the alps  

Tuscany 

Faith 

The Duomo 

Florence 

Florence

This is one of my last days in Florence. I decided that it is about time that I took some photos.
It is a beautiful city, full of tourists, American students, and the economy is based on those facts.
The locals do not seem very happy, tourism is down and the student enrollment is also down.
Many of the shops shut down and the locals are moving out of the city because it is too expensive.

trinkets 

waiting for the rain 

Florence wedding 

Michelangelo

I’ve been busy with my university, friends came to visit…so we went to the hill outside of Firenze, Piazza Michelangelo is a square with a beautiful overview of the city. Here are a few pics from there. Many foreigners come to Florence to get married, and they come up to the hill for photographs, on this day there were at least 5 couples getting their photographs taken.

Life Things

life things 

Budda 

Creating

I have not submitted my photo of the day for a few days. I was side tracked with emotionally created humm by my ex. (handling your divorce) Sad huh? I surely don’t understand why people just don’t let things be, why they feel that they need to be telling you what you should be doing with your life. Are they me? Are they you?

Isn’t one really free when they can live without the societal limits that are instilled upon our brains? In order to be “successful” (your brain has a bent - not a dent)must we really own our own home with the picket white fence and drive a Mercedes?

Freedom (emotional freedom) is creating the ability to live in a peaceful environment of encouragement in a circle of great friends, they are like diamonds.
Freedom is the ability to create in your own life what it is you do based on who you really are, not who they think that you should be.
Freedom is creating the ability to create. Leonardo De Vinci was a creator and in his creations he presented gifts and knowledge to the entire world that we still use today.
Freedom is creating the ability to create, that is: creating your own design (emotional design) of your own life, your breathe and your soul based on who you really are. (Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and community in a fragmented world)

Today is my birthday.

The Olive Tree

The Olive Tree

The olive tree has is a symbol of freedom and peace. Its roots go deep into the ground and its branches reach up towards the sky. You have to prune the tree every year for it to produce its fruit. You can take a branch, and grow a new tree and plant a mountain of olive trees.
The tree is life giving.
It produces oil for cooking, your skin, for fire, and for food.
The olive tree dates back to the Egyptian time period, they used it for everything.
People have been killed over olives.
Families have broken up over olives.
When the killing stops
and the families come back together
then the olive tree will represent the peace that is so desires.

Book link:  The Olive Tree of Civilization, by John Train:
The ancients knew these virtues and olive oil became a key to their religious and political ceremonies, from the temples of Ra in Egypt where lamps burned olive oil, to the temple of Soloman, where kings were anointed with oil based ointments. Christ was offered a sip of oil on the cross; Hanukah is, at its origin...

The Search for an Identity

In the search for an identity my cousin sent me this:

If suddenly and without warning you had nothing to worry about, do you know what the world would began to look like?

Exactly the same as it does now.

If suddenly you had absolutely nothing to be afraid of do you know what you’d begin to look like right now?

Yeah, “hot” as ever.

If suddenly, you had absolutely no expectations you had to live up to and absolutely no one to disappoint, do you know how free you would suddenly become?

The only thing that would really change are your thoughts-
And you don’t need circumstances and other people to help you with that do you?

fall leaves 

tuscan cross 

Olive Oil

Olive Oil 

Pozzolatico winery