• landscape,  natural areas,  poetry,  writing/reading

    Afternoon Walk

    Unwanted smoke cloaks the distant trees
    somewhere beyond is the unseeable horizon

    I walk around the pond listening
    longing for the birds song of hope

    I need the embrace of the natural world
    accepting the healing touch it offers

    It’s in the absence of the spoken word
    that I hear the quiet whisper from within

    With slow deliberate deep breaths I
    take an afternoon walk at the ponds

    ms
  • Avian,  Canada Goose,  clouds,  gratitude,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  reflections,  sunrises,  trees

    Listening to Nature

    I have friends vacationing in Hawaii with kids and grandkids. I’m a bit envious of them sitting on the beach working on a tan. All the photos they’ve sent include big smiles. Yet, this morning while visiting the Top Minnow Natural Area, I was reminded by the red-winged blackbirds and the meadowlarks of just how beautiful it is right here. They were reminding through their joyful songs to be grateful for where I’m at and what I have. These two Canada Goose told me the same thing. I’m learning to listen to the wisdom of nature more often.

  • landscape,  Mary Oliver,  Plants,  poems,  quotes,  reflections,  sunrises,  trees

    Reflections

    “Sometimes I need
    only to stand
    wherever I am
    to be blessed.”

    Mary Oliver

    This morning I drove out near the Arapaho Bend Natural Area and parked along Horsetooth Road to listen to the meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds. Watched several red-tailed hawks perched atop old cottonwood trees searching out breakfast menu. I am posting this image because of the tree reflections in the water and the rising morning sun. Almost no wind gave the water a glass like look. Have a wonderful weekend!

  • clouds,  haiku,  landscape,  natural areas,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Welcome the New Day

    sun rises in the east
    beams of light embrace nature
    welcome the new day

    ms

    Morning sunrise at Topminnow Natural Area. This is one of the newer natural areas and is still not open to the public. The city is presently restoring this old gravel pit and planted about 10,000 wetland shrubs in 2015. It is named after one of the native fish species that will be reintroduced there (plains topminnow). A good start to my day!

  • landscape,  natural areas,  poems,  sunsets

    Sometimes

    An late afternoon walk at Arapaho Bend Natural Area in 2017

    SOMETIMES
    by David Whyte

    Sometimes
    if you move carefully
    through the forest,
    breathing
    like the ones
    in the old stories,
    who could cross
    a shimmering bed of leaves
    without a sound,
    you come to a place
    whose only task
    is to trouble you
    with tiny
    but frightening requests,
    conceived out of nowhere
    but in this place
    beginning to lead everywhere.
    Requests to stop what
    you are doing right now,
    and
    to stop what you
    are becoming
    while you do it,
    questions
    that can make
    or unmake
    a life,
    questions
    that have patiently
    waited for you,
    questions
    that have no right
    to go away.

  • architecture,  Barn,  John O'Donohue,  landscape,  quotes,  sunsets

    The Heart of Wonder

    Setting sun at the Arapaho Bend Natural Area. I took this image back in 2013. Since then this old barn/shed has been taken down. I’m glad I have this image so I can remember it’s presence.

    For Presence

    Awaken to the mystery of being here
    and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

    Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

    Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

    Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to
    follow its path.

    Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.

    May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.

    May anxiety never linger about you.

    May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of
    soul.

    Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek
    no attention.

    Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

    May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven
    around the heart of wonder.

    John O’Donohue from To Bless the Space Between Us