True Values. The Earth from the Space

When astronauts return from space, what they talk about isn’t the brute force of the rocket launch or the exhilaration of zero gravity. It’s the view. And it’s mankind’s rarest view of all, Earth from afar.

Only two dozen men – those who journeyed to the moon – have seen the full Earth view. Most space travellers, in low orbit, see only a piece of the planet – a lesser but still impressive glimpse. They have seen the curvature of Earth, its magnificent beauty, its fragility, and its lack of borders.

The first full view of Earth came from the moon-bound Apollo 8 during the waning days of a chaotic 1968. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders put it in perspective in a documentary: “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”

For Earth Day this year – at a time when perhaps some perspective is needed – the Associated Press asked space travellers to recall what it’s like to see Earth from above:

The Wedding. Interesting Traditions

True marriages are said to be made in Heavens. But the earthly wedding plays an important role as well: it is a kind of acknowledgement of the new family from the part of society (which is a very important psychological moment for the newly married). And especially it is so nice when no rude traditions (like excessive drinking or fighting) spoil the wedding. One gets such a pleasant feeling when everything happing at the wedding is pure (by the way, in the West the white color of the bride’s dress is meant to highlight purity).

I have visited many weddings (as a guest and as a photographer) but only at the wedding of my friends last Friday I saw what I had never expected to see – an unknown to many wedding tradition.

Pure Desire. Know Thyself

 

In general, most of our human desires are not true as they cannot be satisfied. As soon as we get what we, as we have thought, want, we immediately want something else. The joy from reaching the aim lasts for a very short time. We are constantly discontented (on the one hand, it motivates us to seek but shouldn’t we find what are looking for at last?!)

To know Thyself, to know your own Spirit – it is such a beautiful experience! It is what the pure desire is. To know thyself and, due to it or because of it, refuse from all the doubts, fears and conditionings… Instead of it, many of us are sinking in the quagmire of this world.

To know thyself, to know the Spirit. But how?

Nature and Fashion

During the last two months, until the previous weekend, the ground was covered with snow. And each day it was so beautiful and so different.

Only one week has passed. The snow has melted away. But the ground is already in some other attire – small colorful flowers make the insects and… people, who are able to notice the beauty of the surrounding world, happy.

Unintentionally one draws a parallel: if those are the “attires” (white, or green, or yellow and red) of the Earth that gladden the eye, if one feels cheerless and uncomfortable seeing bare trees and fields, why then people strive for the opposite in the modern vogue, not adorning the body but showing it off?

If you are a woman, you can learn how one can create her own image following the traditions of decorating the body here.

And here are the flowers – decoration of the Earth which appeared already in a week after the snow had melted:

Thought for the day: “The human body wants good only for himself and people give way to this deception. And as soon as the man lives only for his body and not for the soul, he diverges with people and God and do not get the good which he is seeking” (Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer).

Photo by the Author (April 3, 2007)