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.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

A spirituality of winter teaches us to find the Divine Presence in the midst of what seems to be absence



A spirituality of winter teaches us to find the Divine Presence in the midst of what seems to be absence - a self-emptied God who is most present within the dispositions of longing and wintry faith. As St. John of the Cross says, the Beloved eventually disappears on the level of experience in order to become manifest on the level of practice and pure BEING. Rather than FEELING God's presence, we EMBODY his presence. Here, we only possess God to the degree that we give God away to others. In a wintry spirituality, the Beloved is no longer an object of knowledge, but instead seemingly disappears in the act of looking out with love AT THE WORLD through our eyes.




Photos: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 2, 2014
 

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