Samples from ZM's Awesome Photo Oracle

I created ZM's Awesome Photo Oracle to provide advice and encouragement as we travel through life. Each Photo Oracle pairs a photograph I've taken with text I was inspired to write about it. The set currently contains 60 photos. Here are five samples from the set.

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Around the Next Corner

Encouragement: Even though you may not be able to see what is around the next corner, trust the path you are following is the right one and keep moving.

Commentary: Your life path has many twists and turns. Often you can not see around the bend from your current location. Tread lightly but keep moving. Trust your higher self knows you are going the right direction.

Photograph: Elevated walkway in Cypress Grove Nature Park, Jackson, Tennessee - July 1997

Photo and text © S. M. Garver

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Milestones

Encouragement: Set milestones before you begin your journey and celebrate as you reach them.

Commentary: Chimney Rock in western Nebraska was a major landmark on the Oregon, California, and Mormon wagon trails heading west in the 1800's. After traveling hundreds of miles of flat, unchanging scenery, travelers noticed this landmark miles prior to reaching it. For those traveling the Oregon Trail, one-third of the journey was now complete.

Set milestones to guide you toward your goal in any endeavor you undertake. Give yourself encouragement for partial achievement of your goal as you reach each milestone. Reaching milestones proves you are capable of making progress. Onward ho!

Photograph: Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Bayard, Nebraska - August 2007

Photo and text © S. M. Garver

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Winging It

Encouragement: Take a risk.

Commentary: Sometimes the best views are seen when you take a chance to fly high into the clouds. Others may think you lost your mind, but you know the only way to see the view is to take the risk. Are you holding back from taking a risk to achieve your greatness? Know that in going for it, you are not alone; others, even though they may be total strangers, will climb aboard the plane with you.

Photograph: View from the window seat of a Southwest Airlines flight from Boise, Idaho to Reno, Nevada - January 2006

Photo and text © S. M. Garver

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Take a Shortcut?

Encouragement: Consider going off-trail.

Commentary: Not everyone is going the same direction you are, even though your paths may cross. Instead of following the clear path before you, stop to see if wandering through the brush might take you to your goal faster, or even lead you to joy you didn't know existed.

Photograph: Mule deer, Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, Saratoga, CA - August 2005

Photo and text © S. M. Garver

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Your Tracks Are Everywhere

Encouragement: All your actions leave energy residue; leave traces of how you want to be known.

Commentary: Many have traveled the same walkways you currently travel. Unless they had soft mud on their shoes or there is snow on the ground, you are unlikely to know they were there. Regardless of whether they left tracks, their energy imprints remain. Have you ever walked into a room and known an argument just happened? You sensed the energy residue. Your actions in a specific time and place determine the energy imprints which remain. Let joy and love flow through you so you leave energy residue to which others gravitate.

Photograph: Wolverine tracks (far left), small animal tracks (middle and right), and boot prints (right) on Hidden Lake Nature Trail near Logan Pass Visitor Center in Glacier National Park, West Glacier, Montana - September 2006

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Photo and text © S. M. Garver