Because the God who dwells at the heart of each creature has eternally emptied himself out in ecstatic love, we have a multitude of mirror-images, but NO originals!

Following a Buddhist approach to reality, we might say that every creature in the cosmos is actually a mirroring of every other creature.  In fact, there are ONLY mirror-images, but no originals!  This is one way of interpreting the teaching on sunyata, or "emptiness."  In other words, all beings are empty of a substantial self.

A Christian mystical approach can add an interesting twist to this scenario. It would claim that actually - in principle - there really ARE a multitude of originals reflected in the mirror that each creature embodies.  However, because the Divine Presence indwelling each of those creatures is eternally EMPTIED-OUT in ecstatic and blissful love, all we have left are the mirror-images.

How amazing!  The cosmos is composed of a multitude of mirror-images with no Originals, because those Originals - in God - have eternally emptied themselves out in ecstatic love!

Theologian Raimon Panikkar calls this "The Cross at the heart of the Godhead."  However, it is a Cross that is - in the final analysis - endlessly ecstatic!

Photo: The perfect reflection of Beckwith Mountain in Lost Lake makes it difficult to tell which is the original, and which is the reflection.  Indeed, from a higher point of view, BOTH are reflections!

Lost Lake is off the Kebler Pass Road near Crested Butte, CO.  This photo was taken on September 22, 2012.

With man, all is uncertainty. But Nature is confident.

"With man, all is uncertainty . . . But Nature is confident."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Aspen leaves with Beckwith Mountain in the background; Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

Invest in the beauty of the sand-banks, not the city banks.

"It is indeed a golden autumn . . . A tradition of these days might be handed down to posterity.  They deserve a notice in history . . . Was there ever such an autumn?  And yet there was never such a panic and hard times in the commercial world. The merchants and banks are suspending and failing all the country over, but not the sand-banks, solid and warm, and streaked with blackberry vines.  You may 'run' upon them as much as you please - even as the crickets do, and find their account in it.  They are the stockholders in these banks, and I hear them creaking their content . . . In these banks, too, and such as these, are my funds deposited, a fund of health and enjoyment.  Their (the crickets) prosperity and happiness and, I trust, mine do not depend on whether the New York banks suspend or no.  We do not rely on such a slender security as the thin paper of the Suffolk Bank.  To put your trust in such a bank is to be swallowed up and undergo suffocation. Invest, I say, in these country 'banks.'  Let your capital be simplicity and contentment . . I have no compassion for, nor sympathy with, this miserable state of things.  Banks built of granite, after some Grecian or Roman style, . . . are not so permanent, and cannot give me so good security for capital invested in them, as the heads of weathered hardhack in the meadow.  I do not suspect the solvency of these.  I know who is their president and cashier."

Henry David Thoreau,
October 14, 1857

Photo: Wild Geranium leaf, golden aspen trees, and the Maroon Bell Peaks, Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO; September 23, 2012.  The "sandbanks" here are the shores of drought-stricken Maroon Lake.

O Lord, . . . my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

"O Lord, . . . my soul thirsts for you like a parched land."  (Psalm 143:6)

Photo: This is Crater Lake, in the Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen Colorado.  However, as is obvious, there was no water here this past weekend (September 23, 2012).  Normally, it is a wonderful place to catch the Maroon Bell Peaks reflected in the water.  But this year, our extended drought has taken its toll.

A life truly lived means being thoroughly worn out in being used for a higher purpose before we are thrown on the scrap heap.

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

George Bernard Shaw

Photo: These "thoroughly worn out" aspen leaves are going out in style :).  Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO; September 23, 2012

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.

“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most. ” 

John Ruskin

Photo: Aspens on the Oh-Be-Joyful Trail, Kebler Pass; near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012.  This swatch of aspen trees is the second largest in the world.  The largest is in the mountains of Utah. 

Silence is golden, and gold is up these days, so silence is a solid investement.

"Silence is golden, and gold is up these days, so silence is a solid investment."

Jarod Kintz

Photo: Golden Sunflower and aspen, Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 21, 2012

All creatures emerge from the silence of divine love, as echoes of a love-word that never had a chance to be spoken!

All creatures come into being as they emerge at each moment out of the vast silence of divine love.  They are like echoes of a love-word that God was just about to speak before he lost himself - eternally - in blissful self-abandon.  Even though that word was never spoken, these echoes - in the form of rocks, weather systems, plants, animals, and human beings - somehow emerge anyway, radiant in all of their new-born glory. How amazing!

Photo: Sunrise on Lost Lake, Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

Christ is a humble sunset light who focuses not on himself, but on the beauty of the world thus illumined.

I experience the specific grace of Christ - the quiet, radiant warmth of divine love - most profoundly in the golden light of an autumn evening, especially when I'm out walking among the aspen trees.  It is then - as the Sun is just about to set - that my heart begins to glow, and all things, both inward and outward, start to melt together in a common golden Light.

Why, I wonder, do Jesus' disciples so often make him into an object to be endlessly gazed upon?  When we turn on a light, do we stare incessantly at the light itself, or do we look at the things it illumines? When Jesus called himself the "Light of the World," I don't think he wanted us to fixate on him as a separate individual.  Rather, he desired that we look at THE WORLD by means of the light of his quiet, self-emptying, humble, radiant love.

When we embody the mindset into which Jesus emptied himself, we too - as Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and everyone else -  will likewise empty ourselves in the task of lighting up the world with quiet divine love. As we do, we too - like the sun that is just about to disappear over the evening horizon - will lose consciousness of ourselves and focus instead on the beauty of this world that is thus illumined.  Are we up to the humility of such a task?

Photo: Sunset light illuminates an aspen leaf, with the Ruby Range as a backdrop; Oh-Be-Joyful Trail, Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

"The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money."

Thomas Jefferson

Photo: Aspen grove, Oh-Be-Joyful Trail, Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

Translucence in writing is more effective than transparency.

"Translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare."

James Thurber

Photo: A wild geranium leaf glows in a forest of aspen; Oh-Be-Joyful Trail, Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012.  While the attempt to understand transparently leads to literalism, translucence fosters a sense of mystery by leaving more to the imagination.

Let me have a draught of undiluted morning air.

"Let me have a draught of undiluted morning air.  Morning air!  If people will not drink of this at the fountain-head of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world.  But remember, it will not keep quite till noonday even in the coolest cellar, but drive out the stopples long before that and follow westward the steps of Aurora [the Sun]."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: First light on Aspen leaves, Lost Lake, and Beckwith Mountain; Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

We find each grove of the woods in perfect beauty, as if God had everywhere done His best in putting it in order that very day.

"One would never think of removing a single dead limb or log from these woods, . . . such is the sense of fitness and completeness.  In contemplating some lovely grove, . . . see the fineness of finish, how each object catches the light . . . And so, when we walk the aisle-like defiles of the woods over ridges, through meadows, and still, cool glens, we find each in perfect beauty, as if God had everywhere done His best in putting it in order that very day."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 251

Photo: Aspen forest near Kebler Pass, Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.

"Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be."

Jose Ortega y Gasset

Photo: Gorgeous aspen trunks at Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

All creatures are sparks of the Divine Soul

"Now all of the individual 'things' or 'beings' into which the world is wrought are sparks of the Divine Soul variously clothed upon with flesh, leaves, or that harder tissue called rock, water, etc.  Now we observe that, in cold mountain altitudes, Spirit is but thinly and plainly clothed.  As we descend down their many sides to the valleys, the clothing of all plants and beasts and of the forms of rock becomes more abundant and complicated.  When a portion of Spirit clothes itself with a sheet of lichen tissue . . . , we say that is a low form of life.  Yet is it more or less radically Divine than another portion of Spirit that has gathered garments of leaf and fairy flower and adorned them with all the colors of Light, though we say that the latter creature is of a higher form of life?  All of these varied forms, high and low, are simply portions of God radiated from Him as a sun, and made terrestrial by the clothes they wear, and by the modifications of a corresponding kind in the God essence itself."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 86 (and 75)

Photo: Lichen rocks, changing aspen trees, and the Maroon Bell Peaks; Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO; September 23, 2012

Our vocation is to awaken the glow of happiness on the faces of those around us.

"Once you have seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that you can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding you."

Albert Camus

Photo: An aspen leaf glows in last light, Kebler Pass, Crested Butte, CO; September 22, 2012

It would be no small advantage if every college were located at the base of a mountain.

"It would be no small advantage if every college were located at the base of a mountain, as good at least as one well-endowed professorship . . . Some will remember, no doubt, not only that they went to college, but that they went to the mountain.  Every visit to its summit would, as it were, generalize the particular information gained below, and subject it to more universal tests."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Mt. Richtofen and the peaks of the Never Summer Range peek through a screen of golden aspen trees in the Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

Let your light shine before others.

"You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, they they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

Photo: An aspen leaf perched in a Lodgepole Pine glows in last light; Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012.

Notice in this verse that our "good works" - acts and attitudes that help give light to others - are not just ours.  They come from our Source as well.  This realization prevents us from becoming overly self-conscious in shining our light.

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and to be that perfectly.

"Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and to be that perfectly."

St. Francis de Sales

Photo: Aspens and Long's Peak, Bierstadt Moraine, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 15, 2012

To understand is to perceive patterns.

"To understand is to perceive patterns."

Isaiah Berlin
British historian of ideas

Photo: Wood grain patterns in a 1600 year-old Bristlecone Pine; Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012.

Fundamentalisms of all sorts - religious, cultural or political - practice a rudimentary form of intelligence that causes adherents to look at their own views as though they are unique in the history of thought.  By contrast, a person using a more advanced intelligence is able to step outside his or her own view in order to see the ways in which it is similar to seemingly different views.  We are desperately in need of the latter in our time.

Color Possesses Me

"Color possesses me.  I don't have to pursue it.  It will possess me always.  I know it.  That is the meaning of this happy hour.  Color and I are one."

Paul Klee,
Painter

Photo: Indian Paintbrush at Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

How can we sit with things when all their silence is on fire?

"Be still.  Listen to the stones . . . Be silent, they try to speak your name . . . , speaking by the Unknown that is in you and in themselves . . . The whole world is secretly on fire.  The stones burn, even the stones.  They burn me.  How can a person be still or listen to all things burning?  How can he dare to sit with them WHEN ALL THEIR SILENCE IS ON FIRE?"

Thomas Merton

Photo: The hoodoos of  the "Silent City" section of Bryce Canyon Amphitheater glow in backlit sunlight; Bryce Canyon National Park, UT; August 31, 2012

Silence gives to things inside it something of the power of its own autonomous being.

"Silence gives to things inside it something of the power of its own autonomous being.  The autonomous being in things is strengthened in silence.  That which is developable and exploitable in things vanishes when they are in silence.  The mark of the Divine in things is preserved by their connection with the world of silence."

Max Picard, "The World of Silence"

Photo: 5000 year-old Bristlecone Pine trunk, and a cone; Great Basin National Park, NV; July 30, 2012

Desert Varnish: Mother Earth's Hair

Desert varnish:
Mother Earth's hair
streaming across voluptuous sandstone curves -
red, the color of passion

Photo: Cottonwood bark and cliffs decorated with desert varnish; Natural Bridges National Monument, UT; September 3, 2012

Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower.

"Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus

Photo: Bog Birch leaves glow in evening light, Mummy Range, CO; September 10, 2012

Saints are sinners who kept on going.

"Saints are sinners who kept on going."

Robert Louis Stevenson

Photo: A 5000 year old Bristlecone Pine kept on going despite the most extreme timberline conditions; Great Basin National Park, NV, July 30, 2012

The autumn leaves are the petals of a flower corolla, which extends the length of the valley.

"The increasing scarlet and yellow tints around the meadows and river remind me of the opening of a vast flower bud.  They are the petals of its corolla, which are of the width of the valley.  It is the flower of autumn, whose expanding bud just begins to blush."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Aspens on Bierstadt Moraine, with Long's Peak on the horizon; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 15, 2012

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.

"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile."

William Cullen Bryant

Photo: Clark Peak and changing aspen leaves, Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

I am surprised for the thousandth time at the beauty of the landscape.

"I am surprised for the thousandth time at the beauty of the landscape."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Shriveled wild plums with the first raindrops we've had in over two months.  Lory State Park, CO; September 12, 2012.  On the ground underneath these plum bushes was a huge pile of bear scat - filled with plum pits!

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity that grows with the ability to say '"no" to oneself.

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity that grows with the ability to say 'no' to oneself."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

Photo: Elderberry, Crater Lake, and Lone Eagle Peak, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012

The essence of a healthy person is that there is a unity, an integration of all the layers.

"The essence of a healthy person is that there is a unity, an integration of all the layers; he or she does not live merely in one level. By integrating all layers we become truly ourselves, which means, we can discover the other, the world."

Fritz Perls
Father of Gestalt Psychology

Photo: Sunset at Bryce Canyon National Park, UT; August 31, 2012

We live in an ascending scale when we live happily.

"We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series."

Robert Louis Stevenson

Photo: Wild Geranium and Quaking Aspen, Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

"Look at the glory! Look at the glory!"

"Look at the glory!  Look at the glory!"

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 198

Photo: Alpenglow radiates from Clark Peak, Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

Forms are the magical shimmering - in rainbow colors - of God's spacious awareness.

One of the chief insights of Tibetan Buddhism is the realization that even through spacious, transparent, sky-like awareness - "emptiness," "shunyata" - is the fundamental reality of the cosmos, that spaciousness magically begins to shimmer as form.  Here, each form that we encounter in life is like a different color of the rainbow appearing and shimmering in the midst of spacious awareness.  Unlike a physical rainbow, however, there is no "Sun" to produce the light.  How, we might ask, can rainbow colors appear within empty space without any sun?  That, of course, is the great mystery and magic of life.

A theistic perspective can add intrigue and personality to this kind of vision.  For it says that there is indeed a Sun - God, the Great Beyond - whose boundless Love is the source of the rainbow colors shimmering as form.  But because of God's self-emptying bliss, the manifestation of that Sun - surprise! - has disappeared for all eternity.  And yet - and here is the intrigue of it all - the rainbow colors of divine love manifesting themselves as innumerable forms somehow appear ANYWAY!

Photo: Bryce Canyon National Park, UT; August 31, 2012

A lake is earth's eye, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature.  It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Cub Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 9, 2012

Politics Can't Compare to God's Natural Beauty

“" 'Republicans and Democrats' – what names to write after considering the lilies!"

John Muir, 1890

Photo: Avalanche Lilies, Mount Rainier National Park, WA, August 5, 2011. The reference here is to Jesus’ statement about “considering the lilies” in Matthew 6:28.

When you plant a seed, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the seed.

"When you plant a seed, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the seed. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the seed.Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the seed. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese Zen master

Photo:  Limber Pine Cone, Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012.  I have altered this quote slightly; Nhat Hanh speaks of lettuce seeds.

God is more a humble "Ground of Being" or "Sky" than a "thing" who needs defending.

In today's world, we endure frequent headlines about innocent people killed by those who believe they are defending the honor of God, or the honor of God's messengers. Of course, this sort of thing has been going on for centuries in a variety of different religions.  I think all of us would agree that the amount of blood historically spilled over religion is horrific and almost unbelievable.  It certainly would seem to justify the atheist's belief that religion represents humanity at its worst.

These kinds of attacks are based upon the mistaken notion that God is a definable thing - an anthropomorphized person, perhaps - that is vulnerable to human insults and whose honor needs to be defended.  However, the contemplative traditions of all of the world's major religions teach us otherwise.  The practice of meditation helps us see that God is more like an indescribable Ground of Being out of which all creatures miraculously emerge at every millisecond.  Or like an  infinite "Sky" out of which the "clouds" of phenomena are magically given birth.  Rather than existing as some sort of thing who needs defending, this God is more a "No-Thing" - a personal PRESENCE rather than a definable person - who gives himself or herself to be the humble "ground" or "space' out of which all things spontaneously emerge.

Rather than being a reality that can be FOUND in a tangible way, this is a Love that LOSES  itself eternally in blissful abandon in order to become the ground out of which all things mysteriously arise.  Here, God is like a Word of Love that never had a chance to be spoken on account of the bliss of divine ecstasy, yet which somehow results in the echoes of individual creatures arising on Earth as though out of nowhere!  Or like a series of mirror-images appearing in a sky-mirror, yet with no Original ever to be found!  Such is the mysterious and humble self-emptying of God.

This kind of God is so humble, that he (to use the traditional term) wants more than anything for us to focus  on the amazing creatures who emerge out of his humble, nameless ground, rather than on the ground itself.  Instead of asking for our defense, the humility of this God asks that we defend ALL OF THE CREATURES who emerge from It, regardless of their religion, culture, gender or status in society.  The question is this: are we human beings - as mediators of this humble God - "up to" such a task? May we all wake up to the grandeur of such a humble, self-emptying vision, and may religion become more a beautiful thing in this world than a terrible scourge.

Photo: Mountain Gentian and Medicine Bow Peak, Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012

The Fruit of the Spirit

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

Photo:  Red Elderberry, Crater Lake and Lone Eagle Peak, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012

Nature is wont to hide herself.

"Nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't affair . . . They say of nature that it conceals with a grand non-chalance, and they say of vision that it is a deliberate gift, the revelation of a dancer who for my eyes only flings away her seven veils.  For nature does reveal as well as conceal: now-you-don't-see-it, now-you-do . . . 'Nature,' said Heraclitus, 'is wont to hide herself.' . . . Nature flashes the old mighty glance - the come-hither look - drops the handkerchief, turns tail, and is gone.  The nature I know is old touch-and-go."

Annie Dillard

Photo:  A block of quartzite reveals just a corner of itself in the early morning sunlight; Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while.

"It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while."

Helen Keller

Photo: Fire-roasted Douglas-fir cone; High Park Fire, Poudre Canyon, CO; September 7, 2012

The most energizing part of our lives is found in the overlap between the things we generally consider opposites.

The most energizing part of our lives is found in the overlap between the things we generally consider opposites: between spirituality and earthiness, pride and humility, attachment and detachment, fear and courage, lust and self-giving, feminine and masculine.  Oh, and let's not forget conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, Christian and Muslim, Anglo and Hispanic, and a multitude of other seeming opposites.  Electricity only flows between opposite poles.  It's the same with everything else in life.

Photo: Changing aspen leaves, near Pingree Park, CO; September 10, 2012

In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock.

"In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock."

Edward Abbey

Photo: Cedar Breaks Amphitheather with Brianhead overlooking all; Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

When we dam up the habitual dependence on luxuries, our waters gather to a head and produce insight.

"I must have done with luxuries and devote myself to my muse.  So I dam up my stream, and my waters gather to a head.  I am freighted with thought."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Water Lily-Pads on Cub Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 9, 2012.  I waded out into the lake to get this shot.  The moss on the bottom was about  six inches deep - quite soothing on tired feet.

In the mountains, all of life and society get illuminated and transparent.

"Mountains are great poets, and one glance at this fine cliff . . . reinstates us wronged humans in our rights.  All life, all society begins to get illuminated and transparent . . . Space is felt as a great thing."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: Bog Birch leaves are illuminated by evening sunlight at Emmaline Lake, Comanche Peak Wilderness, CO; September 10, 2012

I can know my brother's or sister's solitude through the reflection that it casts, through charity, upon the solitude of my own soul.

"Compassion and respect enable us to know the solitude of another by finding him in the intimacy of our own interior solitude.  It discovers his secrets in our own secrets . . . If I respect my brother's solitude, I will know his solitude by the reflection that it casts, through charity, upon the solitude of my own soul."

Thomas Merton
Trappist Monk

Photo: A 1600 year-old Bristlecone Pine casts a shadow on the rim of Cedar Breaks Amphitheater;  Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

We can't explain why two colors sing when placed next to each other.

"Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?  Can one really explain this?  No."

Pablo Picasso

Photo: Indian Paintbrush growing on the rim of Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

Cheerfulness contains the power of endurance.

"Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful person will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen."

Thomas Carlyle

Photo: A 1600 year-old Bristlecone Pine keeps going; Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

The forms and individual characters of things constitute their holiness in the sight of God.

"The forms and individual characters of living and growing things, of inanimate being, of animals and flowers and all Nature, constitute their holiness in the sight of God.  This leaf has its own texture and its own pattern of veins and its own holy shape, and the bass and trout hiding in the deep pools of the river are canonized by their beauty and their strength."

Thomas Merton
Trappist Monk

Photo: Thimbleberry leaves at Cub Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 9, 2012

Solitude is the furnace of transformation.

"Solitude is the furnace of transformation."

Henri Nouwen

Photo: Nodding Sunflowers spring up beneath a ponderosa pine burned in the High Park Fire; Poudre Canyon, CO; September 7, 2012