Jeff Guess

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain ©Jeff Guess 2017

What you have is His gift to you; what you do with what you have is your gift to Him. Swami Chinmayananda (1916 - 1993) Vedic scholar and mystic, founder Chinmaya mission ©Jeff Guess 2017

For it is in giving that we receive. St. Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226) Saint, mystic, founder of the Franciscan order. ©Jeff Guess 2017

©Jeff Guess 2017

©Jeff Guess 2017

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) British statesman ©Jeff Guess 2017

Solutions? This morning I am driven by the human urge to follow clues, and they are legion. Connecting them in any semblance of a pattern or solving them as a puzzle is only an end in itself. The fluorescent blue of the jacaranda reflected in wet suburban streets; the woman on the train who asks me for directions in German; the scent of Russian sobranie pipe tobacco smoke in the station underground – don’t call for answers. They are simply ciphers trying to resolve questions

Know yourself and others, and the ways of the world, so as to have a peaceful body and mind. Recognise, cherish, and nurture your blessings, and seize every chance to be of service. Sheng Yen (1930-2009) Chan Buddhist ©Jeff Guess 2017

Jacaranda Tree in Grote Street, Adelaide, South Australia. ©Jeff Guess 2017

Mountain Stream after the painting by John Singer Sargent c. 1912-14. How the cool pastel colours, wet-on-wet waves his nakedness into the short slide of freezing froth and clear green water. Nothing can prepare the body for this tide of shock and cold. It is both delicious and vexatious. Impossible to be too careful here where all the elements wash towards his harm. The odds like strewn blue river stones are stacked against him. He considers the small rapids at his feet; a