Happy holiday season to all

As I leave a challenging year behind, I prefer to think of all the positive things that did happen. I feel blessed with all the wonderful friends who have brightened my days with kind words, patient listening, or just a simple smile. Thank you for being there and for being who you are. These caring moments are like little stars of hope that lighten up the darkness as much as the heavy load, and inspire me to pass on the light to others. Wishing you all much love and peace for New Year 2012.

Freedom

Some inspiring quotes about freedom, that wonderful feeling of not being bound by conventions, expectations, the ability to live fully in the present without being tied down by the past or the future, the empowerment of being yourself, of making choices, and taking responsibility for them.

“No man is free who is not a master of himself.”
Epictetus

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."
John F. Kennedy

"Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom."
Rabindranath Tagore

"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
Nelson Mandela

"Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom."
Gustave Flaubert















Painting with my camera: a fleeting moment of wonder