The human is the mind and heart of the universe.

 

"The human is that being in whom the universe reflects on and celebrates itself and its numinous origin in its own unique mode of conscious self-awareness.  All living beings do this in their own way, but in the human, this becomes a dominant mode of functioning.  It is not that we think on the universe; the universe, rather, thinks ITSELF, in us and through us . . . The human is the mind and heart of the universe."

Thomas Berry

Yesterday's drive down to Boulder and hike in the foothills left me speechless with awe.  I cannot remember a Fall in Colorado when the leaves have remained on the trees for so long.  Usually they are all brown and blown off  by Halloween, but this year, we still have Willows, Poplars, Maples and Chinese Elm trees turning gold during the second week of November!  I imagine this will all change today as a major Arctic front moves in, along with snow and high winds.  I took these photos  yesterday, in 70 degree weather.  Today, as I look out my window, it is spitting snow, and the temperature is supposed to drop into single digits within the next few days!

Photos: (Top) Poplars and foothills, near Boulder, CO; (Middle) Mt. Meeker and Long's Peak, with willows in the foreground, near Longmont, CO; (Bottom) Smoke from a prescribed forest fire rises from the foothills near Lyons, CO.  All three photos were taken on November 9, 2014.  "Numinous" means "indicating or suggesting the presence of divinity."