then we ask questions of ourselves. we describe ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of god”― maya angelou, even the stars look lonesome
 
"you left behind
a calendar full of empty days
and seasons full of aimless wanders
leaving me alone
with an armful of sunsets
your reflection behind
in every puddle
your whispers
upon every curtain
your fragrance
inside every petal
you left your echoes in between
the silence of my eyes" ― sanober khan, turquoise silence
 
“we search for happiness everywhere, but your treasure is within you already. but to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego, and enter into the silence of the heart" ― elizabeth gilbert, eat, pray, love
 
“again, it comes down to shutting out the noise that isn't supposed to be there and listening to your inner silence" ― c. joybell c.
 
“there is a certain type of sadness, that creates holes in the top of your heart, for the sunlight to come through and shine over the trees and the fields (the veins and the ventricles), and illuminate the part of you that sits there, in silence and in understanding... alone but at peace. it's a certain type of being dead while you are alive; but in a good way, not in a bad way. your own cemetery where the middle of your soul rests in peace. a sadness to end all other sadness. the discovery of a pasture within your soul, where everything is okay." ― c. joybell c.
 
“there are moments of silence and smiles and breaths taken away from the chest, wherein you truly feel a deep understanding for your position in your life, in this world, and within the walls of yourself that you call bones and tissue. you madly understand yourself, your thoughts, your desires, what you want to be living for, really...and it's amazing because it is within those moments where you will come to see how very few people should actually be important to your heart and to your path: because your heart and your path are glorious and different and breathtaking and not everyone belongs there with you. we all often feel pangs of loneliness and we clamour to hold onto other people because it has not yet dawned on us, that not everyone we wish to hold onto will fit on our paths with us. if you could come to an understanding of your own space, and what it means to occupy that space, then you would come to know, and to feel, and to realize, that we are not lonely in our hearts because others do not occupy with us; rather, we are painfully lonely in our hearts because we do not occupy our own skin. we do not occupy our own souls. we do not occupy the space we've been given by our own dreams, desires, longings...what makes you cry? what makes you laugh? it doesn't matter if you're the only one who cries or who laughs...what matters is that you fill up your space so full that your soul rubs up against your bones and pushes up against just below the surface of your skin. you will never be lonely, no one would ever be lonely, if we knew to occupy all that we are!" ― c. joybell c.
 
“this is thy hour o soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best.
night, sleep, and the stars" ― walt whitman, leaves of grass
 
“deep in my soul that tender secret dwells,
lonely and lost to light for evermore,
save when to thine my heart responsive swells,
then trembles into silence as before.” ― lord george byron
 
"in human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood”
 
“silence is the communing of a conscious soul with itself”― henry david thoreau, the quotable thoreau
 
“the silence rings—it is musical and thrills me...a night in which the silence was audible—i hear the unspeakable.” 
 
“silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us"  
 
“the stars are god's dreams, thoughts remembered in the silence of his night" 

“what is the verdict of the vastest mind?
silence: the book of fate is closed to us.
man is a stranger to his own research;
he knows not whence he comes, nor whither goes.
tormented atoms in a bed of mud,
devoured by death, a mockery of fate.
but thinking atoms, whose far-seeing eyes,
guided by thought, have measured the faint stars,
our being mingles with the infinite;
ourselves we never see, or come to know" ― voltaire
 
“o perpetual revolution of configured stars, o perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, o world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! the endless cycle of idea and action, endless invention, endless experiment, brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the word. all our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, all our ignorance brings us nearer to death, but nearness to death no nearer to god. where is the life we have lost in living? where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? where is the knowledge we have lost in information? the cycles of heaven in twenty centuries bring us farther from god and nearer to the dust.” 
 
“death must be so beautiful. to lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. to have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. to forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace" ― oscar wilde, the canterville ghost
 
“to know silence perfectly is to know music.”― carl sandburg, good morning, america
 
“the secret strength of things
which governs thought, and to the infinite dome
of heaven is as a column, rests on thee,
and what were thou and earth and stars and sea
if to the human mind's imaginings
silence and solitude were vacancy?” ― percy bysshe shelley, mont blanc
 
"the daylight, the trailing glory of the sun, went streaming out of the sky, was drawn aside like some luminous curtain, and at last i looked into the blue gulf of immensity which the sunshine hides, and saw the floating hosts of stars. the sea was silent, the sky was silent. i was alone with the night and silence" ― h.g. wells, the island of doctor moreau
 
"i wanted the dark fecundity of nature, the deep well of the womb, silence...i wanted to be that night which the remorseless eye illuminated, a night diapered with stars and trailing comets. to be of night, so frighteningly silent, so utterly incomprehensible and eloquent at the same time. never more to speak or to listen or to think. to be englobed and encompassed and to encompass and to englobe at the same time" ― henry miller, tropic of capricorn
“for he would be thinking of love, until the stars had run away, and the silence had eaten the moon"  ― w.b. yeats, the wind among the reeds
"no man can be alive, and what is paradise but fullness of life, if whatever he sets his hand to in the daylight cannot carry him from exaltation to exaltation, and if he does not rise into the frenzy of contemplation in the night silence. events that are not begotten in joy are misbegotten and darken the world, and nothing is begotten in joy if the joy of a thousand years has not been crushed into a moment. the soul of man is of the imperishable substance of the stars!” ― william butler yeats, the unicorn from the stars
 
“the nitrogen in our dna, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. we are made of starstuff...we are a way for the universe to know itself" ― carl sagan, cosmos
 
“i will love the light for it shows me the way, yet i will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars” ― og mandino, the greatest salesman in the world
 
"silence is golden, speech is silver...speech is of time, silence is of eternity” ― thomas carlyle, sartor resartus
 
“the stars drew light across the night sky, the silence and the cold made the darkness vanish away. it was...i don't know how to explain it...as if everything solid melted away into the ether, eliminating all individuality and absorbing us, rigid, into the immense darkness. not a single cloud to lend perspective, or any space blocking any portion of the starry sky" ― ernesto "che" guevara
 
“people misinterpret everything, even the silence" ― franz kafka, the castle

“now the sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never”― franz kafka
 
'when i pronounce the word silence, i destroy it" ― wislawa szymborska, poems new and collected

“i love the stars.
because they can't say anything.
i love the stars.
because they do not judge anyone" ― natsuki takaya

“the silence could have swallowed a star" ― yoon ha lee, ninefox gambit

“though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; i have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night" ― sarah williams
 
“may the stars carry your sadness away,
may the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
may hope forever wipe away your tears,
and, above all, may silence make you strong" ― dan george
 
“yes, silence can be painful, but if you endure it, you will hear the cadence of the entire universe" ― kamand kojouri

“in my silence and stillness, my soul dances with the ecstasy of life" ― debasish mridha

“gautama buddha achieved enlightenment as he sat under the spreading limbs of the bodhi tree, breathing in and out in silence, as does a tree” ― nalini m. nadkarni
 
"but as a matter of fact, space is the basis of existence. how could you have stars without space? stars shine out of space and something comes out of nothing just in the same way as when you listen, in an unprejudiced way, you hear all sounds coming out of silence. it is amazing. silence is the origin of sound just as space is the origin of stars, and woman is the origin of man. if you listen and pay close attention to what is, you will discover that there is no past, no future, and no one listening. you cannot hear yourself listening. you live in the eternal now and you are that. it is really extremely simple, and that is the way it is.” ― alan watts
 
“you brought the silence, the most beautiful sound i'd ever heard, because it was where you were. and now you've taken it away. and all the noises, all the sounds in the world, aren't loud enough to pierce my broken heart while you are away from me. i look up at the stars, endless and forever, and whisper, come back to me, come back to me, come back to me...” ― mia sheridan, archer's voice
 
“he'd been thinking about the quality of sunshine, that is, how daylight wipes away the stars and the planets, making them invisible to human eyes. if one needed the darkness in order to see the heavens, might daylight be a form of blindness? could it be that sound was also a form of deafness? if so, what was silence?” ― madeleine thien, do not say we have nothing
 
"i look up. and i am surrounded by the universe. silence and stars. a million suns stretch out beyond me, their light piercing the darkness” ― beth revis, a million suns
 
“magic exists. who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. it is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live” ― nora roberts, vision in white
 
“i should like to stand with you beneath the stars, my love,
in the silence, in the cool,
in the wild light of your eyes, my love,
made to feel beautiful.
i would keep the secret of your kiss,
the secret of the stars
and the secret of our happiness
forever in silent song”― diana james, the tune of flutes
 
"love is patient. love is kind. love always forgives, trusts, supports, and endures. love never fails. when every star in the heavens grows cold, and when silence lies once more on the face of the deep, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love.”― jim butcher, blood rites
 
“have you ever heard silence? it is not a stillness which is the absence of sound. silence is not empty, it is full of content. it is like the sky―intangible yet containing the stars, the sun, the moon, and all existence. that is silence and it is full of tongues" ― dhan gopal mukerji, ghond the hunter
 
“i have a need of silence and of stars.
too much is said too loudly. i am dazed.
the silken sound of whirled infinity
is lost in voices shouting to be heard…” ― william alexander percy, lanterns on the levee

“i paint the darkness and the silence...you see them as stars and poetry.”― jenim dibie, the calligraphy of god
 
“imagine you are the earth and he is the sun, that silence is tangible, and the stars are the souls of your previous lives”― jessica bell, string bridge
 
“i miss the snow. i miss looking at it, walking in it, tasting it. i used to love those days when it was so cold everyone else would be tucked away inside trying to stay warm. i would be the only one out walking, so i could look across the fields and see miles of snow without a single footprint in it. it would be completely silent...no cars, no birds singing, no doors slamming. just silence and snow. god, i miss snow. the stars, the moon, the wind, and blankets of pure, pristine snow" ― damien echols, life after death
 
“have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully" ― norton juster, the phantom tollbooth
 
“i love your silence. it is so wise. it listens. it invites warmth. i love your loneliness. it is brave. it makes the universe want to protect you. you have the loneliness that all true heroes have, a loneliness that is a deep sea, within which the fishes of mystery dwell. i love your quest. it is noble. it has greatness in it. only one who is born under a blessed star would set sail across the billowing waves and the wild squalls, because of a dream. i love your dream. it is magical. only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream. you dwell in your own enchantment. life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery. even if you lose, or are defeated by things, your triumph will always be exemplary. and if no one knows it, then there are places that do. people like you enrich the dreams of the world, and it is dreams that create history. people like you are unknowing transformers of thing, protected by your own fairy-tale, by love" ― ben okri, astonishing the gods
 
“truth has nowhere to hide in the world
time has nowhere to hide in the stars
fate has nowhere to hide in the universe

land has nowhere to hide in the world
light has nowhere to hide in the stars
love has nowhere to hide in the universe

silence has nowhere to hide in the world
sound has nowhere to hide in the stars
awareness has nowhere to hide in the universe

the past has nowhere to hide in the world
the present has nowhere to hide in the stars
the future has nowhere to hide in the universe

chance has nowhere to hide in the world
destiny has nowhere to hide in the stars
eternity has nowhere to hide in the universe”― matshona dhliwayo
 
“she was an abandoned paradise. wrecked and scary. the silence she held around her pierced even the darkest nights and the toughest hearts. but the moment you entered inside, she was utterly beautiful. she had the stars hanging from the roof with her dreams spilled all over the floor. the realms she ruled had no boundaries and walking through her was always bliss" ― akshay vasu, the abandoned paradise
 
“there was only the dark infinity in which nothing was. and something happened. at the distance of a star something happened, and everything began. the world did not come into being, but it was. it did not break upon the silence, but it was older than the silence and the silence was made of it" ― n. scott momaday, house made of dawn
 
“the silence was enchanting. infinite space seemed to enter it, and my spirit, alone with the stars, seemed capable of any adventure" ― w. somerset maugham, the summing up
 
"when you see the southern cross for the first time
you understand now why you came this way
'cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small
but it's as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day" ― stephen stills, southern cross (crosby, stills, and nash)
-------------------  
 
QUOTES ON SILENCE BY OSHO
"meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence, what zen people call the sound of one hand clapping. and silence has a music of its own, it is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive. in fact, nothing is more alive than silence" 
 
“it is only through silence that truth can be said, because it is only through silence that the truth is heard" ― osho, the voice of silence
 
"only when you have known yourself can you go anywhere else. then wherever you go you will carry a blissfulness around you, a peace, a silence, a celebration”― osho, awareness: the key to living in balance
 
“a peace that is disturbed is not peace. and a silence that is disturbed is just a dream, not a reality" 
 
“when love comes into your being, you go on giving to each and everybody—not only to human beings but to animals, to the trees, to the faraway stars, because love is something that can be transferred even to the farthest star just by your loving look. just by your touch, love can be transferred to a tree. without saying a single word...it can be conveyed in absolute silence. it need not be said, it declares itself. it has its own ways of reaching into the very depths, into your being. first be full of love, then the sharing happens" ― osho, love, freedom, aloneness
 
“my whole teaching consists of two words, meditation and love. meditate so that you can feel immense silence, and love so that your life can become a song, a dance, a celebration. you will have to move between the two, and if you can move easily, if you can move without any effort, you have learned the greatest thing in life” ― osho, come, come, yet again come  
 
“bliss means you have reached to the very innermost core of your being. it belongs to the ultimate depth of your being where even the ego is no more, where only silence prevails; you have disappeared. In joy you exist a little bit, but in bliss you are not. Th ego has dissolved; it is a state of nonbeing”― osho, zen: the path of paradox
 
“unfortunately, history records only violence. history does not record silence...it cannot record it. all records are of disturbance. whenever someone becomes really silent, he disappears from all records, he is no more a part of our madness. so it is as it should be” ― osho, the book of nothing
 
“to live in the moment is innocence, to live without the past is innocence, to live without conclusions is innocence, to function out of the state of not knowing is innocence. and the moment you function out of such tremendous silence which is not burdened by any past, out of such tremendous stillness which knows nothing, the experience that happens is beauty. whenever you feel beauty—in the rising sun, in the stars, in the flowers, or in the face of a woman or a man—wherever and whenever you feel beauty, watch. and one thing will always be found: you had functioned without mind, you had functioned without any conclusion, you had simply functioned spontaneously. the moment gripped you, and the moment gripped you so deeply that you were cut off from the past. and when you are cut off from the past you are cut off from the future automatically, because past and future are two aspects of the same coin; they are not separate, and they are not separable either. you can toss a coin: sometimes it is heads, sometimes it is tails, but the other part is always there, hiding behind. past” ― osho, book of wisdom
-------------------  
 
QUOTES ON SILENCE BY PAULO COELHO
“magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated ... always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible” ― paulo coelho, eleven minutes
 
"no one can posses the beautiful things of this earth, but we can know them and love them. it is through such magical moments that god reveals himself to mankind”― paulo coelho, brida
 
“no one day is like another, each tomorrow has its special miracle, its a magical moment in which old universes are destroyed and new stars and  rainbows are created”  ― paulo coelho, hippie
 
“our greatest goal in life is to love...the rest, is silence.”― paulo coelho, manuscript found in accra
 
“we must listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. that child understands magical moments. we can stifle its cries, but we cannot silence its voice. the child we once were is still there, inside. blessed are the children, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. if we are not reborn, if we can not learn to look at life with the innocence and the enthusiasm of childhood, it makes no sense to go on living”  ― paulo coelho, the alchemist
 
“at that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the soul of the world surged within him. when he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart...it was love. something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert or even the stars" ― paulo coelho, the alchemist
 
“it wasn't a dance, but instead the complete absence of noise and movement, the silence, that brought me in contact with myself”― paulo coelho, the witch of portobello
 
“he has learned that silence means the absolute balance of the body, spirit and soul. the person who preserves his unity will never be dominated by the storms of existence; they have the strength to overcome the difficulties and move forward”― paulo coelho, warrior of the light
 
“this was a silence that spoke for itself. a silence that said we no longer needed to explain things to each other" ― paulo coelho, by the river piedra i sat down and wept
 
“she had finally allowed her negative feelings to surface, feelings that had been repressed for years in her soul. she had actually felt them, and they were no longer necessary, they could leave. she sat on in silence, enjoying the present moment, letting love fill up the empty space left behind by hatred" ― paulo coelho, veronika decides to die
-------------------    
 
QUOTES ON SILENCE BY JALALUDDIN RUMI
"let silence take you to the core of life" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi
 
"silence is an ocean. speech is a river. when the ocean is searching for you, don’t walk into the river, listen to the waves” ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi
 
“be empty of worrying. why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. live in silence. flow down and down in always widening rings of being” ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
“a wealth you cannot imagine flows through you. do not consider what strangers say. be secluded in your secret heart-house, that bowl of silence. talking, no matter how humble-seeming, is really a kind of bragging. let silence be the art you practice" ― jalaluddin rumi, a bridge to the soul
 
“in the silence of love, you will find the spark of life” ― jalaluddin rumi, the music and silence of the heart
 
“each night the moon kisses secretly the lover who counts the stars” ― jalaluddin rumi, poems of ecstasy and longing
 
"if i gaze at my beloved, she may feel embarrassed. and if i do not, she will feel neglected. i can see the stars reflecting in the silence of the water of her face, but if i look away, i lose my clarity.”  ― jalaluddin rumi, poems of ecstasy and longing
 
"what in your life is calling you,
when all the noise is silenced,
the meetings adjourned...
the lists laid aside,
and the wild iris blooms
by itself
in the dark forest...
what still pulls on your soul?” ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi

“when the tongue fails to convey what the heart has in store...silence, becomes the language of love” ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
“why are you so afraid of silence, silence is the root of everything. if you spiral into its void, a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
“be still! be quiet! find acquaintance with silence. go inside, delve into your heart. take a day off from the clamour of the noise" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
 
“there is a place born of silence, a place where the whispers of the heart arise...there is a place where voices sing your beauty, a place where every breath carves your image in my soul" ― jalaluddin rumi, the music and silence of the heart
-------------------  
 
MORE QUOTES BY BODHINKU
"if your love for me was a star in the sky, my love for you would be the milky way, glowing alive with billions of you inside me " ― bodhinku, milky way love
 
"we are not smart, totally dumb...by being connected though texting, tweeting, instant messaging, and using social media, we are letting our smartphones disconnect us...we need to carry our connections with others in out hearts, not in our hands" ― bodhinku, disconnect
 
"in my dreams, always there, watching over me, is my silent guardian, each night we talk without words, listen without hearing, see without eyes, hug without arms, fly without wings, and travel without moving...magical and lucid, combined with love and understanding...so much so, sometimes when i awaken, i just want to go back to sleep" ― bodhinku, silent guardian
 
"when you finally hear their silence singing to you, you will know the love of the stars..." ― bodhinku, silence singing
 
"...and it is the silence of love where you will lose yourself, and find the answer key to your heart " ― bodhinku, silence key
 
"i have found that silence dissolves all the noise, freeing myself of being me" ― bodhinku, freeing silence
 
"want to hear magic? listen to the beautiful sound of silence...and feel its wisdom" ― bodhinku, magic of silence
 
"the stars are great teachers, their example allow us to tap into the wisdom of silence" ― bodhinku, great teacher
 
"you are the silence surrounding my soul, like a blanket of stars keeping me calm and peaceful, seeing me, the real me all the way to my inner core with those billions of twinkling eyes of yours..." ― bodhinku, silence of my soul
 
"silence is the last word that lets us know where the stars come from, and where we are going one day..." ― bodhinku, the last word
 
"the clean night air, all wrapped up into a peaceful silence that's playing in surround sound, under a canopy of twinkling stars that is highlighted by a luminous milky way centerpiece glowing down upon us...*sigh*...now that is my recipe of soup for the soul" ― bodhinku, soup for the soul
 
“why not instead of counting dollars, let's count stars?  a wealth of silence will enlighten us in quiet brightness, and drown out all the noise, and let love sing its sweet wordless harmony in our eyes” ― bodhinku, counting stars
 
"silent light, holy light
all is calm, all is bright
so innocent, yet wild
so tender, yet mild
born from a star
travelling so far
to sleep in heavenly peace
sleep in heavenly peace" ― bodhinku, silent light
------------------- 
  
ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
“not a whisper mars 
the utter silence of the
untranslated stars” ― e. e. cummings, haiku   
 
"the stars are always above us. they shine down on us, but still they are not judgmental, only indiscriminate in their silence. they say nothing, but i hear them loud and clear" ― bodhinku, silence of the stars  
 
this is a merged image composition of two exposures in the same frame... so a stable and sturdy tripod was an absolute necessity in order to keep the long exposure images both sharp in the places i wanted sharpness (i use selective focus on most of my images, similar to the way our eyes see things) as well as keep both images aligned in the same frame without moving the camera even a fraction of an inch...for this i used a dolica 70" carbon fiber tripod, because it is sturdy, tall, and perfectly compact for travel to remote places on the planet such as easter island where how much luggage and equipment you can travel with is limited....for me, this shot would never have been possible without my friends daniel and april at dolica tripods.

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...in the case with this image, i used filters, and to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i needed to use two filters for the foreground part of the photo merge (the exposure of the milky way did not need any filters)...and for this, i chose to use the amazing 3.0nd progrey antarctica magnetic filter (and holder) to slow down the exposure 10 stops totally smooth out the waves on the ocean water and clouds in the sky (easier to blend), plus saturate all the blues and greens, allot more than would be possible with a short exposure time, plus in combination with the 0.9gnd progrey genesis filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it, as the sky/ocean around the ahu tongariki was considerably brighter than the foreground a few feet in front of me...about 3 stops brighter than the rest of the darker parts 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 tripod in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...
 
"there is a place born of love. a place where the whispers of the heart arise. there is a place where silence sings its song to us. a place where every breath carves the image of her into my soul. that place is reflected in those eyes, reflected by my eyes between the mirror that is only us" ― bodhinku, places
 
"contemplate without thinking. stop the world. slow down everything. shut off the noise. breathe in. breathe out. 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 within your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith. this is my world. awaken." ― bodhinku, my world
 
above all else as always, i hope this message and image find you well.

namaste,
bodhi
-------------------------------------------------

please visit me at:
http://www.bodhismith.com
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