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 5, 2013

Going against the grain can be stressful!


Often we find ourselves going "against the grain" of the flow of daily events. Unconvinced that the Divine is truly present in the interactions, challenges and occurrences of the day, we resist and complain, wishing things were different. A sign of this resistance is a feeling of tenseness in our body. One good way to deal with this tenseness is through the Tibetan practice of tonglen. Here, we inhale the physical feeling of tightness, and then exhale peace and spaciousness into that tightness, ventilating it and giving it a sense of transparency and flow. This allows us, as some of the French mystics have explained, to experience "the sacrament of the present moment."

Photo: Fallen Limber Pine trunk, a young Englemann Spruce, and Hallett Peak; Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 4, 2013

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