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, February 12, 2013

The best kind of romance comes from two people developing their own unique, creative capacities and then sharing those with one another.


We spend a lot of time in our culture discussing romantic love, and the possibility of finding someone who loves us and whom we can love.  This is a wonderful thing, of course, for these kinds of interactions are truly the spice of life!  However, a more fundamental question is this: have we developed our own personality and spiritual capacities to a degree that makes US attractive?  Not just physically, but in an inner way?  We live in a consumer society that teaches us to value ourselves according to what we passively take in.  We spend a lot of time consuming the creativity of others - that of the "professionals."  In fact, many "dates" involve consuming someone else's creativity - in the form of a movie, a play, a church activity, a restaurant dinner, etc.  But how about developing our own creativity, and sharing THAT with the beloved!  How about taking a hike - either alone or together - finding a place to have individual retreat time on a warm, sunny hillside, and then sharing the fruits of what we've discovered during that time?  Or perhaps attending a talk together on a meaningful topic and then going out for coffee to discuss it?  Indeed, conversation itself is actually a creative work of art.  In any case, when each partner becomes the uniquely creative person they are meant to be, they thereby become more attractive.  How simple!

Photo: Ice and snow create a unique work of art; The Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; February 8, 2013

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