• bicycling,  clouds,  landscape,  nature,  quotes,  reflections

    A Time in Wilderness

    “It is a commonplace of all religious thought, even the most primitive, that the man seeking visions and insight must go apart from his fellows and love for a time in the wilderness.”

    Loren Eiseley

    Fort Collins is a Platinum-rated Bicycle Friendly Community and maintains more than 200 miles of dedicated bike lanes and 50 miles of marked or signed bike routes. I have been riding them the last week or so and finding gems everywhere. You may be seeing more images taken along these trails and blog posts about them. I can be on the Spring Creek Trail after a short 2 block ride from my condo. Yesterday evening I headed east on the Spring Creek trail then connected to the Poudre Trail. I had the pleasure of having a white tail doe and her two fawns pass in front of me, and squirrels and rabbits darting in front of me. The fawns were still in their spots. It will be interesting to ride these trails in the different seasons and watch how things in nature change. I am realizing how easy it is to be close to nature within this city when on these trails. Enjoy your Sunday!!

  • landscape,  mountains,  nature,  quotes

    Learning to Listen

    Learning to pray is learning to listen. Within the heart we learn to wait with patience for God’s words, which may come even when we have not asked. Listening itself is a form of prayer, in which our whole being is receptive.

    Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

    I always thought that it would nice to live near a river and fall asleep each night listening to the song of the river. But that’s not the reality in my life. However, when given the opportunity I am learning to listen to the rivers and streams. If that’s prayer then so be it. This is an image of the Big Thompson River in Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park taken back in May. Happy Monday!!

  • animals,  natural areas,  nature

    Those Black Eyes

    I read the other day that God finds a thousand ways to tell us that we are sought after. In many ways I’d like to believe that. And please don’t ask me to define what God is because I can’t. All I can do is share my experiences where I have moments with a something bigger than me.

    While out shooting the sunrise last week at Pineridge Natural Area I was startled by some movement at my feet. When there’s movement that close to me, I am startled because we do have rattlesnakes in the area. However, looking down, I watched this baby cottontail move closer and closer to me, seemingly a bit quizzical about me and unafraid. As I looked into those black eyes, with no words needing to be exchanged, I felt something, a connection. Was I being sought after? I went home clearly touched in some way by Nature and those gifts she offers. I’m grateful to say the God of my youth has evolved into the God I can experience today through the black eyes of a cottontail. I wonder, who sought who? Have a wonderful Monday and a great week.

  • flowers,  nature,  Plants,  quotes

    Serenity

    Solitude… is what sustains me and protects me from my mind. It renders me fully present. I am desert. I am mountains. I am Great Salt Lake. There are other languages being spoken by wind, water, and wings. There are other lives to consider: avocets, stilts, and stones. Peace is the perspective found in patterns. When I see ring-billed gulls picking on the flesh of decaying carp, I am less afraid of death. We are no more and no less than the life that surrounds us. My fears surface in my isolation. My serenity surfaces in my solitude.

    Terry Tempest Williams

    The Oxford Dictionary defines solitude as: the state or situation of being alone. I relate to her quote because there are times when enjoying my coffee life, surrounded by people in conversations, baristas foaming milk, and piped music, I can feel isolated. A major contrast to the city’s natural areas which provides a place for me to be in solitude. Yet, I am never really alone as I am surrounded by plants, birds, animals, clouds, and people, who add their presence and sounds to my solitude. So, while I’m in solitude with nature, I too find serenity. Happy Friday!

  • Avian,  nature,  quotes

    Reservoir of Life

    As long as Earth remains an “it,” a “thing,” rather than a living vibrant reservoir of life, humans will continue to use and abuse her. We need a loving relationship with this generous, vulnerable planet in which we live. Only then will we allow her songs of rich abundance to dance in the rhythms of our lives, only then will we respond with reverent care and live with daily gratitude.

    Joyce Rupp
  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  nature,  poems

    Refreshed

    There is a place where the town ends,
    and the fields begin.
    It’s not marked but the feet know it,
    also the heart that is longing for refreshment
    and, equally, for repose.

    Mary Oliver, Boundaries from her book Red Bird

    I enjoy my little excursions to what Mary calls in her poem a place where town ends. I am also aware I frequent them more often. I’m seldom conscious of when I cross that unmarked line and things change. But, I do feel it in my body as it gradually relaxes. I believe nature is lovingly offering me (and all of us) a place of rest and tranquility within her embrace. What I see, hear, smell, and feel are enhanced. I gently find myself feeling a part of nature. Even refreshed!

  • landscape,  natural areas,  nature,  quotes,  storm clouds

    Its self and its form are one…

    Ominous clouds and rain at the Trailhead

    The poet wants to drink from the well of origin; to write the poem that has not yet been written. In order to enter this level of originality, the poet must reach beyond the chorus of chattering voices that people the surface of a culture. Furthermore, the poet must reach deeper inward; go deeper than the private hoard of voices down to the root-voice. It is here that individuality has the taste of danger, vitality and vulnerability. Here the creative has the necessity of inevitability; this is the threshold where imagination engages raw, unformed experience. This is the sense you have when you read a true poem. You know it could not be other than it is. Its self and its form are one.

    John O’Donohue

    I felt a bit restless and leaning on the discontent side of things Sunday afternoon. I would say it’s what O’Donohue calls “the private hoard of voices” that sometimes hang out in my head. My solution was some journaling time, a walk at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area and connecting to the poem of nature (I like that phrase). After journaling I decided I better get a walk in before it rained as the wind had picked up and darker clouds slowly moved in. Good timing as It began sprinkling by the time I walked back to the car but it never did rain. I have been fascinated by some wonderful clouds this spring and Sunday was another day for them. I accepted the gift nature offered me and now offer it to you!