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.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Spiritual evolution involves becoming ever more expansive in our vision.


Expansive landscapes teach us that one of the most important features of our spiritual evolution as a species is the ability to become ever more expansive in our vision. This is especially true in the arena of religion. Here, we learn to embrace the best traits of all faiths, not just to "coexist" - as the rather bland and uninspired bumper sticker puts it - but to actively learn from the various faiths. This is not at all the same as claiming "they are all really saying the SAME thing." Actually, from a contemplative perspective, each faith specializes in a different angle or aspect of Divine truth, and each is meant to function as a sort of puzzle piece that fits together with all of the other pieces to create a Larger Whole. Spiritual evolution involves integrating these various angles into a single picture, preserving the uniqueness of each while seeking to discover how they all work together. Are we ready for this advance as a species? I'm convinced we are!

Photo: Peaks above Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 19, 2015

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