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.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

In our time, we have a great need for inner simplicity.


In our time, we have a great need for inner simplicity.  Our attention is distracted and dispersed across a world of tragedies, needs, work duties, technological gadgets and passive pleasures.  All the while, we feel unhappy because what we really want is to return to our inward Center, where all true riches reside.  All real relating and all true pleasure arises from this Place, not from the superficial dramas and distractions of life.  In order to recover our Center, we need to be able to say "no," to put up a wall that serves as a protection against excess distraction, a fasting from things that are needless.  When we once again return to ourselves, we will then discover the Divine, ready and waiting to flood our lives with peace. As Renaissance mystic Nicholas of Cusa once wrote: "And when I rest in the silence of contemplation, you, Lord, speak to me within my heart, saying: 'Be yours and I too will be yours!' "

Photo: Fremont's Buckwheat and one of the Courthouse Towers; Arches National Park, UT; September 28, 2013







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