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.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Poetic, paradoxical language initiates us into the realm of Divine Mystery.


Some say that language gets in the way of our experience of the Divine.  On one level, that is true.  It is important always to live from a sense of Mystery that is ultimately beyond words.  However, I believe that language - used in a poetic manner, one that embraces a love of paradox - can also initiate us into the realm of the Divine.  A world of echoes-with-no-original-sound, or of mirror-images-with-no-substance-as-their-source, or a sense-of-being-embraced-in-love-with-no-One-doing-the-embracing are all examples of the power of language to elicit a mystical experience of God that then leaves the mind suspended in a profound sense of wonder.

Photo: Red feldspar in a boulder of pegmatite adds color to the shadowy form of Arthur's Rock looming in the distance; Lory State Park, CO; November 10, 2012.  Notice how both forms have the same shape.

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