More Words to Live By

Zion National Park © 2007 by Michael A. Pancier

“Don't Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.”

-- Don Miguel Ruiz, author of "The Four Agreements"

Driving Along the Trail

Some images across the Tamiami Trail as I headed home from an afternoon shooting in the Everglades.

Coopertown, Florida - Population 8

It is located about 20 miles west of Miami on US-41. Coopertown is famous for being the original air boat tour operators, beginning in the 1940s when tourists along the Tamiami Trail requested rides on airboats. Famous for serving Gator meat and frog legs.

Fresh or Frozen Froggie. Kermit would be appalled.

Another Tour Boat Stand Along the Way

All Images © 2010 by Michael Pancier Photography
All Rights Reserved

Where Does Discontent Start?

Image © 2003 by Michael A. Pancier, All Rights Reserved

"Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the Bastard Time." -- John Steinbeck

Waves of Stone

The Wave - Coyote Buttes - Arizona
© 2008 by Michael A. Pancier

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

-- Saint Augustine

Hope & Focus

© 2008 by Michael A. Pancier

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."
-- Dalai Lama

Images available at my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Destiny is not a Matter of Chance

Image of Egmont Island Lighthouse © 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
-- William Jennings Bryan

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Happiness Is a Butterfly

© 2009 Michael Pancier Photography

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

2010 is an exciting new year where all the negative energies and forces which had surrounded me have been exorcised. Fill your heart with nothing but love for those around you and happiness you will find. It will come to you like the butterfly. I said that.

Images available at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

The Spirit in the Sky

Red Shouldered Hawk © 2010 by Michael Pancier Photography

"It is the general belief of the Indians that after a man dies his spirit is somewhere on the earth or in the sky, we do not know exactly where, but we are sure that his spirit still lives. . . . So it is with WakanTanka. We believe that he is everywhere, yet he is to us as the spirits of our friends, whose voices we can not hear."

-- Chased-by-Bears, Santee-Yanktonai Sioux

The Open Road

Sunshine Skyway Bridge 12/31/09 - East Beach - Fort de Soto
© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

"That is the road we all have to take - over the Bridge of Sighs into eternity."
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Happy New Year - Welcome 2010

© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Memories of My Mother Olga Diaz

Amazing how fast a year passes by. I can't believe it's been a year since I lost my mom. Believe it or not, I'm still organizing and going through her stuff today. I'm lucky that I have her music that I can listen to. Let's me know that she is still with me; as if she never left. Of course as long as we remember and love someone, they will always live on with you within you.

Christmas 2009

This was my first Christmas Eve and my first Christmas without my Mom. I'm sure she was there with me in spirit. I miss her physical presence, but her spiritual presence was with me today. Love carries on beyond the material world into the spiritual world. As long as we keep the ones we love in our heart, they will never die.

But now that the presents are wrapped and put together. The pork was cooked and eaten and as now everything is put away, the night is silent. And it is good. I think back to the beginning...

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"

Luke 2:8-14

Photo of Everglades National Park
© 2009 by Michael Pancier Photography

Fill Yourself with the Light

"The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness."

"Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

"If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."

Luke 11:34-36

Image taken at Fort Myers Beach, Florida
© 2009 Michael A. Pancier

Believe in the Light

Image of Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

www.michaelpancierphotography.com

"While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."

- John 12:36

A Time to Pray

Inside the Chapel of the Holy Cross - Sedona, Arizona
© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

“There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God."
- Samuel 2:2

In God's Wildness...

Grand Canyon National Park © 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware." - John Muir

Sancte MÌchael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio contra nequÌtiam et insÌdias diaboli esto presÌdium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecemur:
tuque, princeps milÌtie celestis, Satanam aliusque spÌritus malÌgnos, qui ad perditiunem animorum pervagantur in mundo, divÌna virtute, In infernum detrude. Amen.

God Knows

© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
Please Visit My Website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

God knows there's a river,
God knows how to make it flow,
God knows you ain't gonna be taking
Nothing with you when you go.

God knows there's a purpose,
God knows there's a chance,
God knows you can rise above the darkest hour
Of any circumstance.

God knows there's a heaven,
God knows it's out of sight,
God knows we can get all the way from here to there
Even if we've got to walk a million miles by candlelight.

-- Bob Dylan

In Dark & Empty Skies

Great Egret © 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Oh, the tree of life is growing
Where the spirit never dies
And the bright light of salvation shines
In dark and empty skies
-- Bob Dylan

If Dogs Run Free

Image © 2007 by Michael Pancier Photography
visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

If dogs run free, then why not we
Across the swooping plain?
My ears hear a symphony
Of two mules, trains and rain.
The best is always yet to come,
That's what they explain to me.
Just do your thing, you'll be king,
If dogs run free.

If dogs run free, why not me
Across the swamp of time?
My mind weaves a symphony
And tapestry of rhyme.
Oh, winds which rush my tale to thee
So it may flow and be,
To each his own, it's all unknown,
If dogs run free.

If dogs run free, then what must be,
Must be, and that is all.
True love can make a blade of grass
Stand up straight and tall.
In harmony with the cosmic sea,
True love needs no company,
It can cure the soul, it can make it whole,
If dogs run free.

- Bob Dylan

Dawn of a New Age - December 2009

Castillo San Marco - St. Augustine, Florida

“In the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid Cities.”

-- Arthur Rimbaud