Cultivating Compassion and Kindness (About)

I am an animal welfare, pollinator and gardening activist, a responsible pet owner (including exotics), a professional member of the Cat Writer’s Association, have been an urban beekeeper and have had a lifelong love of all creatures, including insects that was nurtured by my maternal grandfather. After an extended illness on January 4, 2012 I began a daily photo project on Facebook that I call “Walk In Beauty”.  On the anniversary of the project in 2014 I started posting the photos each day, along with the pick photo from 2012 and 2013, on the blog Grace and Mystery (https://graceandmystery.wordpress.com/).

Grace/Spirit brings experiences to me on my path moving me towards a deeper understanding of kindness, compassion and hope.  The mystery is how the path unfolds each step at a time.

The camera I have been using for this project from January 4, 2012 until January 25, 2015 is a Sony DSC H2O.  On January 25, 2015 I added a Sony DSC-HX300.  The Sony DSC H20 has served me well, though it is starting to wear out after taking thousands of photos.  I’m hoping that it will still have some more life in it to continue on this adventure.  The DSC-HX 300 is different (with more capabilities in some ways and less in others) and I am just starting on a learning journey with it. In 2021 I got my first cellphone (an I-phone) and in 2022 I started using it to take pictures.  I will be using all of these photo tools as I continue on the path that this project’s journey leads me.

This is a quote I like and have with my header photo on the FB page.

“Elegance is a glowing inner peace. Grace is an ability to give as well as to receive and be thankful. Mystery is a hidden laugh always ready to surface! Glamour only radiates if there is a sublime courage & bravery within: glamour is like the moon; it only shines because the sun is there.”
~ C. JoyBell C.

I have been doing this project as a volunteer and any donations you might feel inspired to make would be very welcome.  Many of the photos (especially the bees and other pollinators) have been used to raise awareness for the crisis facing bees, butterflies and other creatures that share our Earth with us on social media sites dedicated to pollinator activism and saving biodiversity.  You will find a Paypal link on the right sidebar of the home page.  I do copyright the photos and text but usually donate their onetime use for a pollinator/earth activism non-profit cause with permission and credits.

The following is from the Facebook page and it gives a bit more bit more history of the project.

The world is full of grace and mystery and as I walk in the world I try and share a little bit with you. If you’d like the blog posts in your inbox click “follow” and edit the preferences if you have wordpress in your wordpress reader (or any other way that you follow blogs) on https://graceandmystery.wordpress.com/ 🙂  Also feel free to “like” my Facebook page.

 

Update: January 4, 2014

  Today is the anniversary that begins the third year of the Walk In Beauty project that I began on Facebook on this day in 2012 and that eventually led to this blog.  I have decided that I am going to post the pick photos from each day (2012 and 2013).  During 2012 and 2013 I had two albums that I shared from, one a “pick photo of the day” and the other had extra pictures of interest from that day.  For now I will only be sharing the “pick” for each day from the past years.  Currently I have a single album, Walk In Beauty 2014, that I upload between 1 and 3 photos to and share.  I will post these pictures also, giving a 3 year perspective on each day.

 

Description

  This page is for the WordPress blog, Grace and Mystery, and it grew out of a project I started doing at the beginning of 2012 on Facebook which I call “Walk In Beauty”. At the beginning of 2012 I had been bed-bound for about 5 years due to illness. I saw a Facebook friend start a 365 project of taking and posting a picture a day and thought that this was a nice idea to try and inspire me to get out of bed more. I ended up creating two photo albums from which I shared my pictures. One where I uploaded a pick photo of the day and the other to put and share other notable pictures also taken on that day.

  My focus was to take pictures of the beauty I found all around me, especially in nature and the little things like the insect people. Most of the photos for 2012 were taken in my home/yard and I would sometimes venture down my block or occasionally get them elsewhere on the rare times I ventured away from home.

  Over the course of the year I had a lot of positive feedback from my friends on Facebook. I also had people tell me that my photos brightened their day and inspired them. They said that they were amazed that I found such beauty in my own yard and that they’d never looked at their own surroundings in such a way. Friends asked me at the end of the year if I was going to continue in 2013 and also said that they really wanted me to. I had also started thinking about doing a blog.

  In July of 2012 I started helping out with the Salt Lake County Seed Swap by creating a page and a WordPress blog. In doing this I made a personal blog that I named Grace and Mystery with the intention of perhaps doing something with my photos and daily spiritual journey some day. I challenged myself to share on the Salt Lake County Seed Swap Facebook page everyday and to post on the blog regularly. It took all the way until February 4, 2013 to start doing anything with the Grace and Mystery blog and here I am 🙂

Honeybee on asters from the summer of 2012.