Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Can receiving scant nurture for our vocation from others make us appear more ruggedly beautiful?


This tree may be growing in a difficult place - within a mere crack in a boulder that holds little soil or water - but this very difficulty makes it appear more ruggedly beautiful than the trees thriving under better conditions nearby. I wonder if we can draw a parallel with our own lives? Perhaps we find ourselves called to a vocation that receives very little nurture from others. Maybe very few follow our line of thinking or believe they need what we have to offer. Therefore, our career grows slowly and causes us to feel like we are living on the edge. But eventually, this hardship produces in us a ruggedly beautiful character - like that of this slow-growing tree - that cannot fail to attract the attention of others. That, at least, is my hope :)

Photo: Lodgepole Pine growing at Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; September 14, 2013






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