View allAll Photos Tagged powerlessness,
In no other act does man experience so often the disparity between the desire for expression and the means of expression as in prayer. The inadequacy of the means at our disposal appears so tangible, so tragic, that one feels it a grace to be able to give oneself up to music, to a tone, to a song, to a chant. The wave of a song carries the soul to heights which utterable meanings can never reach. Such abandonment is no escape, nor an act of being unfaithful to the mind. For the world of unutterable meanings is the nursery of the soul, the cradle of all our ideas. It is not an escape but a return to one’s origins.
What the word can no longer yield, man achieves through the fullness of his powerlessness. The deeper the need in which one is placed through this powerlessness, the more does man reveal himself in his essence, and himself becomes expression. Prayer is more than communication, and man is more than the word. Should we feel ashamed by our inability to utter what we bear in our hearts? God loves what is left over at the bottom of the heart and cannot be expressed in words…. The unutterable surplus of what we feel, the sentiments that we are unable to put into words are our payment in kind to God.
-Kaplan, “Language and Reality,” 102.
Mitakon Speedmaster at f0.95. These days, the feeling of powerlessness can be overwhelming. Here, you see a pensioner trying to exercise a minimum of control and this, in his own home! He is trying, by an act of sheer willpower (ok, there is also a stick should willpower not work), to make his umbrella open up. We shall talk to him - see the next image.
Cornwall, Mounts Bay, from Halzephron Cliff National Trust.
I stand here in a free country, with a warm home & plenty to eat.
While a cultured European country is being slowly destroyed.
I feel guilty because I am powerless to do anything useful.
I've given money and words of support, yet am helpless.
History demands that we do more, before its too late !
We did nothing in 2014 - the West's eternal shame.
Like NAZI Germany, Russia must be stopped !
Bloody Handed Russians - Go Home !
For this long exposure I took there at the Nubble Lighthouse I took the time to clone out the electrical poles and lines ... thus the island and lighthouse have no power now ;)
According to St. Maximus, this freedom of choice is already a sign of imperfection, a limitation of our true freedom. A perfect nature has no need of choice, for it knows naturally what is good. . . . Our free choice [gnōmē] indicates the imperfection of fallen nature, the loss of the divine likeness. Our nature being overclouded by sin no longer knows its true good, and usually turns to what is ‘against nature’; and so the human person is always faced with the necessity of choice; it goes forward gropingly. This hesitation in our ascent towards the good, we call ‘free will.’ The person called to union with God, called to realize by grace the perfect assimilation of its nature to the divine nature, is bound to a mutilated nature, defaced by sin and torn apart by conflicting desires. It knows and wills by means of this imperfect nature, and is in practice blind and powerless. It can no longer choose well, and too often yields to impulses of nature which has become a slave to sin. So it is, that that in us which is made in the image of God is dragged into the abyss, though always retaining its freedom of choice, and the possibility of turning anew to God.
-Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976), 125–26.
There is always this point in time when you have to realize and can realize where you are.
Before is just the abyss with fear and pain, anger about falling again, powerlessness and helplessness...
Only with the acceptance of the situation through the knowledge that you cannot achieve relief with any tear in the world and with no sadness about the deep fall, you can let it go ... In order to find a way... perhaps little step by little step. With every new day that is coming.
I know this process all too well, unfortunately.
I hope the pain goes away again...
I thank you all my friends and forgive me if I don't respond to your lovely comments and good wishes at the moment.
That would just bring back my tears ...
I stay brave.
Moni
😘😘😘
But life is a bitch...
So I had a situation recently where I felt singled out and was reprimanded in front of a group of people. I was breaking a rule I was never aware of and the person made me feel like a child with zero power, it was humiliating. It has been years since I have felt so powerless and small. I am still angry about the encounter but have just chalked it up to little man syndrome. It could have been handled with kindness and tact by someone without something to prove.
Amsterdam - Tweede Jan Steenstraat - Van Woustraat
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An early wintermorning this January at Bjorli, Norway. Temperatures were below zero by 24 C and the sun was bleak and powerless. HM King Winter reigned supreme
Watching a storm take over the mountains over a lake is such an incredible moment in time. It is an overcoming feeling to stand before the mountains with a storm swamping them. There is so much power being displayed in this one moment. The mountains already remind us of how small we are and then when a storm has the power to overcome them it shows us truly how small and powerless we are. The Creator always has more power than the created. Let a moment like this send a holy chill down your spine that reminds you that you are not in control and that there is One who rules the entire universe! There is one who has both the power and authority to not just kill the body, but also the body and soul both for all of eternity. This same One can also give life to those who are dead. His name is JESUS!
Austor is such an amazing guy. I wanted to use a little creative license... and JUST the right windlight/filter, before I would take the picture... Took ages to position, was distracted during the whole shoot, and he just took it like a champ! Did minimal editing to the copy saved to my pc, and love how it turned out.
Various torments, with which they wanted to force the renunciation of Christ from the good sufferer of Christ, were powerless, and the tormentor himself was at a loss why he, with all his might, could not bend to his wickedness one servant of Christ, firm in his confession, like strong and unshakable pillar.
Nikita was executed in 372 by burning within the Tomitan diocese, in Bessarabia. According to the life, the fire did not burn the body of the saint.
In the name of St. Nikita, the thrones of many Christian churches around the world were consecrated.
Микита або Микита Готський - готський воїн і святий, шанований у лику великомученика.
Святий Микита був готським воїном і жив на східному боці річки Дунай у межах нинішньої Румунії в середині IV століття.
У молодості його навернув до християнства і охрестив готський єпископ Феофіл, учасник I Вселенського собору. Святий Микита згодом висвятився на священника. Атанаріх, король остроґотів, криваво переслідував християн, змушував їх поклонятися поганському божкові, а тих, хто відмовлявся, вбивав. Микиту, який проповідував християнство, ідолопоклонники спалили живцем 15 вересня 378 року. Друг святого Микити, християнин Маріан, вночі відшукав тіло мученика, переніс його і поховав у Кілікії. Згодом воно було перенесене до Константинополя. Частину мощей Микити пізніше перенесли у Сербію.
For Ukraine:
Deep within the heart has always known that there was freedom
Somehow breathed into the very soul of life.
The prisoner, the powerless, the slave have always known it
There's something that keeps reaching for the sky.
And even life begins because a baby fights for freedom
And songs we love to sing have freedom's theme.
Some have walked through fire and flood
to find a place of freedom
And some faced hell itself for freedom's dream.
Let freedom ring wherever minds know
what it means to be in chains.
Let freedom ring wherever hearts know pain.
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets
where prisons have no key
We can be free and we can sing, let freedom ring!
God built freedom into every fiber of creation
And He meant for us to all be free and whole.
When my Lord bought freedom with the blood of His redemption
His cross stamped pardon on my very soul.
I'll sing it out with every breath, I'll let the whole world hear it
This hallelujah anthem of the free.
That iron bars and heavy chains can never hold us captive
The Son has made us free and free indeed.
Let freedom ring down through the ages
from a hill called Calvary.
Let freedom ring wherever hearts know pain
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets
where prisons have no key.
You can be free and you can sing "Let freedom ring".
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets
where prisons have no key.
You can be free and you can sing "Let freedom ring"!
tonight's haiku…
dark flower
slight speck of stardust
alone... adrift... powerless...
against raging storm.
-- me.
following my own path.
conjuring nirvana.
learning to sit with uncertainty.
living in questions, rather than answers.
choosing survival over healing.
embracing impermanence.
training the dragon in my heart.
reflecting on the mind - so excitable,
so uncertain, so difficult to control.
walking in trauma… the journey of my lifetime.
exploring this nondualistic universe.
surrounded by mystery.
inhale love… exhale doubt.
❣️ 💙 📷 🐄 🐾 🐎 💋
🌼 ❄️ 🎼 ✍️ 💕️ ✨
a soldier of peace
in the army of love.
Explored June 27th 2016. Thank you X
Just a detail I found interesting whilst walking around Tiverton in Devon, really pleased no one had taken it away.
Hope everyone is well and calmer after the storm that is British Politics, my love still floweth to all peoples of the World :-) X
Being a submissive has never been about being powerless. It is about the conscious decision to gift that power to the person you deem most worthy of it.
Alte Münze , Berlin
Mikhail Ray ... Kherson
"I often hear from the people from Russia that they are not interested in current events in Ukraine , because they are "apolitical". But more often they just do not believe us and repeat fairytales that they've heard from their official mass-media. Of course, it's more pleasant to believe that you are involved in the great case of the great nation, than in your involvement in military blackmailing of the neighboring countries and killing civilians. Apoliticism is not the term to justify cowardice and indifference to barbarism. this is powerlessness to change something in your country and a reason why someone replaces your goals with their own ones and destroy your life in process."
"I’m writing this from Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, where I’ve just finished operating on another severely malnourished young teenager. A seven-month-old baby lies in our paediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her for a newborn. The phrase “skin and bones” doesn’t do justice to the way her body has been ravaged. She is literally wasting away before our eyes and, despite our best efforts, we are powerless to save her. We are witnessing deliberate starvation in Gaza right now." - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/22/gaza-israel... ▪️ Pont Groesor, Gwynedd
Last night my city continued with a planned fireworks show to honor the front-line heroes of Covid19. Salt Lake City had a curfew because of the rioting happening. It was strange to sit and watch them with so much chaos in the city.
Today I was very deliberate in choosing the color red and the quote to accompany it. Though the chaos caused by the rioting is not beautiful the fires and burning anger are supposed to be represented. The tensions need to cool and the agitators stirring up the violence and causing destruction need to be held accountable. How is this going to end? The nightly curfews? Tear gas, rubber bullets? How did we get here? I have no answers and feel powerless.
Wreck of the SS Nornen, Berrow, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
This old wreck has been on my mind to shoot for about 2 years but as it's a bit of a drive and you need the weather, tides and sunset to align plus have the time in the schedule to shoot it I haven't before now. On the August Bank Holiday weekend I was free and had reason to be heading that way so I decided to make an afternoon/evening out of it and try to get something.
The SS Nornen was a Norwegian Barque sailing ship. It had 3 masts and was built in France in 1876.
On 1 Feb 1897 it set sail from Bristol bound for Brunswick in Georgia, USA. Having loaded a cargo of resin and turpentine, the Nornen set sail back to Bristol. During the night of 2/3 March, a major storm battered the coasts of south west England. Captain Olsen made an attempt to shelter in the lee of Lundy Island, but this was in vain. With sails torn, the crew were powerless against the rough swells and driving sleet. The Nornen drifted north-westward, eventually running aground on Berrow Beach, Berrow, Somerset.
The captain risked his life by jumping overboard, into the muddy, icy cold waters of the Severn Estuary. None of the other crewmen nor the ship's dog followed. At 11:30 on 3 March, the RNLI lifeboat "Godfrey Morris"[ reached the stricken vessel, which was standing upright on Gore Sands. All crew* and the ship's dog were rescued and taken to safety.
Salvage began almost immediately, with the insurers logging her as 'sold as a wreck' on 2 April 1897. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nornen
I did find shooting this wreck a challenge as I wanted to go low to the sand but if I did that it was impossible to isolate the two rows of timbers from each other. I was there for a few hours with one other Tog appearing during Golden Hour and several beach walkers visited as well. Luckily although there were a number of heavy rain showers skirting the site (you can see one to the left of the frame) I stayed dry the whole time. This shot is is a series of 5 bracketed images taken shortly before the sun was lost behind that bank of clouds. I'd hoped the shadows you can see would appear as I thought they could be used in the shot.
It's pretty flat there and I know the Bristol channel has a massive tidal range so you need to be careful there but I've seen some shots with more of the sand missing and water sitting between the timbers which can make for a cracking image. A place I hope to return to.
© All rights reserved Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
The mysterious sinking of the Admiral Von Tromp
On Saltwick Bay near Whitby lies a wreck. Many people stand and stare at this. Many a tourist will ask the name of the stricken vessel. It is a wrecked trawler named the 'Admiral Von Tromp' which foundered In October 1976. The curious will then ask how it got wrecked. Thats more difficult to answer. It is still a mystery which will never be fully solved. The one man who could have solved the riddle died in the water that day.
At 1am the Skipper Frankie Taal set off from Scarborough Harbour. Mr Walter Sheader of 10 Longwestgate, pierman on the West Pier, helped cast them off. He stated that everything seemed normal and that the crew were definitely not drunk (if they had been the whole thing may have been easier to explain). Frankie Taal set a course for the Barnacle Bank fishing grounds - 45 miles NNE of Scarborough. He then had a cup of coffee then came back to check again on John Addison. Everything seemed normal and he went to bed leaving Addison on the wheel - he was an experienced man on the wheel.
Then skipper Frankie Taal was woken as the vessel was bumping and heeling. Crew member John Marton thought the boat had been run down - it simply didn't enter his mind that the boat could have gone on the rocks. The boat was heeling over off Black Nab on Saltwick Bay. The skipper was incredulous and asked Addison "What the hell are you doing!". He simply looked back in stunned silence.
How exactly did a modern boat with all the navigational aids run aground on Saltwick Bay. The weather wasn't bad and they had enough fuel? It was foggy but that shouldn't be a problem as they were not heading anywhere near the coastline. Captain Abbey from the coastguard even charted the boats course and when it sank it was heading due west. That was 90 degrees off course. The boat had been heading straight towards some of the worst rocks on the coast!
Strangest of all was the testimony of a senior nautical surveyor at the inquest. He stated that the boat if left to its devices would not have gone onto the rocks. It really was driven onto the rocks by a deliberate act.
Frankie Taal made valiant attempts to save the boat. They all put their Lifejackets on and then he tried to anchor the boat. Then the vessel turned broadside and it then started to fill with water. He had already sent out a mayday - having to get John Addison out of the way - who was still looking stunned and was powerless to act. The boat was now sinking in thick fog, with a heavy swell breaking on the stern.
The rescue proved very problematic. The boat was heeling over. Frankie Taal ordered the crew to hang onto the starboard side but the seas were too heavy. They instead went back into the wheelhouse. They stayed here for an hour. The wheelhouse slowly filled with water and in the end their heads were banging on the ceiling. In the end they had to leave through an open window - Skipper Taal was last out. Addison was already dead at this stage - drowned in the wheelhouse.
The rescue showed how difficult it is to save lives even in the modern age. The Whitby Lifeboat tried again and again to get near and failed. The Coxswain of the Lifeboat, Robert William Allen, even spoke to the skipper - who said that everyone was alive. The boat tried 7 times to get close. At one point the vessels even touched. Yet heavy seas and fog hampered the rescue. They could even have snatched the crew yet at that moment they were still imprisoned in the wheelhouse. Rocket lines were thrown by the Coastguard but again this failed because the crew were trapped inside the wheelhouse.
When they left the wheelhouse then problems were bound to occur. George Eves was on top of the wheelhouse yet a huge wave knocked him off. That was the last the skipper saw of him. He died drowned. Skipper, Taal was washed overboard and was eventually saved by the inshore Lifeboat. He drew their attention with his whistle on his Lifejacket. The Coastguard had thrown him a line but he did not have the strength to catch it. The other survivors were washed ashore.
It was a tragic loss with two men dead. Quite why it happened will never be explained - Addison died in the water. He drowned and pathology reports showed no signs of alcohol. He spoke to Alan Marston just after the accident happened just saying 'Oh Alan!' in a quiet apologetic voice. He seemed stunned and unable to act. Skipper Taal had to remove him from the wheel in order to try to rescue the boat.
The crew onboard the Admiral Von Tromp were:
- Frankie Taal, 35 Princess Street, who had 23 years at sea - saved by inshore lifeboat.
- Alan Marston, mate, 22 Longwestgate - survived.
- Mr Anthony Nicholson, engineer, 6 Avenue Road.
- Mr George Edward Eves, East Mount Flats, Scarborough,fish hand - who drowned
- Mr John 'Scotch Jack' Addison, Spreight Lane Steps, drowned in the wheelhouse - his body was found on 25th October In Runswick Bay.
A Silver Medal was awarded to RNLI Lifeboat Coxswain Robert Allen. He had skillfully dropped anchor and tried to drift towards the trawler. A Bronze Medal to the Helmsman of the inshore Lifeboat, Richard Robinson, for taking Frankie Taal off Black Nab.
Sources
- Scarborough Evening News 11th November, 1976.
If we open our inner doors, music will come in and befriend us. In its own way, it will express an eagerness to breathe with the Spirit; and to create a climate in which God might more deeply inhale us into his gentle strength. The compulsive and controlling ways of the mind are powerless to sidetrack music, since its harmony swims well beneath the intellect. Music yearns to be our ally. Like a good friend, it does not insist or intrude. It respects our “boundaries.” Musical rhythm, tone, harmony—and the subtle emotions it conveys—would never force themselves on us.
-TEARS OF AN INNOCENT GOD Conversations on Silence, Kindness, and Prayer, ELIAS MARECHAL
Mood; I WILL SURVIVE - Benedetta Caretta feat. Petar Markoski
And on the path of self-acceptance,
These twelve illusions you shall shed:
The illusion of being unwanted:
For, in truth, there is no such thing as an unwanted soul.
The illusion of being unlovable:
For your true self is love.
The illusion of unworthiness:
For you are always deserving of love and success.
The illusion of being weird:
For there is no such thing as normal.
The illusion of needing external validation:
For your worth is never dependent on another's approval.
The illusion of being insignificant:
For your presence impacts all of humanity.
The illusion of being powerless:
For within you lies the strength to shape your destiny and influence the world.
The illusion of not being good enough:
For you were born good enough.
The illusion of being a burden:
For your existence is a precious gift, and your contributions add value.
The illusion of being unsuccessful:
For success is subjective, and your path is uniquely yours.
The illusion of being ugly:
Because that label only ever reflects the viewer being incapable of seeing beauty.
And the illusion that aging decreases your value:
For, in truth, you are not a body but a soul.
Words by Tahlia Hunter
Thank you dear Nino Heartsdale for the help <3
❤ Heartsdale Cannes Collection jewelry set and Kokoshnik tiara
Both available at the main store: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/caLLiefornia/49/187/29
❤ Lovely art gift from my friend Louvre Art Loon as my backdrop <3
When you totally forgot to check the SD card in your camera... Even no extra SD in the camera bag either... what a powerless moment 😔
Only way is my phone! Note to myself: Always check the camera before you leave!!!
An early wintermorning this January at Bjorli, Norway. Temperatures were below zero by 24 C and the sun was bleak and powerless. HM King Winter reigned supreme
A friendly four unit eastbound gets underway as it meets a ten unit westbound about to head into Northtown here at University.
It's easy for me to get wound up with fear, frustration and feelings of powerlessness in these tangled times. I find looking through the lens of my camera and the subsequent processing of images helps me find hidden delights and unique perspectives. I tend toward the saturnine so I have to make a conscious effort to create my day and the attitudes that keep my mind free and flowing.
You pull me in
Here we go again
And my heart beats faster now
And I don't know
Why I'm powerless
And there's no way out
The Highlands have been so colourful this last month or two particularly with the rowan (mountain ash) trees with their red berries. They are everywhere and so radiant. I had gone to Glencoe expecting calm and dry (non-rainy) conditions but wished for dark, scurrilous overcast skies, and not the horror pastel-blue I found there. That's a rowan tree on the left and I was pleased to see the cooler mountain air was helping it to hold on to its berries, but in the bright light, and blue sky I was powerless to take this shot without them being silhouetted and coming out dark. It's taken me ages to painfully edit each berry to pull the colour out of them and as usual I've taken a slapdash approach to doing it.