Every morning, after I get up, shower and dress, I look for something beautiful to see, photograph, think about. I make time to do it, I force myself to do it even when I am busy and there are lots of other things to do. In my mind, I call this building my center for the day. I believe in the power of the spiritual life, I do it one day at a time, and each morning, I work to reinforce a strong and grounded center for myself – one that will hold up through the challenging day, the messages, the e-mails, the unsought advice, the bad news and arguments,  second-guessing, the praise and appreciation and questions, computers going down, photos getting sucked away in complex programs, modems needing re-setting and repair.

These are the fibers of our lives, our daily existence and I seek a life in balance, I balance these daily challenges with the beauty and light of the world, and today I built my center around one of Maria’s windowsill gallery shows, a blue bottle and some dying flowers. I think about my center in meditation, I fill it up with love and beautiful images and color and light and good work and friends. I re-fill it every day. Most days it holds and gets me to the night.