We are composed of all of Nature!

"Man is so related to all of Nature that he is builded of small worlds. When God made man "of the dust of the earth" [Genesis 2:7], he put into the compound fields and forests complete, all the mountain ranges of the world, suns and moons and animals and plants and minerals."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photos: Elephanthead, Senecio, the Snowy Range, and me, Snowy Range, WY,  August 22, 2014

Canyons are an external embodiment of the internal depths of the soul.

Canyons beckon to us because they are an external embodiment of the internal depths of the soul. In the Christian mystical tradition, our divine Source - God - dwells endlessly deep with those depths, from which issues the stream of sacred silence. Within that bottomless interior canyon of the soul exists the loving gaze of God, which holds us in its intimate embrace and magnetizes our awareness, luring us ever more deeply into the blissful, ecstatic silence in which both God and we are forever lost.

Photo: Looking down into the depths of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO, August 10, 2014.

Man is not himself only . . . He is the land.

"Man is not himself only. He is all that he sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources. He is the land, the lift of its mountain lines, the reach of its valleys; his is the rhythm of its seasonal processions, the involution and variation of its vegetal patterns. If there is in the country of his abiding, no more than a single refluent color, such as the veiled green of sage-brush or the splendid wine of sunset, he takes it in and gives it forth again, as a manner, as music, as a prevailing tone of thought, as the pattern of his personal adornment."

Mary Austin,
1924

Photos: Stephen at Bryce and Arches National Parks, UT

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.

"Those who dwell . .. among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."

Rachel Carson

Photo: Bellvue Dome and an ice-decorated Watson Lake, Bellvue, CO, February 23, 2015

Tears of longing water the creative imagination.

Tears of longing water the creative imagination.

Photos: Magenta Paintbrush, Pyrola, and Owyhigh Lakes Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 24, 2014

The hours when the mind is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we truly live.

"The hours when the mind is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we truly live."

Richard Jefferies

Jefferies, a 19th century English nature writer, wrote this while suffering from tuberculosis, from which he eventually died.

Photos: Watson Lake, Bellvue Dome, and a Cottonwood leaf, February 21, and 23, 2015

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty.

"To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photos: (Top) Sunrise on St. Mary's Lake; (Middle) Pasqueflower and Glacier Lilies, Logan Pass; (Bottom) Grinnell Lake with Wild Buckwheat; All three photos were taken at Glacier National Park, MT, July 22, 2014

When we dwell with mountains every day, they become friends with changing moods.

"When we dwell with mountains, see them face to face, every day, they seem as creatures with a sort of life - friends subject to moods, now talking, now taciturn, with whom we converse as person to person."

The Contemplative John Muir 

I love returning to Watson Lake and Bellvue Dome again and again - generally, once every two or three days. This beautiful natural area is located just three miles from my doorstep.  Every time I visit, the mood is completely different. Just three days ago, for example, the lake was totally ice-free. A month ago, I could walk across on its frozen surface. Yesterday, it was again iced up, with a few pools of water covering the surface. How amazing is this Earth - our home!

Photo: Watson Lake and Bellvue Dome, Bellvue, CO, February 23, 2015

A day in the woods makes us immortal.

"Talk of immortality! After a whole day in the woods we are already immortal. Where is the end of such a day? . . . One day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day, and while yet in the flesh you enjoy immortality."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photos: Beargrass, sunrise and sunset, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2015

The Sacred Feminine is present in seamless flow and in the ISNESS of form-and-beauty.

I perceive the Sacred Feminine - Sophia in the Christian tradition and Gaia for the Greeks - in the experience of the seamless, streamlike flow of life-energy in which we are all immersed. I also find Her in the vivacious and voluptuous ISNESS of form and beauty that floats within that stream.

Meditation practice serves then to embody the spaciousness of the Sacred Masculine - God - who acts as the Backdrop or Sky-like Ground upon which the Feminine can manifest Herself in all of Her grandeur and goodness!

Photos: Beargrass and canoers, Glacier National Park, MT, July 21 and 22, 2014

Becoming a vast mountain meadow.

One of the most fulfilling experiences in life occurs when awareness expands to become a vast mountain landscape, while thoughts bloom echo-like as flowers in a meadow, arising seemingly out of nowhere from the seamless Ground of Being.

Photo: Pink Spiraea and white Beargrass near Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park, MT, July 21, 2014

Silence creates space around things so we can listen to the word of God in them.

"The key word of the spiritual discipline I follow is 'listening.' This means a special kind of listening, a listening with one's heart. The Bible calls this responsive listening 'living by the Word of God,' and that means far more than merely doing God's will. It means being nourished by God's word as food and drink. God's word in every person, every thing, every event. This is a daily task, a moment by moment discipline. Silence creates space around things, persons and events. Silence singles them out and allows us gratefully to consider them one by one in their uniqueness."

David Steindl-Rast 

Photo: Cottonwood leaf, the Poudre River and Bellvue Dome on a snowy day, Bellvue, CO, February 21, 2015

The natural and common is more truly marvelous and mysterious than the so-called supernatural.

"The natural and common is more truly marvelous and mysterious than the so-called supernatural.  Indeed, most of the miracles we hear of are infinitely less wonderful than the commonest of natural phenomena, when fairly seen."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Yellow Cottonwood bud on a snowy day, Watson Lake, Bellvue, CO, February 21, 2015

Be a reservoir, not a canal.

"You squander and lose what is meant to be your own if, before you are totally permeated by the infusion of the Holy Spirit, you rashly proceed to pour out your unfulfilled self upon others. The person who is wise, therefore, will see his life more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, and then discharges the overflow without loss to itself. Today there are many in society who act like canals; the reservoirs are far too rare. So urgent is the charity that they want to pour it forth before they are filled. Infusion should precede the effusion. First be filled, and then control the outpouring. I cannot see myself being enriched by your wasting of your powers. For if you are mean to yourself, to whom will you be good? Help me out of your abundance, if you have it; if not, then spare yourself the trouble."

St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
12th century France 

Photo: Horsetooth Reservoir and ruddy cliffs, Lory State Park, CO, February 8, 2015

Your bearing will go with you to the grave.

"Focus on bearing, and beauty will follow. Your looks will not remain with you for life. But your bearing will go with you to the grave."

Laila Ibrahim,
"Yellow Crocus"

Photo: crocuses blooming in the snow, Naropa University Campus, Boulder, CO, February 20, 2015

The ultimate purpose of all good religion and spirituality is to allow us to see the world in a completely new way.

I'm convinced that the ultimate purpose of all good religion and spirituality is not to make an object of itself or of any religious founder, but to allow us to see THE WORLD in a completely new way. Each religion is like a different colored light that enables us to experience the wonder of the world in a fresh manner. The essence of each has nothing to do with personal salvation, nor immortality, nor security, nor a set of unchanging dogmas, nor any fixation on a religious figure that would take our attention away from the world. What is needed is a focus on the world in a brand new way, one that melts and joins all things and all beings into One. This is also the task of good science, and of psychology (especially in its transpersonal variety). The purpose of this life is - ultimately - to foster a sense of awe at the majesty of the cosmos, and of its Source!

Photos: Various scenes from Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 18, 2015

The whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty!

"The whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Today (February 19th) I took extra care to appreciate this Spring-beauty flower, which I found blooming on a south-facing slope in Lory State Park. Tomorrow night, a major snowstorm in due to arrive!

In society you will not find health, but in Nature.

"In society you will not find health, but in nature . . . Nature, the earth herself, is the only panacea."

Henry David Thoreau

I don't take this passage literally. Obviously, there are benefits to society. But I love the way Thoreau STUNS us out of our temptation to believe that human creations are of ultimate value.

Photo: Ice artistry on Dream Lake, with Hallett Peak in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 18, 2015

I love Nature partly because she is not man . . .

"I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There a different kind of right prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. he makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this."

Henry David Thoreau,
January 3, 1853

Today a snowshoe hike helped draw me outside myself in order to become fascinated by the larger world spread out all around me  :)

Photos: (Top and Middle) Bighorn Sheep rams, Big Thompson Canyon, CO; (Bottom) Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. All three photos were taken on February 18, 2015

Each day is divine in its own unique way.

"Each day is a god, each day is a god, and holiness holds forth in time. I worship each god, I praise each day splintered down, splintered down and wrapped in time like a husk, a husk of many colors spreading, at dawn fast over the mountains split. I wake in a god."

Annie Dillard 

Each day truly is divine in its own unique way, offering us simple, beautiful gifts that startle us into an attitude of awe, wonder and praise.

Photo: Canada Goose feather caught in some Cockleburrs, with Watson Lake and Bellvue Dome in the background; Bellvue, CO, February 17, 2015

Spirituality is seeing through all things into the spacious love of the Divine Source

A goal of true spirituality is the ability to look THROUGH all creatures and events in order to view them as transparent to the spacious love of the Divine Source. In fact, the more suffering something causes, the more energy it creates to propel us - like a slingshot - through its seeming constriction and solidity and into the liberating vastness that lies within it.

Photo: Icicles on a branch, with the sun setting on Bellvue Dome in the distance, Watson Lake, Bellvue, CO, February 17, 2015

This is my boast: that I have no school followers.

"I have been writing and speaking for twenty-five or thirty years, and have not now one disciple. Why? Not that what I said was not true; not that it has not found intelligent receivers; but because it did not go forth from any wish in me to bring people to me, but rather to themselves. I delight in driving them from me. What could I do, if they came to me? . . . This is my boast: that I have no school followers. I would account it a measure of the impurity of my insight if it did not create independence."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1858

Photo: A horse grazes in the field across the street from my house, Larimer County, CO, February 16, 2015

We know God through dwelling in God's PLACE.

"If we cannot know God's essence, we can stand in GOD'S PLACE - on the high mountain, in the lonely desert . . ."

Belden Lane

Photos: Various scenes from Lory State Park, CO, February 16, 2015

Wilderness provides a place to contemplate and try to understand our place in the world.

"Wilderness provides a place to contemplate and try to understand our place in the world, an antidote to the confused state of mankind's mind in this atomic age."

Olaus Murie,
Wildlife biologist

Photos: (Top and Middle) Wind-carved snow patterns, Montgomery Pass, Rawah Range, CO, February 9, 2015; (Bottom) Snow-covered Engelmann Spruce, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 2, 2015

Solitude is essential to any depth of meditation or character.

"Solitude is essential to any depth of meditation or character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could ill do without."

John Stuart Mill
 

Photos: (Top) Ponderosa Pine cone with the Lumpy Ridge beyond, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 14, 2015; (Middle) Fascinating clouds over the Twin Owls, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, February 14, 2015; (Bottom) Prickly-Pear Cactus, lichen-covered rock and ruddy cliffs, Lory State Park, CO, February 8, 2015

Wilderness lets a place have a BEYOND to it.

"Wilderness lets a place have a beyond to it."

David Brower,
First executive director of the Sierra Club

Photos: Sunset in Rocky Mountain National Park and Lory State Park, CO, February 15 and 12, 2015