Your love and my love and everybody's love is one Love, grounded in God.

"'Love is repaid by love alone' says St. John of the Cross.  So what can I give you by way of thanks?  I offer you your own charity, which is in you from Christ, through the Holy Spirit - and which is, insofar as it is of and from Him - my charity also and everybody's charity, and is the same infinite and simple and eternal act of Love, in Whom we are all one."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Rosy Paintbrush and American Lakes Basin, Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012

The spirit of contemplation drives us to lose ourselves in the beauty and magnificence of the mystery of God.

"The spirit of prayer made Jesus spend whole nights on the mountainside alone with His Father.  It is a spirit of adoration and contemplation which drives the monk to lose himself in the beauty and magnificence of the mystery of God."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Subalpine Daisy and Lake Agnes, Never Summer Range, CO; July 14, 2012

Spiritual transformation causes us to freely take on responsibility for the evils of the world.

Today a gunman opened fire in a movie theater just 60 miles from here, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 38.  The youngest killed was a 3 month old baby.

My spiritual mentor - Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk - used to say that a spiritually transformed person understands at a deep level the fact that "Given a change in circumstances, that gunman could have been ME."

With this insight in mind, I ask:

What is it about the society in which we are embedded that causes those living on the edge of sanity to "snap"?  Do we feel disconnected from any sense of ultimate meaning because we have lost touch with a Greater Whole - a divine Presence to whom we are all eternally united?
 
Does our society's extreme obsession with individualism make us fail to see the common humanity we share with others, a humanity that is rooted in the Divine?  Does all of our stress and busyness lead to a sense of disconnection from others - a feeling of alienation and loneliness?  Do we ever truly listen to one another? Does the fact that we feel unheard - especially because there are now SEVEN BILLION of us - cause some of us to act at times like an adult version of a bratty kid - trying to draw attention to ourselves by doing extreme things?

We may feel that we are blameless in all of this, and perhaps - on an individual level, at least - this is true.  But remember one of the core motifs of spirituality: a Christ figure - or a "bodhisattva" in the Buddhist tradition - takes upon himself or herself the evils of the world.  In our union with the divine, WE are called to do the same. What Thomas Merton says about monks is true of the "monk" in all of us:

"The monk, who abandons himself to the love of God, who takes upon himself responsibility for the sins of all and holds himself responsible to all, by that very fact places himself below all, recognizes himself as worse than all, and spiritually 'washes the feet' of everyone in the world . . . By his or her very presence, the monk brings the Holy Spirit to the hearts of all."

Please understand that this is not an attitude of destructive self-denigration.  Rather, it is an attitude we CHOOSE - in God - to take upon ourselves. That, of course, is precisely what Jesus did.

How do we find the strength to live in this manner? To embody this level of connectedness, solitary time spent in the wilderness - both inner and outer - can help put us in touch with these more cosmic realities.  That, at least, is what the high country does for me.

Photo: Western Yellow Paintbrush and the Nokhu Crags, American Lakes Trail, Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012.  "Nokhu" is a shortened version of an Arapaho word meaning "Eagle's Nest."

Solitude puts us in touch with a wider, more cosmic perspective.

The discipline of solitude releases us from the cares of the moment and helps us identify instead with a wider, more cosmic perspective.  Then, when we return to society, we can serve as a reservoir of Spirit from which both ourselves and others can drink.

Photo: A lone columbine blooms above jade-green Snow Lake, with the Nokhu Crags looming in the background; Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012

God is friendship.

"

"God is friendship . . . It is such a joy to have the consolation of someone’s affection – someone to whom we are deeply united by the bonds of love, someone in whom our weary spirit may find rest, and to whom we may pour out our soul . . . , someone whose conversation is as sweet as a song in the tedium of our daily life.  She is someone whose soul will be to us a refuge to creep into when the world is altogether too much for us, someone to whom we can confide all our thoughts.  Her spirit will give us the comforting kiss that heals all the sickness of our preoccupied heart.  She will weep with us when we are troubled, and rejoice with us when we are happy; she will always be there to consult when we are in doubt.  We will be so deeply bound to her in our heart that even when she is far away we will find her together with us in the spirit, together and alone.  The world will fall asleep around us, we will find, and our souls will be at rest, embraced in absolute peace.  Our two hearts will be quiet together, united as if they were one, as the grace of the Holy Spirit flows over both of us."

Aelred of Rievaulx, 12^th Century Cistercian monk

Photo:  Rosy Paintbrush, American Lakes, Thunder Peak and Lulu Mountain; Never Summer Range, July 13, 2012.  Interestingly, I didn't consciously notice how the two paintbrush flowers perfectly mirror the two peaks until I was in the process of editing this photo!

The beauty of the inner soul is able to reveal itself most acutely in those situations which seem the most inhospitable.

Columbines look quite delicate, but they actually prefer rocky sites - the more bouldery, the better.  They remind us that the beauty of the inner soul  is able to reveal itself most acutely in those situations which seem the most inhospitable.

Photo: Columbines and Snow Lake, Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012

The vastness of the mountains allows us to look on our problems as though from above.

In the course of everyday life in society, it is easy for us to collapse in on the ego-self and to identify ourselves with our problems and afflictive emotions.  The mountains, by contrast, help expand our perspective, enabling us to see our problems as though from above.  Instead of feeling tight and leaden on account of our focus on the seemingly solid contents of our awareness, we instead begin to identify ourselves with the vast transparency of awareness itself, a consciousness that is permeated through and through with the peace and bliss of the Great Beyond.

Photo: Indian Paintbrush, American Lakes Basin, Thunder Peak and Lulu Mountain; Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012

The environmental challenges of this summer provide us with a golden opportunity for reflection on the wider Whole.

Environmental events this summer - especially widespread drought, destructive wildfires, and increased evidence of climate change - provide important opportunities for us to take our eyes off our narrow anthill lives and focus on the wider picture.  This is a time to ask ourselves: what transitions are we going through as a nation and as a world?  Are our priorities where they should be? Are we making time for meditation, reflection and journaling about this larger picture?  Is our sense of unnamed grief and depression merely our own, or is it a participation in a larger emotion - a sort of divine labor pain that is occurring across the planet?  It is a good time to be making these sorts of reflections.


Photo: High Park Fire, Poudre Canyon, CO; July 13, 2012

A new idea is delicate.

"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow."

Ovid

Photo: Wild Geranium, with Mt. Moran in the background; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 8, 2012

The spacious vistas of the mountains offer us a sense of boundless hope.

The spacious vistas of the mountains offer us a sense of boundless hope, a necessary antidote to the claustaphobic confines of our life in society, where we are so often tempted to lose ourselves in busyness and worry.

Photo: Alpine Sunflowers, American Bistort and Subalpine Sweetpea bloom on Hurricane Pass, with Battleship Mountain looming in the background.  Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 6, 2012

God tends his mountains and feeds them with light.

"God tends his mountains and feeds them with light, feeds them like a flock.  Strange we regard them as dead."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 162

Photo: Alpenglow on Mt. Owen and Grand Teton, a beautiful backdrop for a meadow of snowlilies; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 4, 2012.  This scene was right next to my backcountry campsite!

The mind that comes to rest is tended in ways that it cannot intend.

The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend

Wendell Berry

Photo: Indian Paintbrush blooming along Jackson Lake with Mount Moran standing guard; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 8, 2012

The beloved opens a window (not a mirror) for me into the expanded universe of existence.

"I longed to penetrate and pass through my beloved!  So that she would open a window for me into the expanded universe of existence (not a mirror) . . ."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo: Douglas-fir cones and South Teton Peak, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 7, 2012

Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong, but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.

“Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.”

 
Thomas L. Friedman

Photo: Snow Buttercups blooming on Hurricane Pass against a backdrop of Grand, Middle and South Teton; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 6, 2012

My solitude is a contribution to the community life.

"If I AM a solitary, it can be . . . a part of community life, not an expression of a stronger psychological or spiritual need.  It can be a contribution to the community's life . . ."

Thomas Merton

Photo: A snow lily blooms above Lake Solitude, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 5, 2012

Kings may be blest, but I am glorious!

"Kings may be blest but I am glorious!  Wandered about in the woods that fringe the Falls, dripping with spray . . . "

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 248

Photo: Who says backpacking can't include some of the simple luxuries of life in town!  Each morning on my trip in the Tetons, I made coffee with Starbucks freeze-dried Italian Roast.  How wonderful to dine with the dew-covered snow lilies that surrounded my campsite!

Grand Teton National Park, WY, July 5, 2012

We need areas of wilderness where life has not yet given way to machinery.

"Republican representative John Saylor of Pennsylvania told his colleagues as he first unveiled the proposed Wilderness Act in 1956, 'The stress and strain of our crowded, fast-moving, highly-mechanized and raucously noisy civilization create another great need for wilderness - a deep need for areas of solitude and quiet, for areas of wilderness where life has not yet given way to machinery.' "

Doug Scott, "Our Wilderness: America's Common Ground"

Photo: Moss Campion and Mt. Woodring, Paintbrush Divide, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 5, 2012

Solitude is essential to any depth of meditation or character.

"Solitude . . . is essential to any depth of meditation or character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could ill do without."

John Stuart Mill, philosopher

Photo: A field of Marsh-Marigolds blooms against the backdrop of South Teton; near Hurricane Pass, Grand Teton National Park; July 6, 2012

Wilderness lets a place have a BEYOND to it.

"The very existence of wilderness adds quality to what surrounds it . . . Wilderness lets a place have a BEYOND to it.  Wilderness symbolizes the freedom to choose what kinds of terrain you . . . hope someday to enter or to save for your children forever."

David Brower
1st Director of the Sierra Club

Photo: Looking over into Alaska Basin in Jedediah Smith Wilderness from Hurricane Pass, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 6, 2012

Life is an Overflowing Reality.

Fields of wildflowers are not meant to be viewed merely as a "pretty" distraction and then passed over in the quest for "more important" things.  Rather, they are embodiments of the metaphysical fact that life itself is an overflowing reality. When the poet Rilke exclaimed of a rose that "you are a hundred times yourself in just one flower," he could just as easily substituted the word "life."  For in its overflowing, superabundant reality, all of life is utterly mysterious.

Photo: Snowlilies blooming next to my backcountry campsite, with Mt. Owen and the Grand Teton in the background.  Cascade Canyon North, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 8, 2012

The land gives its explorers a calmness and imperturbability.

"Mountain men, desert men, canoe men [and women], they are the same the world over . . . They move easily . . . with no apparent strain or effort.  The country has done something to them, given them calmness and imperturbability, the mark of the wilderness . . . , a land of silences, ancient trees, and far vistas."

Sigurd F. Olson

Photo:  A canoe and a kayak glide along String Lake, with Mt. Moran in the background and Subalpine Spiraea blooming in the foreground; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 8, 2012

The Good has taken refuge in the Beautiful.

"The Beautiful is related to the Good, but distinguishable in that unlike the Good, the Beautiful 'can be laid hold of.'  Plato asserts: 'the Good has taken refuge in the Beautiful.'  In housing the good, the beautiful, through its own light and radiance, disposes the soul toward it.  Through the soul's search for Good, the Beautiful reveals itself.  Good is the goal to which Beauty leads."

Ronald Schenk, "The Soul of Beauty"

Photo: Various shades of Rosy Paintbrush bloom on a hillside in the alpine tundra near Hurricane Pass, Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 6, 2012

Bury yourself in the timeless oblivion of Nature.

"Feel yourself to be one with nature . . . Drift into the timeless continuity of the primeval . . . Bury yourself in the timeless oblivion of nature."

Bob Marshall
(One of the founders of the Wilderness Society)

Photo: Snow Buttercups bloom against the backdrop of Grand, Middle and South Teton; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 6, 2012

The wilderness idea is a part of the geography of hope.

"The wilderness IDEA is a resource itself.  Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed . . . The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health . . . It is important to us simply because it is there - important, that is, simply as idea . . . It can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope."

Wallace Stegner

Photo: Looking down from Hurricane Pass on Alaska Basin and teal-colored Sunset Lake on July 6th, 2012.  The pass is in Grand Teton National Park; the basin is in Jedediah Smith Wilderness. Both are in Wyoming. The wildflowers are Western Yellow Paintbrush and Alpine Sweetvetch.

When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us.

"There is an uncanny symmetry between the inner and the outer world . . . Each of us is responsible for HOW we see, and how we see determines WHAT we see . . . We have often heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  This is usually taken to mean that the sense of beauty is utterly subjective; there is no accounting for taste because each person's taste is different.  The statement has another, more subtle meaning: if our style of looking becomes beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us. . . . When we beautify our gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and our sanctuary . . . [W]hat you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach . . . When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us.  Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things.  When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us."

John O'Donohue

Photo: Rosy Paintbrush blooming on the trail up Paintbrush Divide; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 5, 2012

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

Albert Einstein

Photo: The backside of Grand Teton (13,770 ft.) glows in evening alpenglow; Grand Teton National Park, WY; July 5, 2012

Alpenglow is the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God!

"Alpenglow is the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God and suggests the spiritual Love-light in which the flesh-walls of earthy tabernacles are dissolved and everything puts on immortality."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 161

Photo: Alpenglow flushes Mt. Owen and Grand Teton with ruddy light; Grand Teton National Park, WY, July 5, 2012.  I took this photo just outside my tent, at my backpacker's camp on the North Fork of the Cascade River.  The entire day had been overcast, and I was beginning to think I would not be able to see any sunset alpenglow display like I had the night before.  As I crawled into my tent about 8:30 P.M., the entire landscape was covered in fog. However, When I opened up the tent door a half-hour later, I saw that these peaks were suddenly peeking above the fog, glowing in red!  I rushed outside, climbed the granite outcrop next to my tent, and enjoyed the show!

Why not be totally changed into fire?

"Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and said: 'Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do?'  The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire.  He said: 'Why not be totally changed into fire?'"

Thomas Merton, "The Wisdom of the Desert"

Photo: Mt. Owen and Grand Teton appear out of the mist at sunset, Grand Teton National Park, WY;  I took this picture from my campsite on the North Fork of Cascade Canyon, July 5, 2012.

To the pure, all things are pure.

"To the pure, all things are pure."

St. Paul,  Titus 1:15

Photo:  A fly takes refuge in the warmth of a Columbine; Medicine Bow Peak in the background; Snowy Range, WY; June 30, 2012

Paintbrush blooms are Earth's caressing fingers.

When winds of the Great Beyond
penetrate the meadow-depths

the Sacred Earth caresses
her out-thrust mountain curves

in fingers of paintbrush flowers
waving lazily in the breeze

But sometimes
she gets carried away

digging her painted fingernails
into the shoulder of his sky

in a great primeval union
that rays forth all of life

Photo: Rosy Paintbrush blooms, Snowy Range, WY; June 30, 2012

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes.”

Walt Whitman

Photo:  Fires tend to burn in a patchwork of patterns, totally blackening some areas, browning others, and leaving other spots green.  Yesterday (July2), I took a tour of some of the areas that burned in the High Park Fire.  The sheriff's department won't yet let us use the trails, or even stop by the roadside. (The roads just opened after being closed since June 9th).  On my tour, I saw many areas totally blackened by the fire.  However, there were also many areas that looked like the patchwork of color revealed in this photo.  Fire has a tendency to skip around, creating a diversity of different effects!

We faithfully watch and await the reappearance of everything that melts and fades and dies about us, feeling sure that its next appearance will be better and more beautiful than the last.

"We learn that no particle of her material is wasted or worn out.  It is eternally flowing from use to use, beauty to yet higher beauty; and we soon cease to lament waste and death, and rather rejoice and exult in the imperishable, unspendable wealth of the universe, and faithfully watch and await the reappearance of everything that melts and fades and dies about us, feeling sure that its next appearance will be better and more beautiful than the last."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 298

Photo: High Park Fire, Rist Canyon, CO; July 2, 2012.  It wasn't until after I'd been shooting the green leaves appearing out of the ashes for ten minutes or so that I suddenly noticed the fire-roasted grasshopper present within the frame.

The true self is beyond words and concepts because it is utterly particular.

"My knowledge of myself in silence (not by reflection on my self, but by penetration to the mystery of my true self which is beyond words and concepts because it is utterly particular) opens out into the silence and the 'subjectivity' of God's own self."

Thomas Merton

Colorado Columbine and the east face of Long's Peak (14, 259 feet) at Chasm Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 29, 2012.  This photo was quite difficult to get.  I went searching far and wide among the boulders above the lake until I finally found this one columbine plant - the only one growing at the lake.  However, the flower was turned away from me, so I had to twist the stem and temporarily anchor it in that position with a rock.  The east face here is a bit hazy because of smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Each object of love is A HUNDRED TIMES ITSELF in just one being.

How could we ever truly know a thing in all of its divinity?  In the moment when we would freeze it in order to take it within the static confines of the mind, it would already have exploded and become much more than a single thing.  What Rilke tells us about a rose could apply just as well to ANY object of our love.  As he says: "You were rich enough to be yourself A HUNDRED TIMES in just one flower; that's the condition of a lover . . . But you never did think otherwise."  How could the mind ever know a thing that is "a hundred times itself"?  Only love can get at such a reality.

Photo: Colorado Columbine blossoms explode from a rocky outcrop, with Mt. Meeker in the background; Chasm Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 29, 2012

God is not an object of knowledge. Rather, God is the sunlight in which we are able to know OTHER things.

According to Augustine, God is the Light - a sort of intellectual sunlight - in which we are able to see the truth of any idea.  Interestingly, this would include the so-called "secular" ideas of science, technology and the liberal arts.  Here, God is not so much an object that might appear before our mental vision. Instead, God is the light of awareness in which we see OTHER objects.  As such, God is innately humble and self-effacing.  Similarly, we as human beings are meant to mediate God's light by becoming the luminous sky in which OTHERS are able to know and appreciate themselves.  A spirituality such as this is important in our era of religious self-aggrandizement.  For it remains humble and self-emptying just as God is.

Photo: Alpine sunflowers appear against a backdrop of mountains made hazy by forest fire smoke from the Waldo Canyon Fire; Georgia Pass, South Park, CO; June 23, 2012