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.

Friday, September 13, 2013

The essence of each and every thing is an EXPLOSION of being, a quality that makes it supremely mysterious!


Rilke has a line in one of his poems where he exclaims: "You were rich enough to be yourself A HUNDRED TIMES in just one flower . . . , but you never did think otherwise." Rilke was talking here about a rose, but I think he could just as well have been referring to ANY flower species, or to any being, for that matter. The point is that the essence of each and every thing is a SURPLUS of aliveness, a sort of EXPLOSION of being - one that makes all creatures inconceivably grand and mysterious!

Photo: Lewis Monkeyflowers, Glacier National Park, MT; August 1, 2013






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