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

Thoughtful Tuesdays: Connecting through our “soul volumes”

March 11, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

I found myself inspired to write today but without a journal. Typically, choosing a journal is a huge deliberation. I consider size, thickness of paper, lined versus unlined, hard versus soft cover, does it have character, how does it feel in my hands, how does it fit in my bag… a senseless batch of preferences. But today, I found a notebook in our supply room and it struck me as the perfect new journal to start – simply because it […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing, Yoga • Tags: all too human, amy tan, better oneself, By Heart, connecting, Dorthe Nor, Friedrich Nietzsche, human, human spirit, Ingmar Bergman, inspiring quotes, language as power, mary oliver, meditation, meditation challenge, Nepal, Pablo Neruda, poetry, quotes to live by, self reflection, solitude, Stupa, The Atlantic

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

A Must Read: Song at Sunset, by Walt Whitman…”I too have felt the resistless call of myself.”

January 22, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

If this poem isn’t a reason for an afternoon break, then I don’t know what is. In between the first line (Splendor of ended day floating and filling me), and the the last line (I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration), you will suddenly feel the amazement of things. Perhaps you will be insipired to take Whitman’s words and cheerfully pass them forward.  Perhaps everything will seem Illustrious! Everything you see or hear or touch, to the […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: airplane photography, best poems, Clouds, delta, human spirit, Illustrious, Photography, poetry, reflection, self reflection, song at sunset, sunset photographya, walt whitman, walt whitman poetry, Whitman

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

Cab Fare: Lessons from a Sikh

January 2, 2014 by Jenna Filia Canty

I hope you enjoy my new series on taxi drivers in New York City. My goal is to ask the questions I love to ask, take a photo, and share them both with you. Here is my first one from New Years Eve.  Thanks for reading. It was 7pm on New Years Eve and I had no plans for the evening. I stopped at Adorama to sell a few things and perused the used cameras while I was there. What […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: better oneself, cab drivers, Chakra meditation, challenges, finding meaning, human spirit, New York City, Photography, reflection, sikh, sikhism, 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

Saturday in Dumbo: Lamas, Little Lamas, and the Buddhist Center

December 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I was walking through Dumbo, Brooklyn this past weekend and stumbled upon a Buddhist Center affiliated with a monastery in Nepal. Since then, it has become increasingly surreal that on that particular day, at that particular time, I found this place. Mostly because life has been confusing lately. It has simultaneously presented itself as both overwhelming and under-whelming, for a series of obscure reasons. It should be crowned “complex uncertainty” and its royal symbol should be a foot and a […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography • Tags: better oneself, Brooklyn Buddhist Center, Buddhism, Buddhist Center, challenges, Dumbo, human spirit, kathmandu, Little Lamas, Little Monks, meditation, mental health, Nepal, New York City, Portrait Photography, reflection, self reflection

Nepal: Evenings of hot lemon water, honey and fresh ginger

November 21, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I close my eyes and remember Nepal: I like the evenings of hot lemon water, honey and fresh ginger. I like the orange bursting from the woman’s cloth wrapped around her neck. I like the man and his family who welcomed us for lunch everyday. I like the patterned umbrellas floating around the Stupa. I like the dogs in the streets and want to take care of them. I like the doorways and the strangers that sit in them. I […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: Buddhism, finding meaning, good company, gratitude, hot lemon water, human spirit, kathmandu, love, Nepal, Photography, Portrait Photography, Stupa, travel photography

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

Nepal: An offering to Ganesha

November 14, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I found this special woman in Bhaktapur, Nepal at a Hindu temple. In the first photo, she is located in the bottom right, dressed in a red salwar and raising her hand to add a dab of paste to her forehead. The same paste is rubbed onto the god as a sign of devotion and respect. I met her after taking the photo and followed her along to prepare and give an offering to Ganesh. She rang the bell to […]

Categories: Photography, Yoga • Tags: bhaktapur, darshan, deity, divine offering, Douglas Brooks, ganapati, ganesh, ganesha, Hindu, hindu temple, Hinduism, human spirit, India, Nepal, offering, puja, seeing, travel, travel notes

Cup o’ Courage: “Love yourself first”

November 13, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I am interested in the grittiness and texture of life and want to share it through your experiences and your words in the Cup o’ Courage series. I hope you find something in each entry that connects you to the person for a brief moment. Life is full of passing moments and we get to decide how to fill them. Most do chose to connect, but it is getting harder in this day and age to feel an authentic connection. […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: be kind to yourself, buddha, buddha's words, courage, creative writing, cup o' courage, honesty, human spirit, jenifer filia, kopan monastery, love yourself, monastery, monk, Nepal, nepalese boy, Photography, reflection, self reflection, sharing, sharing is courage, spill your soul

Watch “Time of Death” on Showtime

November 11, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

A new series on Showtime called Time of Death yields varied reviews, some of which say it’s superficial and cleans up the “messiness” of death. I disagree completely and describe it as a refreshing and riveting addition to what many consider meaningless television. Seemingly, posting commentary on a television series is a bit misaligned with the theme of this blog, but if you watch an episode you will see the connection between the two is in fact connecting, honesty, and […]

Categories: Art, Photography • Tags: better oneself, cancer, challenges, documentary, family, good company, gratitude, grief, human spirit, loss, love, meditation, reflection, self reflection, showtime, terminally ill, time of death

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

When she comes

November 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

i like setting the coffee pot for the morning i like talking about my grandparents i like watching her unpack her chocolates i like debating over the meaning of life i like eating goat cheese and herbed crackers i like going to see Blue Jasmine at the Angelika i like talking about death and dying I like hearing her musings on love and life i like picking out treats at the bakery together i like expressing my fears with accidental […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography • Tags: Angelika Theater, Blue Jasmine, challenges, death and dying, family, gratitude, human spirit, loss, love, mother, New York City, Portrait Photography, self reflection, weekend with my mom

Virginia Woolf, “Let me sit here for ever with bare things”

October 31, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

You may remember my Nepal:Shop Ladies post from June 7th. I was so proud of my blog that day when I received the Congratulations! email and learned it would be promoted on the WordPress Freshly Pressed site. I knew my photographs and poems would reach thousands of people. Visitors were so kind with their words and I was elated the Shop Ladies touched the blogging community in such a way. How lovely the image below would have been with the […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: bodha, Buddhism, buddhist prayer, fabric shop, Freshly Pressed, full frame, gratitude, human spirit, kathmandu, mantra, monastery, Nepal, nepalese shop, Photography, prayer beads, reflection, Shop Ladies, solitary, solitary moments, travel photography, virginia woolf, woman, woman with beads, wordpress

Cup o’ Courage: “See the opportunity, not the obstacle”

October 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Thank you Toni P. Filia, of Maineville, Ohio for her submission to this new weekly series on courage and connecting. As Brené Brown said in her brilliant Ted Talk, courage comes from the “Latin word cor, meaning heart — and the original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” Cup o’ Courage is a weekly series that allows us to tell a bit of our story in a small but meaningful way.   […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: authenticity, beauty in art, beauty in sadness, beauty is everywhere, being real, better oneself, brene brown, connecting, connecting with others, connection, courage, courageous, creative writing, cup o' courage, deeper meaning, empowering others with story, empty your cup, everyone's stories matter, fill your cup, fill your heart, find the beauty, finding meaning, finding purpose, good company, gratitude, having purpose, healthy living, human spirit, influence others, innermost thoughts, Maineville, meaning in our lives, meaningful conversations, Ohio, Photography, reflection, San Francisco, self reflection, sharing is courage, soulful conversations, soulful moments, soulful questions, spill your soul, spirit, stories that matter, ted talk, Toni Filia, vulnerability, writing our lives, written word, yoga

William Maxwell and his must read “Nearing 90” NYT piece

October 29, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“If writers don’t put down what they remember, all sorts of beautiful and moving experiences simply go down the drain forever,” William Maxwell said in a 1982 interview with the Paris Review. A lover and collector of concise sentences, he infused his work with memory, introspection, attention to detail, and depth. This resulted in successful and significant stories about seemingly insignificant people. He was influenced by Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and James Joyce’s Ulysses, inspired to emulate their writing in his […]

Categories: Art • Tags: aging, books, challenges, death, dying, human spirit, introspection, Irving Penn, james joyce, loss, nearing 90, paris review, reading, reflection, self reflection, the new yorker, virginia woolf, william maxwell, writing, writing advice

Lincoln Center: NYC Philharmonic @ Avery Fisher Hall

October 25, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I’ve been desperate to go to the NY Philharmonic and finally did last night with my friend, Tara. After making our way to Lincoln Center, her by bus and me by foot, we found two seats at the restaurant bar in the lobby. It was so nice to warm up with a glass of Malbec and a plate of local cheeses in a historic, Upper West Side building. How lucky, I thought, to be living in New York and having […]

Categories: Art, Good Company, Photography • Tags: art performances, Avery Fisher Hall, being weird in public places, cello, Charles Dutoit, classical music, conductor, funny faces, good company, good friends, having fun, human spirit, laughing with friends, Lincoln Center, Malbec, Manhattan, music, musical performances, Musorgsky, New York Philharmonic, Pictures at an Exhibition, Revel, silly, supporting the arts, Tara Carrozza, the company you keep, Thursday night event, Thursday night happenings, Upper West Side, violin, who cares if anyone sees us

See the beauty, see the darkness

October 24, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I love Sally Mann’s response when asked what the mission of an artist is. “There’s the paradox: we see the beauty and we see the dark side of things; the cornfields and the full sails, but the ashes as well. The Japanese have a word for this dual perception: mono no aware. It means something like “beauty tinged with sadness.” How is it that we must hold what we love tight to us, against our very bones, knowing we must […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: artist, beauty, challenges, creative life, darkness, extraordinary things, finding meaning, finding purpose, healthy living, human spirit, Joe Bell, New York City, New York Times, ordinary people, paradox, Photography, Sally Mann, sunrise photography, sunset photography, Susan Hartman, talking about what matters, writing

Cup o’ Courage: “I know nothing for sure”

October 23, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Thank you to Joe Canty of New York for being the first submission to Cup o’ Courage: Spill Your Soul to Fill Your Heart. Follow the link to get details on how to be a part of this new weekly series about sharing our innermost thoughts in a courageous and revealing way. I hope for it to connect us, empower us, and remind us that we are part of an all-inclusive, collective spirit. Scroll down past the lovely Nepalese lady […]

Categories: Traveling • Tags: appreciation, better oneself, challenges, connecting through written word, connection, courage, cup o' courage, good company, gratitude, human spirit, innermost thoughts, Joe Canty, love, mental health, personal manifesto, reflection, self reflection, submission, writing, writing about life

Mapping out Mindfulness

October 17, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

How creative is this infographic I found on Health Central this morning while having my coffee? Aside from the beautiful graphics and design (I just love the color palette!), it is also informative and easy to follow. Lately, I have been having trouble getting out of bed for work in the morning because in all honesty, 6:00am is just not my style! Plus, I find myself tired and groggy even after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. I realized this […]

Categories: Meditation, Yoga • Tags: arthritis, attention, benefits of mindfulness, better oneself, Buddhism, Chakra meditation, challenges, depression, emotion regulation, empathy, focus, gratitude, health, Health Central, healthy living, human spirit, improve sleep, intention, live in the moment, meditation, meditation challenge, mental health, mindfulness meditation, non-attachment, reflection, relaxation, self reflection, weight loss, yoga

“Live as though all your ancestors were living again through you”

October 2, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I love this excerpt from a letter Ted Hughes wrote to his twenty-four year old son, Nicholas. As we know, Ted Hughes was married to the brilliant Boston native, Sylvia Plath, and had two children with her before her death in 1963. Their relationship became a point of contention, specifically amongst feminist American fans, and much is unknown about their final days together. (Did you know he destroyed her final – and probably most revealing – journal in an “effort […]

Categories: Art, Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: Buddhism, challenges, guggenheim, healthy living, human spirit, james turrell, letter writing, light, meditation, mental health, reflection, self reflection, sylvia plath, ted hughes

Walks, wonder, warmth…A weekend with my Mum

September 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

adore, afterlife, always  | bakeries, bookstores, beliefs | concern, chocolate, care | dreams, daughter, doubt | encourage, Emerson, envision | family, forever, fear | grief, growing, giving | home, Hungarian, happiness | infinite, infractible, insightful | journey, jest, Jenna | keepsake, kind, kinship | leaves, laughter, lean-on | mother, margaritas, Marsha | necklace, navigate, nearness | opening, offering, oversoul | pianist, poems, park | questions, quiet, quest  | read, remember, relate | silver, stories, strength | together, tears, tusk | […]

Categories: Good Company, Weekend Instagrams • Tags: better oneself, bookstores, emerson, family, farmer's market, good company, gratitude, happiness, human spirit, Hungarian, mother, pastries, Photography, self reflection

Brooklyn Book Festival – Writers on Loss

September 23, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“One of the things that brings me back to writing every day is that I have no idea what I’m feeling, or, what I’m feeling could fill a whole book. I imagine this is true for everyone. Degas, in one of his notebooks, wrote: there are, naturally, feelings that one cannot render.” Nick Flynn, Atlanta Review Just a quick five stops on the 2 train and I was right in the middle of the Brooklyn Book Festival yesterday. Ripe with independent book publishers and […]

Categories: Art, Good Company, Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: art, atlanta review, authors, better oneself, book signinga, brooklyn book festival, creative, crossroads cafe, da, downtown brooklyn, emily roboteau, good company, gratitude, healthy living, human spirit, leanne shapton, mary williams, meditation, New Directions Publications, nick flynn, reflection, sarah manguso, self reflection, vulnerability, writers on lostw, writers panel

Inter-being: a reflection on emptiness

September 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I recently finished The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is a wonderful little book offering a clear framework on traditional Buddhist thought: a perfect little refresher that was easy to read on the subway. What made this book special, however, was Thich Nhat Hanh’s own personal teaching on how to transform suffering with Buddhist thought. It is a great book if you are interested in learning more about Buddhist philosophy and how to apply it […]

Categories: Good Company, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, deeper meaning, emptiness, good company, happiness, healthy living, human spirit, kathmandu, live to the fullest, meditation, mental health, Nepal, non-self, Photography, reflection, rich life, self reflection, soul, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tree of Life, yoga, yoga philosophy

Two parts: finding the sublime in Nepal & van Gogh’s quest

September 4, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

  I am certainly no artist (which was confirmed by a teacher who once described my images as “lacking any charge”), but I do love this image. On my last day in Nepal, we walked for miles up through the mountains to get to Kopan, a beautiful monastery overlooking all of Kathmandu. When we arrived, we couldn’t believe how far away our journey’s starting point was in the distance. As we traversed up the winding roads, each twist and turn revealed […]

Categories: Art, Photography, Traveling • Tags: aesthetics, beauty in art, emotion in art, express myself forcefully, expressive art, good company, gratitude, human spirit, kathmandu, kopan monastery, letter to theo, letter writing, mountains, nature, nature photography, Nepal, peasant study, Photography, post impressionism, spiritual in art, sublime, sublime in art, sublime landscape, Theo van gogh, travel photography, Vincent van Gogh