• bicycle rides,  fog,  landscape,  nature,  quotes,  Spring Creek Trail,  sunrises

    Unsuspected Goodness

    September 25, 2025

    The healing of our present woundedness may lie in recognizing and reclaiming the capacity we all have to heal each other, the enormous power in the simplest of human relationships: the strength of a touch, a blessing of forgiveness, the grace of someone else taking you just as you are and finding in you an unsuspected goodness.

    Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

    This morning’s 45 degrees and 93% humidity made for a rather invigorating bicycle ride to Mugs. I was then greeted by Emily and Meg and one of their Old Town mochas. Our greetings with one another always raises the awareness of our unsuspected goodness in one another. I live a blessed life!!

    Spring Creek is a 12.7-mile-long tributary of the Cache La Poudre River. The Spring Creek Trail follows Spring Creek through several parks in mid Fort Collins. It is one of my favorite paths to get around this town. I take this route since I do not have to deal with any traffic. The trail passes under Prospect Road built for pedestrians and bicycles, so I only ride in traffic for 3 blocks of the 2.4 mile ride to coffee. No stoplights and only two stop signs They have constructed gates along Spring Creek to control water flow from flooding and in the past for irrigating crops. This is one of the places where they have gates that provide larger open water areas providing beauty and an environment for the water life. This morning I needed to stop and accept this image on my way to Mugs. I like to believe the geese were shouting joy for this beautiful morning and wanting my attention to stop and take it all in. And so I did! It was a beautiful morning and ride.

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  • clouds,  leaves,  natural areas,  nature,  quotes

    The Strength of a Touch

    September 23, 2025
    Cottonwood leaves
    Cattails and reflections
    Clouds over Big Bass Pond

    The healing of our present woundedness may lie in recognizing and reclaiming the capacity we all have to heal each other, the enormous power in the simplest of human relationships: the strength of a touch, a blessing of forgiveness, the grace of someone else taking you just as you are and finding in you an unsuspected goodness.

    Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

    I sit on a rock bench looking out across Big Bass Pond at Arapaho Bend Natural Area. It’s about 1:57 pm. I feel the warmth of the 77 degree temperature but accepting the grace of relief provided by the cloudy skies. I notice the small world of life all around me that I so often overlook. Bees, butterflies, and beetles feasting on the nectar of the rabbitbrush. Ants, spiders, grasshoppers and unnamable bugs scurry or jump around me. Cottonwood leaves become intricate works of art as the autumn equinox arrives. And the cattails showing the golden tips of their swords. I am grateful to slow down and experience the healing given by being present to this world. It is a gift that has much to teach me. Now a rumble of thunder gives notice for me to move on. By the time I reach the car, raindrops have begun to fall. (Entry from my journal.) So here are three images from the afternoon.

    This morning a steady, gentle rain falls. It began just after I got up, around 4:30 am. My weather app predicts it will continue until mid afternoon. I have my front door open so I can hear and take in the fragrance of this refreshing rain. It’s a good day to journal, read and work on this blogs transformation. Thanks for being here and have a great day!

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  • bicycling,  musings,  nature,  reflections,  trees

    Without the Desire

    September 22, 2025
    From yesterday morning’s bicycle ride along Spring Creek Trail

    I recently read where Martin Luther King defined agape love as the willingness to serve without the desire for reciprocation, willingness to suffer without the desire for retaliation, and willingness to reconcile without the desire for domination. There are people in this country, and the world, who won’t agree with his definition. Many cling to the ideologies of supremacy and the delusion that violence is a solution. Those are not in alignment with his definition, nor have they ever brought peace. I also noticed he uses the phrase without the desire three times in his definition. After contemplating his definition I am in agreement with him. But until I can live his definition of agape love and nonviolence in my life, the words written in this blog post are just fluff. Many will doubt there can be such a change in people’s beliefs and thinking? However, I’ve seen such changes in people’s lives. And, then what would our world be like it people lived a life of agape love?💙 Going to post this and ride to the coffee shop. Enjoy your Monday!!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  nature,  quotes,  sunrises

    … with each moment

    September 2, 2025
    Cloudless sunrise at about 6:31:38 am

    Mindfulness is an ancient form of meditation in which one pays attention to the present moment and all that’s unfolding in that moment, both within and around one. It’s known also as conscious living because the person practicing it is forming an aware and intimate relationship with each moment.

    Sue Monk Kidd
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  • leaves,  nature,  Plants,  quotes

    … that catch my eye

    August 3, 2025

    Silence is the indispensable climate for all revelation;
    noise renders it absolutely impossible.

    Anonymous

    As I wandered around the ponds I found these cottonwood leaves just hanging around. I suspect the wind has probably torn them away from their branch and they now hang across the branch of another tree. Such is nature, continuously and silently creating new scenes that catch my eye. I hope you enjoy your Sunday!

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  • nature,  Plants,  quotes

    This is a simple fact

    July 28, 2025

    Many do not have enough
    Because a select few have far too much.

    The people are difficult to control
    Because there is someone trying to control them.

    The people are poor and starving
    So they have little to lose in revolting.

    The subjugation of the poor naturally
    leads to the overthrow of the rich.

    This is a simple fact.

    Tao Te Ching (75) By Lao Tzu Rendered by: Julian von Bargen, John Braun, Jr., David Warkentin

    Teasels are one of those plants the invasive human considers to be an invasive plant. Man considers them invasive because they are capable of crowding out native plant species. Which begs the question, “Who is the native plant?” Seems they are native from somewhere and long before man. They have a purpose in life just as everything. The roots and leaves are used to make medicine. People apply teazle to the skin for wound healing, arthritis, and scaly, itchy skin (psoriasis). Anyway, in my eyes they provide beauty, photo opportunities, and their seeds are an important winter food resource for some birds, notably the European goldfinch.

    As you can see I am slowly reading through a translation of the Tao Te Ching that is touching me at my core. It was written in the 4th century BC and the words are just as prevalent today. It is central to both philosophical and religious Taoism. I found that if I took the above refrain and substituted nature for people it rang just as true for me. Looks hot everywhere so I hope you are staying cool!!

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  • natural areas,  nature,  quotes

    The Great Way

    July 16, 2025
    Soapstone Natural Area – 2020

    The great Way is easy,
    yet people prefer the side paths.
    Be aware when things are out of balance.
    Stay centered within the Tao.

    When rich speculators prosper
    While farmers lose their land;
    when government officials spend money
    on weapons instead of cures;
    when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
    while the poor have nowhere to turn-
    all this is robbery and chaos.

    It is not in keeping with the Tao.

    (Tao Te Ching translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995; Verse 53)

    It began to mist just as I left the condo this morning. I turned the bicycle around and drove the car to the coffee shop, instead. No need for me to be damp, wet and uncomfortable. I’m glad I did as it’s been misting for the past three hours. A lot of things in our world are out of balance and not our checkbooks. I have come to appreciate how my time in nature, meditation, silence, and solitude help me stay centered and balanced at a deep level within me. The paradox, finding inner balance when the world around us is out of balance. Stay centered!

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  • nature,  Plants,  quotes

    Nothing Exists Alone

    July 15, 2025

    It seems I have seen more mushrooms over the past couple years. Out of curiosity I searched out why. Mushrooms are essentially the fruiting bodies of fungi, and these fungi decompose organic matter in the soil. This organic matter can include things like decaying tree roots, buried wood, thatch (a layer of dead grass), leaves, grass clippings, or even animal waste. The fungi break down these materials, and the mushrooms are the visible sign of their activity. They thrive in damp, humid conditions, prefer shade and low light. They are located in two locations in my front yard that meet these qualifications, offering me some photo opportunities. In this photo are the mushrooms, grass, a cottonwood seed, decaying leaves and below all of that is another world all together. Fascinating, that nothing in nature exists alone. Expecting mid 90s today but rain showers tomorrow.

    In nature nothing exists alone.

    Rachel Carson
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  • natural areas,  nature,  Poudre River,  quotes

    Along the Poudre River

    July 11, 2025

    “It is not the man who has too little that is poor,
    but the one who hankers after more.”

    Lucius Annaeus Seneca

    It is a quiet mid-morning here, although we are expecting rain this afternoon. The wind and trees have been playing a song that soothes my soul and I’m loving it. I had an enjoyable ride to and from coffee this morning. It was rather quiet at the coffee shop so I was able to journal. This image is from a couple days ago when I spent time at Arapaho Bend Natural area walking along the Poudre River.

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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  nature,  quotes

    In Awe of Creation

    June 29, 2025
    Photo-bombed by starlings

    To sit in awe of creation, to listen to, observe, appreciate things greater than yourself, to understand the volition of the natural world, is to be contented and nourished with things as they are, not as they should be, not as we want them to be. This is a happiness without need of more. Global capitalism is insatiable by design. The natural world is not.

    Christopher Ketcham
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