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.

Monday, September 29, 2014

The golden glow of autumn aspen trees embodies the self-emptying love of Christ


For me, the golden glow of the autumn aspen trees is a direct embodiment of the reality of Christ.


Not the predictable Jesus of conventional religion, the one who is forever claiming how great he is, or how different than us he is, or how much we need him to save us. Rather, this is the Christ who is perpetually and eternally SELF-EMPTYING, the one who says: "You will do GREATER things than I have done, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12) - in other words, "because I am disappearing back into the Source."



Here, Christ becomes the warmth of a quiet, radiant love which melts all things into One, who disappears in the act of enabling them all to manifest THEIR OWN golden glow. This, I believe, is TRUE salvation! In so doing, he teaches US to act similarly - to become the potent force of love that quietly blends all beings into one Reality, while disappearing for all eternity from the need for recognition!


Photos: Aspens near Kebler Pass, CO; September 27 and 28, 2014

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