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.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

God says to each of us: "Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in."


"God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.  No feeling is final . . ."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo: Orange lichen flames on a boulder as shadows from nearby aspen trees decorate the rock; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 2, 2012. I love the sense in this poem that God is both distinct AND is hidden within the mysterious and dark core of our being.

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