Getting Lost

May 13, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

 “Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, the key. You still know where you are. Everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. Or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. Either […]

Categories: Photography, Weekend Instagrams • Tags: A Field Guide to Getting Lost, better oneself, challenges, finding meaning, getting lost, healthy living, human spirit, meditation, New York City, Photography, Rebecca Solnit, reflection, self reflection, yoga

Thomas Merton…. Happy Birthday.

January 31, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

​“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” ― Thomas Merton​ Happy Birthday to Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a lifelong student of comparative religion, poetry and understanding the human experience. Merton is best known for popularizing interspirituality, an all-inclusive practice […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: aaron huey, Asian religions, better oneself, Brahmachari, Buddhism, Chakra meditation, challenges, Christianity, comparative religion, Eastern religion, healthy living, human experience, human spirit, Interfaith, Interspirituality, meditation, reflection, religion, self reflection, spirituality, Sufi, Sufi photograph, Sufism, Thomas Merton, Trappist

Rumi, “Peel your own image from the mirror.”

January 28, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

 I wish I could spend the day reading Rumi to the people I love the most. But for now, this will do… Happy Tuesday! Love After Love by Rumi The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart […]

Categories: Writers & Writing • Tags: best poems, dance like a dervish, Dervish, famous poets, Feast on your life, healthy living, heart, human spirit, love after love, love poems, mystic, mystical, mystical poetry, reflection, Rumi, self reflection, spiritual poems, spirituality, whirling dervish, writers

At 19, almost didn’t return. At 21, denied further study. “Now how ’bout that,” my Pap would have said..

January 15, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

Meaningful discourse is a powerful thing; we have all experienced essays, poems, lectures, documentaries, or speeches that riveted us in a way we couldn’t fully explain.  Something about it made us feel something, a moment worth so much. I write mainly because my whole life has been a steady search for compelling words from authors, poets, artists, and the people I love most in my life. I am addicted to that feeling.  And I like to share it on this blog. […]

Categories: Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, depression, Douglas Brooks, finding meaning, good company, gratitude, healthy living, Hinduism, human spirit, mental health, Photography, reflection, self reflection, take five program, university of rochester religion, yoga

“your place… in the family of things” Mary Oliver

January 13, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

To complement your Monday afternoon: another piece by Mary Oliver, a note on saying talk to the hand! to loneliness and photos taken in my neighborhood of a lovely man I see nearly every day (haven’t had the guts to capture his face yet). I recently had a conversation with my dear friend, Tara, about how enormous loneliness can feel when evoked by certain life experiences (ie, losing a loved one, going through a break-up, living far away, etc.).  If Tara […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, challenges, family of things, finding depth, finding meaning, friends, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, mary oliver, meditation, mental health, New York City, Photography, Portrait Photography, reflection, self reflection

A Family Project: Inspiration Boards from Cincinnati, Ohio

January 8, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

So what’s the point of having magazine subscriptions if you aren’t tearing out pictures you love, cutting out inspirational messages, and even mailing something to a loved one that made you think of them? I got started on this at a young age because my Pap (seen here) used to cut out newspaper clips and send them to me in the mail. Following his example, I keep a folder of tear outs and would never throw out a magazine without […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography • Tags: better oneself, family, goals, good company, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, inspiration boards, looking forward, magazine subscriptions, meditation, mental health, mood boards, new year, reflection, self reflection, setting goals, travel photography, vision boards, yoga

“Okay as it is, Okay as you are” Creating a Mood Board for 2014.

January 1, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

Happy New Years to you and yours.  Hope you are having a wonderful start to 2014 by relaxing, hanging with loved ones, or just bumming around in your pj’s. I was so excited to spend the day working on my 2014 board. It can be used for inspiration, goals, and even a mood board ( a mood board is typically used by designers to communicate their concepts).  Well, I love my “concepts” for 2014. I will tell you more about […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: better oneself, crafting with magazines, creat, goal board, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, inspiration, inspiration board, mood board, new year, self reflection, setting goals

Note to self: “If something is not fitting with you, don’t be in a hurry to settle the matter”

November 18, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“Something looks absolutely right until it doesn’t fit with you – as if you are the touchstone of truth, as if you are the criterion of truth. The moment it is not fitting with you, you think it is wrong. This is a wrong approach, and if you have this approach you will never arrive to that which is real. If something is not fitting with you, then don’t be in a hurry to settle the matter – don’t decide […]

Categories: Writers & Writing, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, challenges, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, meditation, osho, reality, reflection, right understanding, right view, self reflection, what the buddha said, yoga, yoga postures, yoga sequence, yoga stick figures

Cup o’ Courage: “True commitment always comes with loss”

November 6, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“In Dante’s Divine Comedy the Roman poet Virgil accompanies Dante to the underworld. No one wants to be Virgil anymore — to ‘go into hell with Dante.’ But the willingness to explore with patience and empathy the actual experience of what people undergo, no matter how horrific, is indispensable in healing the emotional afflictions that haunt human beings. And we shouldn’t be surprised that recipients of such understanding will be capable of both remarkable resilience and extraordinary healing.” -Jeffrey Rubin, […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: beauty in art, better oneself, challenges, connecting, connection, courage, creative writing, cup o' courage, dante, deeper meaning, empowering others, empty your cup, fill your cup, finding meaning, finding purpose, good company, gratitude, Haruki Murakami, having purpose, healing, healthy living, human spirit, jeffrey rubin, love, meaning in our lives, meditation, mental health, Nepal, Photography, reflection, self reflection, sharing is courage, soulful conversations, soulful moments, spill your soul, Tara Carrozza, ted talk, uncertainty, virgil, vulnerability, writing our lives, written word