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.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

We become like a still lake of purest crystal, and without an effort our depths are revealed to themselves.



"We become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves.  All the world goes by us and is reflected in our deeps.  Such clarity!  Obtained by such pure means!  By simple living - by honesty of purpose - we live and rejoice."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo:  Lone Eagle Peak reflected in Mirror Lake; Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012.  Yes, the Peak really IS that steep in shape!

Language has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone.


"Language . . . has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

Paul Tillich, German-American theologian

Photo: Columbine, Lookout Lake, and Medicine Bow Peak, Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012.  At this particular location, this was the last columbine of the season!

Whoever hears the rippling of the rivers will not utterly despair of anything.


"I cannot help being encouraged by this blithe [carefree] activity in the elements - in these degenerate days of men.  Whoever hears the rippling of the rivers will not utterly despair of anything."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Wild Geranium leaf and a beautiful cascade both shimmer in last light; Cascade Creek, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012.  This quote is one of my very favorites!

Pikas are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags.



"Conies [pikas]are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags."

Proverbs 30:26

Photo: A pika gathers grass to dry in the sun and store in its rocky burrow for wintertime meals; Snowy Range, WY, August 17, 2012

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past? The sun shines today also.


"The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes.  Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?  Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? . . . Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past? . . . The sun shines to-day also."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: Black-tipped Senecio, quartzite block, and the ridge leading to Medicine Bow Peak; Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012

Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.


"We should treat our minds, that is, ourselves, as innocent and ingenuous [unsuspecting] children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.  Read not the Times.  Read the Eternities."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Queen's Crown (Rose Crown) and lakes, viewed from Medicine Bow Peak; Snowy Range, WY, August 18, 2012

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Alone in my romance, alone in my fragrance, the moon comes to look for me.



"My inmost thoughts, who can know them?
Ties of friendship are hard to make.
Alone in my romance, alone in my fragrance,
The moon comes to look for me."

Chu Tun-ju
medieval Chinese poet

Photo: The moon and Lone Eagle Peak, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 26, 2012

People talk about Bible miracles because there is no miracle in their lives. Cease to gnaw on that crust. There is ripe fruit over your head.


"People talk about Bible miracles because there is no miracle in their lives.  Cease to gnaw on that crust.  There is ripe fruit over your head."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Red Elderberry and Lone Eagle Peak reflected in a pond, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012.  I took this photo about fifty feet from my backcountry campsite, near Crater Lake.

I don't want the sight of any thrones in heaven but the rocks.


"But for me, the mountains and their people were alike beautiful in their snow, and in their humanity; and I wanted, neither for them nor myself, the sight of any thrones in heaven but the rocks, nor of any spirits in heaven but the clouds."

John Ruskin
19th century English art critic

Photo: Green Quartzite on Medicine Bow Pass, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the background; Snowy Range, WY; August 18, 2012.  Yes, the quartzite really is this intense color of green!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Words and scriptures are only the finger pointing to the moon.



“Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger.”


Huineng
7th century Chinese Zen (Chan) monk

Photo: Subalpine fir, Lone Eagle Peak and the moon from my backcountry campsite; Crater Lake, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 26, 2012

Huineng's perspective is much needed in our time of literalistic religion.  The point is to have the inner insight and experience to which the words of scripture point, not cling to the words as though THEY were the insight and experience.  How much more peaceful our world would be if we found the grace to follow this principle!

I am monarch of all I survey.



"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone . . . I retain the landscape, and annually carry off what it yields without a wheelbarrow.  With respect to landscapes, I am monarch of all I SURVEY.  My right is none to dispute."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Mountain Gentian, Rustler Gulch, Gothic (Crested Butte), CO; August 3, 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012

Encourage one another, and build each other up.


"Let us make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."

Romans 14:19

"Encourage one another, and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Photo: Black-tipped Senecio and quartzite block, Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012.  It's amazing how much these rocks look like marble blocks in an outdoor cathedral.  Hiking in the Snowy Range sometimes feels like walking through a marble palace.

The Woman I love is a Planet.


"The Woman I love is a Planet."

Paula Gunn Allen
Laguna Pueblo Tribe

Photo: perfect Beargrass "breast"; Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it.



"To think of God is not to find Him as an object of our minds, but to find ourselves in Him . . . , a perception of our being perceived.  The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it; not to know but to be known to Him, to expose ourselves to Him rather than Him to us."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

Photo: Moss-covered Pacific Silver Fir trunks in the fog, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance.


"It is only necessary to behold the least fact or phenomenon, however familiar, from a point a hair's breadth aside from our habitual path or routine, to be overcome, enchanted by its beauty and significance."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Mushrooms, Carbon River Rainforest, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy.



"Simplicity, clarity, singleness:  these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy."

Richard Halloway

Photo: Magenta Paintbrush in the fog, Spray Park, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012


Every feature glows, radiating beauty that pours into our flesh and bones like heat rays from fire.


"I gained the noblest view of the summit peaks . . . , every feature glowing, radiating beauty that pours into our flesh and bones like heat rays from fire. Sunshine over all; no breath of wind to stir the brooding calm
 . . . , so boundless an affluence of sublime mountain beauty . . . , a spiritual glow covering it.  I shouted and gesticulated in a wild burst of ecstasy, much to the astonishment of St. Bernard Carlo, who came running up to me, manifesting in his intelligent eyes a puzzled concern . . . which had the effect of bringing me to my senses.  A brown bear, too, it would seem, had been a spectator of the show I had made of myself . . . He evidently considered me dangerous, for he ran away very fast . . ."

John Muir

Photo: Big Pine Lake #2 just after sunrise, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada Range, CA; July 29, 2012

I never weary gazing at the wonderful Cathedral Peak.


"I never weary gazing at the wonderful Cathedral [Peak].  It has more individual character than any other rock or mountain I ever saw, excepting perhaps the Yosemite South [Half] Dome.  The forests, too, seem kindly familiar, and the lakes and meadows and glad singing streams.  I should like to dwell with them forever.  Here with bread and water I should be content . . . One would be at an endless Godful play, . . . creation just beginning, the morning stars 'still singing together and all the sons of God shouting for joy.' "

John Muir

Photo: Cathedral Peak, Upper Cathedral Lake, and Lemmon's Paintbrush; Yosemite National Park, CA; July 28, 2012

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.



"Perfumes are the feelings of flowers."

Heinrich Heine

Photo: Rosy Spiraea blooming at Mt. Rainier; Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The most fundamental beauty is found in the balance between a beautiful attitude and a beautiful creature, between admirer and admired.



We might think of beauty as the "harmony of contrasts."  On the level of sense experience, this could mean, for example, the harmony or balance of concave and convex curves, or of the two sides of an object.  Or, it might involve the balance between sound and silence, landscape features like mountain and valley, or between contrasting character traits - like humility and self-confidence, earthiness and otherworldliness, humor and intensity, solitary self-possession and the need for community.  Sometimes we use the word "symmetry" to describe this perception of balance.  However, a thing doesn't have to be physically symmetrical to be beautiful. As the beauty of  character traits illustrates,  it can be inward.

Puritan philosopher Jonathan Edwards spoke of this kind of balance - both inward and outward - as "secondary beauty."  It is the balance occurring within a  SINGLE object or being or setting.  For him, secondary beauty was a reflection of a more fundamental kind of beauty, which he called "primary beauty."  Edwards defined this as "the consent of being to being."  Primary beauty is thus inherently RELATIONAL.  For example, when two people love one another, this is an instance of primary beauty.  So is the "symmetry" that occurs when, for example, males and females both respect one another equally, or when people of various cultures and backgrounds throughout the world all have enough to eat.  In any case, because Edwards experienced primary beauty as intensely vivid and real, he viewed it not as a mere concept, but as an actual PRESENCE - the "Holy Spirit," the relational aspect of the Divine.

One of the most important forms of primary beauty occurs when an object or person becomes capable of revealing their beauty because they are valued by someone with a beautiful attitude; that is, by an admirer who loves and appreciates them.  As John O'Donohue says, "If our style of looking becomes beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us . . . Only if there is beauty in us can we recognize beauty elsewhere: beauty knows beauty.  In this way, beauty can be a mirror that manifests our own beauty . . . There is a profound balancing within beauty."  May all of us have the grace to possess a beautiful attitude of love and respect that enables other creatures to finally come out of the shadows and reveal their own innate beauty.

Photo: Avalanche Lily, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 22, 2012


The Greek word "kosmos" [cosmos] is an aesthetic term, related to the word "cosmetics."


" 'Kosmos' is an aesthetic term [a Greek word] which can best be translated as 'fitting order' . . . The verb KOSMOS means 'to arrange, adorn, furnish.'  Our word COSMETICS is closer to the original atmosphere of 'kosmos' than is the Latinate 'universe' . . . Without the aesthetic . . . connotations contained in 'kosmos,' the word today refers only to a vast gasbag, outer, empty, spacey and cold."

James Hillman

Photo: Lemmon's Paintbrush and the Echo Peaks, Yosemite National Park, CA; July 28, 2012

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.


"It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo: Foxglove flower stalk and an old-growth Douglas-fir; Carbon Valley Rainforest, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

All life is an experiment.


"Life is trying things to see if they work."

Ray Bradbury

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions.  All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make, the better.  What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn?  What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice?  Up again, you shall never be so afraid again of a tumble."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Wayne Gretzky



Of course, all of us have times when our experiments are a little unconventional:



Photos: A deer jumps from a snowbank into a lake, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Paintbrush blooms, waving in the breeze, polished fingernails of Mother Earth, caressing her voluminous breast.


Paintbrush blooms, waving in the breeze,
polished fingernails of  Mother Earth,
caressing her voluminous breast
dressed in the lace of snow,
out-thrust proudly toward Father Sky -
He - lost in her grandeur, lost in bliss
Lost for all eternity
But awakening
with renewed excitement
in the inner sky
in us.

Photo: Magenta Paintbrush and Mt. Rainier, Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park, July 26, 2012


Monday, August 20, 2012

The final mystery is oneself.


"The final mystery is oneself."

Oscar Wilde

Photo: A brief ray of sunshine subtly illuminates a Pasqueflower.  A few minutes after I took this shot, the entire setting was engulfed in fog.  Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 22, 2012.

If we lived more consistently the wisdom expressed in this quote, we would stop taking our own desires and impulses for granted.  We would instead view them as rooted in something much vaster and more mysterious.

Rock is actually transparent Spirit.


"I had long been aware of the life and gentle tenderness of the rocks, and instead of walking upon them as unfeeling surfaces, began to regard them as a transparent sky.

God who is Light has led me tenderly from light to light to the shoreless ocean of rayless beamless Spirit Light that bathes these holy mountains."

The Contemplative John Muir, pp. 78, 79

Photo: Mt. Hoffman, May Lake and Western White Pine cone; Yosemite National Park, July 27, 2012.  The gleaming white granites of Yosemite help us realize that all seemingly solid things are actually transparent Spirit at their deepest core.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.



"Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow."

Helen Keller

Photo: Cliff Paintbrush and Mt. Rainier at sunset, Mt. Fremont Trail; Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012.  I find it amazing to realize that the woman who wrote this quote was both deaf and blind. Her insight also helps us realize that joy is no mere emotion.  Rather, it has epistemological value - it is the energizing force underlying our capacity to understand.

Our adoration expands God's own joy.


"Through adoration . . . , how could this not expand God's own joy?  All mystics have felt in their deepest being the rapture of the Divine's response to their outfolding into love . . . How amazing it is that each of us has in his or her power the ability to move God with such joy?"

Andrew Harvey

Photo: Pink Mountain Heather and Mount Rainier, Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Adversity causes some to break; others to break records.



"Adversity causes some to break; others to break records."

William Arthur Ward

Photo: Ancient Bristlecone Pine, Great Basin National Park, NV; July 30, 2012.  This tree - like others in the grove - is almost 5,000 years old.  I found it growing right at treeline, on a talus slope of rock that contains very little visible soil.  Part of the secret of a bristlecone's longevity is the fact that its environment prevents it from growing very fast.  But this works in the tree's favor.  The slow pace of growth means the bristlecone's wood is very dense, preventing pests from ever getting a foothold.  In fact, bristlecones that grow on more favorable sites don't live as long!

The soul in its happiness finds itself standing midway in the Embrace and the Kiss of Father and Son.



"The soul in its happiness finds itself standing midway in the Embrace and the Kiss of Father and Son . . . That person somehow finds himself in their midst; that is, in the Holy Spirit.  And he is united to God by that charity whereby the Father and Son are one.  The soul is made holy in Him who is the holiness of both."

William of St. Thierry, a 12th century Cistercian monk

Photo: Subalpine Lupine, Reflection Lake, and Mount Rainier; Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 25, 2012

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Who wouldn't be a mountaineer! Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing.


"July 26.  Ramble to the summit of Mount Hoffman, eleven thousand feet high, the highest point in life's journey my feet have yet touched.  And what glorious landscapes are about me, new plants, new animals, new crystals, and multitudes of new mountains far higher than Hoffman . . . , the pure blue bell-flower sky brooding them all, - a glory day of admission into a new realm of wonders as if Nature had wooingly whispered, 'Come higher' . . . In the midst of such beauty, pierced with its rays, one's body is all one tingling palate.  Who wouldn't be a mountaineer!  Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing."

John Muir, 1869

Photo: Mount Hoffman looms over May Lake, yellow pine pollen, and a Western White Pine cone; Yosemite National Park, CA; July 27, 2012.  An hour after shooting this photo, I climbed Mt. Hoffman.  What terrific vistas!

Joy spins together our own inner being with the beauty of Nature.


The joy we feel in the presence of wild beauty is no mere emotion.  It has epistemological value as well, for it  gives us access to a realm of knowledge we otherwise could not perceive.  Accordingly, joy actualizes a unity that binds all things together into a sacred Whole. Thus, for example, the heat we feel in the experience of joy serves to melt together our own being with the beauty of Nature.  In addition, joy acts as a sort of psychological  "dance" that spins together Nature and the human perceiver, allowing us to know her in a new way.  Here, we know Nature by experiencing union with her, recognizing her beauty as a mirror in which we can perceive our own divine attraction.  However, the union also works in reverse.  Here, our joy becomes the elation NATURE feels at seeing her intense beauty through OUR eyes!

Photo: Subalpine Lupine and Mt. Rainier at Reflection Lakes; Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?


"Who made the world?  Who made the black bear? . . . Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Mary Oliver, from "The Summer Day"

Photo: Black bear running across a meadow of Magenta Paintbrush; Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012

Nothing stands up more free from blame in this world than a tree.


"Nothing stands up more free from blame in this world than a tree."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Salmonberry blooms fluoresce in a chink of sunlight against the backdrop of an old-growth Douglas-fir; Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012

God enjoys "wasting time" on the frivolous act of creating.


"Parents sometimes lecture children for snipping paper into fanciful shapes.  How busily the Creator is at work today upon ornamental flower tissue!  Those terribly correct parents ought to consider their Creator and learn of Him, or, to be consistent, include Him in their fault-finding lectures forbidding waste of time on frivolous fancy!"

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 291

Photo: Pasqueflowers and Mt. Rainier, Summerland, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012.  Notice that Rainier pasqueflowers are white, while those of the Rocky Mountains are mostly blue or purple.

Monday, August 13, 2012

At Mount Rainier, unfulfilled longing and intimate union turn out to be the same thing!


In the presence of the magnificent Mt. Rainier, I frequently feel a combination of both delight and frustration.  On the one hand, I delight in the mountain's intense and massive beauty, yet I also feel frustrated that I cannot really possess or grasp the breadth of such loveliness. This awareness is heightened by the fact that no photograph can ever do justice to the vast grandeur of this mountain. It's almost as though I feel swallowed up in intense desire.  As the poet Rilke says, it is a beauty that "just barely disdains to annihilate us."  In this case, I feel on the verge of being annihilated in my own unfulfilled desire to somehow possess and be united to the beauty of Mt. Rainier.  Of course, this mountain embodies the capacity to annihilate in another sense as well.  Often called "the most dangerous volcano in America," scientists are quite aware of the destructive capacity of Rainier on account of the mountain's close proximity to a variety of metropolitan areas.

For me, "the Mountain" manifests itself as an undeniably feminine presence. Many different local tribes have their own name for Rainier.  For example, the Nisqually tribe calls it "Tacobet," which is sometimes translated "nourishing breast."  Indeed, for me, the mountain does seem like one of Mother Earth's awe-inspiring breasts, with nearby Mount Adams perhaps completing the pair.  In any case, I've always experienced feminine beauty as an awe-inspiring combination of allure and fierceness, like a beautiful fireworks display that simultaneously draws us toward it, yet also pushes us away as it explodes in all of its grandeur.

In the presence of the allure of Rainier - Tacobet - I also feel intensely alone in my unfulfilled desire, as though I'm continually TURNED BACK on my own unfulfilled longing to possess such beauty.  However, my frustration transforms itself into fulfillment when I imagine a mythical image that puts it all into perspective.  As Joseph Campbell would say, sometimes MYTH is the only way to express a paradoxical experience; in this case, the simultaneous presence of both delight and frustration in the presence of the intense beauty of Rainier. Accordingly, I find myself imagining  "the Mountain" as a mythical goddess - a sort of North American Aphrodite - who playfully uses her massive chest to crush me against the wall of my own selfhood, turning me back on myself and forcing on me an enhanced experience of my own smallness and unfulfilled longing. Interestingly, this image implies that the feminine presence inhabiting the Mountain feels a desire for me that is just as intense as my longing for her.  Viewed through a mythical lens, my longing for the sacred feminine thus turns out to be a participation in HER longing for me. Rather than becoming upset because I cannot seem to possess Her, I discover that I am already possessed by Her! For my longing for Her has its source in Her longing for me!

Perhaps half of the dozen times I've visited her, Tacobet hides herself in heavy fog, an occurrence which symbolizes for me a vastness which is too huge to be adequately experienced precisely BECAUSE IT IS SO CLOSE.  Here, I understand that my seeming aloneness - being intensely introverted and turned back on my own feeling of unfulfilled desire - actually comes from a sense of intimacy, where the feminine presence of the Mountain shoves herself against me, playfully crushing me against the wall of my own selfhood, making all turn hazy and dark.  Here, my frustration turns to joy when I understand that Tacobet's seeming absence and her intimate presence and longing for union with me TURN OUT TO BE THE SAME THING!  Thus, I am healed when I realize that my heightened desire - longing turned back on itself - is actually a sign of the intimacy of the Mountain and of her intense union with me.  As a consequence, my longing is finally able to coexist with a deep sense of fulfillment!

Photo: Cliff Penstemon and Mt. Rainier at sunset, Mt. Fremont Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012

Sunday, August 12, 2012

All things are drenched with spiritual life - with God.


"Nature like a fluid seems drench and steep us throughout, as the whole sky and the rocks and flowers are drenched with spiritual life - with God."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 172

Photo: Doe and Reflection Lakes, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Our enthusiasm in the presence of Nature's beauty melts the two of us into oneness.



"We are now fairly into the mountains, and they are into us.  What bright, seething white fire ENTHUSIASM is bred in us - without our help or knowledge - a perfect influx into every pore and cell of us fusing, vaporizing, by its heat until the boundary walls o our heavy flesh tabernacle seem taken down and we flow out and diffuse into the very air.  Now I am no longer a shepherd, but a free bit of everything."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 193

Photo: Temple Crag and beautiful Big Pine Lake #2, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada Range, CA; July 29, 2012

Saturday, August 11, 2012

I have no fixed practical aim, but am living in constant communion with Nature and follow my instincts and am most intensely happy


"I have no fixed practical aim, but am living in constant communion with Nature and follow my instincts and am most intensely happy . . . I have not yet in all my wanderings found a single person so free as myself."

The Contemplative John Muir, pp. 41, 42

Photo: Lemmon's Paintbrush, with Cathedral Peak in the background; Yosemite National Park, CA; July 28, 2012

Friday, August 10, 2012

My profession is always to be on the alert to find God in Nature.


"My profession is always to be on the alert to find God in Nature, to know his 
lurking-places . . ."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Deer and Mt. Rainier, Reflection Lakes, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

The Mystery of the Cosmos is composed of two mirrors facing one another - filled with mirror-images, yet with NO originals!


When we gaze into the mirror of  Emptiness present on the horizon of Being -  Spaciousness, the vast Awareness of the Great Beyond - we see Form suddenly arising as a shimmering of the vastness, in the form of a beautiful Woman - Earth Woman, Gaia, Sophia, Mother Earth.  She is a sort of immanent mirror-image appearing within the vast Awareness of the Beyond, walking toward us from her home in the world of Form. However, when we turn around - away from the mirror - and face directly the world in an effort to find Her, we see no one!  All we have is a mirror-image of Her!

Similarly, when we look directly at the world of Form present all around us, we find a second mirror - one that faces the horizonal mirror.  Looking into this second mirror, we see a handsome Man - God, the Great Beyond, the Great Mystery - walking toward us from His home on the endless horizon of Being.  He is a sort of transcendent mirror-image appearing within the world of Form.  However, when we turn around - away from the mirror - and face directly the horizon in an effort to find Him, we see no one!  All we have is a mirror-image of Him!

Such is the amazing mystery of the Cosmos! Two mirrors - with their corresponding sets of mirror-images - facing one another, yet with NO Originals!

Photo: Alpenglow at sunset on Mount Adams, Takhlakh Lake, WA; July 25, 2012.  I had to wear a mosquito headnet to take this picture.  It has been a wet year in western Washington, and the mosquitoes were thick!  But that is as it should be; if we want beauty, we have to PAY for it in one way or another!

Mount Rainier contains the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings.


"Mount Rainier contains the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings."

John Muir

Photo: Avalanche Lilies, the "Stairway to Heaven" (Skyline Trail) and Mt. Rainier; Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012

Thursday, August 9, 2012

We live in creation's dawn, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.


"I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in 'creation's dawn.'  The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day."

The Contemplative John Muir, pp. 289-290

Photo: Avalanche Lily, Reflection Lakes, and Mt. Rainier just after sunrise; Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012.

Meditation practice allows us to watch as each moment - each thought, each emotion, each creature - emerges newborn as though out of nowhere from within the vast lake of divine love and awareness.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

It is sustaining to imagine we are trees, standing silently, making food out of sunlight, for a thousand years.


"When the human element was small, when there were billions of trees and only thousands of people, it was sustaining to imagine that trees contained spirits humans could talk to, propitiate, befriend.  It gave proportion to the world.  Now, when there are billions of people, and not so many trees, it is sustaining to imagine what it might be like to open one's flowers on a spring afternoon, or to stand silently, making food out of sunlight, for a thousand years.  It gives proportion to the world."

David Rains Wallace

Photo: Devil's Club and old-growth Douglas-fir, Carbon River Valley Rainforest, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012. Devil's Club leaves are about 12 inches in diameter, and the plant grows up to 10 feet tall.

I drove 1180 miles in one day, beginning at 5 A.M. in Colorado, and ending up at Mt. Rainier at 10:30 P.M. Most of the day was spent driving through areas of drought in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington.  However, as soon as I crossed White Pass and entered Mt. Rainier National Park shortly thereafter, I was suddenly encompassed by an entirely different environment.  As I pulled into the campground, huge trees, rich with moss and lush undergrowth, greeted me, while a roaring river passed right next to the campsite.  This past winter, western Washington received a surplus of snow, and the cool spring made it slow to melt.  What an amazing change!

This I may say is the first time I have been at church in California!


"This I may say is the first time I have been at church in California, led here at last, every door graciously opened for the poor lonely worshiper.  In our best times, everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church, and the mountains altars."

John Muir, after climbing Cathedral Peak, 1869
(The Contemplative John Muir, p. 53)

Photo: Broadfleaf Lupine at Cathedral Peak, Yosemite National Park, CA; July 28, 2012

This quote appears on the sign at the Cathedral Lakes Trailhead near Tuolumne Meadows.  While hiking at Yosemite, it occurred to me that one of the things that makes Yosemite so special is the fact that a person - John Muir - was so passionate about the beauty of this particular landscape.  We might say, in fact, that the soul indwelling Yosemite became conscious within the mind, heart and exuberant writings of Muir.  Each of us is called similarly to become the self-awareness of the landscapes we find most attractive. Indeed, this attraction is actually the soul of the landscape herself luring us so that she may become conscious within us!

We derive happiness from using our life-work to illuminate the fog that surrounds us.


"Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us."

Henri Matisse 

Photo: Avalanche Lilies bloom in heavy fog; Spray Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Nature is a personality so vast and universal that we have never really seen even one of her features.


"Nature is a personality so vast and universal that we have never really seen even one of her features."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Cliff Paintbrush and Mt. Rainier just before sunset, Mt. Fremont Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA; July 24, 2012.  I have camped and hiked at Mt. Rainier perhaps a dozen times, and each time I arrive, I once again realize that I can hardly believe "The Mountain" is actually real.  She is SO incredibly vast, and NO photo can ever do justice to her massive grandeur.  This was one of my sunset hikes; the haze in the west (from the sea) where the sun was setting created an ethereal orange glow that bathed the entire scene in  a warm light.  Then I got to watch as the moon set over Rainier! 

Wild parks are Nature's cathedrals


"The highest value of wild parks is as places of recreation: Nature's cathedrals, where all may gain inspiration and strength and get nearer to God."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 55

Photo: Temple Crag reflected in Big Pine Lake #2, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada Range, CA; July 29, 2012.  I hit the trail at 4:00 A.M. on this morning, and hiked by headlamp for two hours to get to this spot.  The sun rose just as I arrived. The teal color of this lake is absolutely amazing!