• clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    …the ones I can

    January 31, 2024
    Sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area

    As I took this image last week I wondered how many sunrises I’ve had over the decades of my life. Mathematically that number is over 27,000 opportunities. I say opportunities because I’ve missed more of these gifts than I’ve witnessed. Maybe I would have seen more if I could lay in my bed, under warm covers, and look out over this view but… The truth is there is no need to think about how many I missed or how many I have left. Because I would rather wake before dawn and make my way to some sanctuary to greet each new day whenever I can rather than count them. The numbers are irrelevant. The remaining days of this one life I have are a gift and within those remaining days are more sunrises. I’ll catch the ones I can.

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  • journaling,  musings,  nature,  Plants,  pond,  quotes,  reflections,  water

    This Galaxy of Stars

    January 30, 2024

    “Tomorrow is never ours until it becomes today.”

    It was 62 degrees yesterday afternoon as I sat in my yard soaking up the sun and journaled. Had lots on my mind so the words flowed. I was joined by three squirrels who were also enjoying the sunshine while chasing one another, seemingly in a game of tag. Mallards and geese floating on the open water were making quite a racket as they enjoyed the water. And as I watched, listened and wrote my mind settled down. Then a thought came that I should take my camera for a walk around the pond, stretching my legs and flexing my shutter finger. Before I knew it this short jaunt became a lovely gift as I came across this galaxy of stars.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    The Spiritual Path

    January 29, 2024
    A spiritual path at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    There are no shortcuts on the spiritual path, although many have tried to find one. Learning the lessons the spirit teaches takes time, patience, and perseverance. It requires a sense of discipline. It takes a level of self-awareness that can be difficult, because it requires that we are honest with ourselves. We have to look deeper. We have to study. We have to live a rule of life that never takes love for granted. It is not easy, but it is joyful. The sacred journey may take us up some very steep hills and demand we keep going on even when we are tired, but it shows us the wonder of life along the way and the purpose of life when the day is done.

    Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light
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  • prayer,  quotes,  shadows,  silence

    The Silence of Prayer

    January 27, 2024
    This mornings shadows in my bedroom

    I am learning to pray again, not in the way I was taught as a child, but in all the ways the desert has taught me to listen.

    Terry Tempest Williams

    Over 20 years ago I was given the suggestion to learn how to pray in my own way, that maybe prayer was much more than I had been taught as a child. That suggestion has become a wonderful gift. So my life of prayer, the how, what and who of my prayer is, has become so experiential, personal and inclusive. It is always evolving, a conversation, yet without words. It has become more about listening to an inner voice and listening to nature. I include my journaling, listening for words, as a form of prayer, as is reading. Might as well include laughter as prayer. So is crying. Watching the sunrise. Taking in a deep breath is prayer. And, if we take the lesson, we will find nature teaches us silence to sit with. I’m learning to be silent in the silence of prayer.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes

    Us at our worst…

    January 26, 2024

    It’s good for us when, in spite of all of the sober, pragmatic, and even correct arguments that war is sometimes necessary, someone says: war is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being.

    George Saunders

    I found the quiet and solitude at Pineridge Natural Area this afternoon to be just the medicine my troubled spirit needed. I say troubled because sometimes I feel like I can do nothing to eliminate the mindset that war is a solution. Yet, just writing my beliefs here may be more than enough. Therefore, I will say it again, violence has never brought peace and never will. It is us at our worst.

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  • coffee life,  People/Portraits,  quotes

    The Artist

    January 25, 2024

    Behind the facade of image and distraction, each person is an artist in this primal and inescapable sense. Each one of us is doomed and privileged to be an inner artist who carries and shapes a unique world.

    John O’Donohue

    Baristas are artists. As artists they are a part of the creation of our day because when we walk into a coffee shop, they greet us by name and then provide the drink we want. I consider them an artist because they can make a latte, while carrying on an intelligent conversation with us at the same time. They are artists because of their craft and skill in creating latte art from the crema of steamed milk: the heart or the rosetta with many leafs. I’ve even found myself not wanting to drink my latte and mess up their creation. And as we get to know each other, we get to see that inner beauty in each one of them, the person they are becoming and gift they are to the world. Go ahead, try and tell me that Keera’s smile is not a work of art.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Reservoir Ridge Natural Area

    Receiving Photographs

    January 23, 2024
    Clouds over Claymore Lake

    The diffused light late in the afternoon seems to play magic with clouds. I’m drawn to their beauty. So I drove out to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area late yesterday afternoon to watch nature play with the clouds and listen to the quiet. The air was still. I stood motionless, watching it all take shape. The quiet descended. It was a time for contemplation and for allowing myself to be touched at some deep level – a time for receiving photographs. I headed home knowing there would soon be a mysterious transformation into the darkness of night. And, it would happen without me.

    We have a beautiful day with clear skies and sunshine. May see temperatures into the upper 40s.

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    Another Quote on Growth

    January 22, 2024
    This mornings cold predawn sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area

    The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out — a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires.

    Parker J. Palmer

    All these challenges, obstacles, and bumps that we encounter in life provide opportunities to learn, grow and alter directions in our life. What a gift it is to have people in our lives who accept us where we are and help us grow. My belief in this unconditional love is the hope and inspiration I grasp to continue on rather than wanting to run away. It is also my desire to love unconditionally. Hoping you all have a wonderful day and week!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    The bumps are less dramatic…

    January 21, 2024

    If we lived close to nature in an agricultural society, the seasons as metaphor and fact would continually frame our lives. But the master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture – it comes from manufacturing. We do not believe that we ‘grow’ our lives – we believe that we ‘make’ them. Just listen to how we use the word in everyday speech: we make time, make friends, make meaning, make money, make a living, make love.

    Parker J. Palmer

    On my way to the coffee shop I just had to stop at campus and accept this image of the morning’s sunrise. It was a deep red minutes prior to taking this image. It is a much warmer day for us here in Colorado. The kind of day to be expected because it is the season of winter.

    I’ve read this quote before and agree that many in our culture no longer see themselves as growing into our lives but think we make our lives. I’m one of those. I tried to make my life happy but discovered the daily struggle to control my life and those around me wasn’t working. I’m finding it much more enjoyable to face life for what it is, gradually gaining in wisdom what I can change and what I can’t. My prayer is to continually grow in the discovery of who I am becoming. Part of growing in life is growing older, which includes all the positive stuff and the negative stuff. And, it seems when I stop trying to make my life into my wishes, I have more choices in growing into my life. The bumps are less dramatic and chaotic. Stay warm and dry!

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