And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anais Nin
Tag Archives: Utah
Flowing Water
“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
Bird on a Barbed Wire
“Like a bird on a wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free!!”
~Leonard Cohen
Gilgal Gardens
What an adventure hidden near downtown SLC! You have to know what you are looking for to find it. I have seen lots of photos of the sculptures in this garden but was fascinated by the scriptures, songs, poems, etc etched in stone around the sculptures. They more completely tell the story of how the sculptures came to be, and the thought processes by Child (the creator) that contributed to his faith/spiritual journey. It is one eclectic Mormon journey. It isn’t every block that reveals a Joseph Smith sphinx. I loved the symbolism of stars (aka Masonic symboism).
Child named the garden Gilgal after the Biblical location where Joshua ordered the Israelistes to place twelve stones as a memorial. The name ‘Gilgal’ is sometimes translate to mean ‘circle of standing stones,’ an appropriate appellation for a sculpture garden. Gilgal is also the name of a city and a valley in The Book of Mormon, a sacred scripture in Mormonism.
Because I am a rock lover and a storyteller, I’m including a lot of these stone verses that enhance the meaning behind the actual sculptures.
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium – Draper, Utah
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ~William Shakespeare
The Grace of Fish
“…I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky.”
― Mark Nepo, Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives
Remember
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
~Bruce Lee
The Silky Veils of Ardor
I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through all these highs and lows
I heard there was no sickness
And no toil or danger
Just mercy and plenty
Where peaceful waters flow
Where peaceful waters flow
Come all you fair and tender school girls
Be careful now–when you court young men
They are like the stars
On a summer morning
They sparkle up the night
And they’re gone again
Daybreak, gone again
If I’d only seen through the silky veils of ardor
What a killing crime this love can be
I would have locked up my heart
In a golden sheath of armor
And kept its crazy beating
Under strictest secrecy
High security
I wish I had the wings
Of Noah’s pretty little white dove
So I could fly this raging river
To reach the one I love
But I have no wings
And the water is so wide
We’ll have to row a little harder
It’s just in dreams we fly
In my dreams we fly!
~Joni Mitchell
The Winter of our Discontent
“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
~John Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent
Sound of Silence
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
~Khalil Gibran
Scenes From the Lily Pad 