My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“Clouds are just nature’s way of showing off.”
Unknown
This was taken yesterday afternoon at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area. Thunder was rumbling in the distant south. We had a few sprinkles but no rain. Today’s weather is very much the same, nature showing off, again!!
Every breath is a prayer
Steven Charleston
This is along Weld County Road 15 looking west. The mountains are in the far distance while the clouds give warning of the rain expected to arrive later in the night, which it did. Something positive happens to my spirit when I spend time in these sanctuaries. The chaos of the world does not leave but my internal chaos subsides. I change! And, so I set up my camera and take a few shots, then inhale and exhale breaths of prayer. Grateful!! Happy Monday!
Clouds are one of Nature’s most beautiful mediums for creating art, and it never ceases. I also believe they are one of the ways Nature speaks to us. There was nothing spectacular about the clouds this morning. Yet, they touched my soul. And, so I found myself smiling after morning time with a few clouds in the eastern sky. Enjoy your Friday!
A simple lifestyle is quite simply an act of solidarity with the way most people have lived since the beginnings of humanity.
Richard Rohr
It takes a lot of gumption this time of year to photograph sunrise scenes. because that sun comes up too early. So, I again missed this morning’s sunrise. I realize the powers that be who decided daylight savings was a good idea were not photographers. Anyway here is a sunrise from May of 2020 at Arapaho Bend Natural Area.
Despite what dictionaries would have us believe, this world is still mostly undefined.
John Koenig
The wind blows from the west, it’s cold penetrating my windbreaker. A small flotilla of pelicans drifts along the reservoir’s shore. I watch the sun quietly rise above the horizon announcing the new day’s arrival. There’s a serenity over the meadow, wrapping itself around me. I hear the song of one lone meadowlark and a couple of chattering magpies who are not lost for words. Yet, I am lost for words in this experience. Expressing how nature affects us seems impossible. Truth be it’s more about the gift of experiencing it, rather than words. Yet, the poet puts words to paper in their attempt to define what they experience and see. The artist also puts brush to canvas in their attempt using visual words. Makes me wonder if the meadowlarks and magpies are just as lost for words but simply doing the best they can. Maybe it’s all about the attempts by poets, artists, magpies and dictionaries to define what can’t be defined.
Until we understand what the land is, we are at odds with everything we touch. And to come to that understanding it is necessary, even now, to leave the regions of our conquest – the cleared fields, the towns and cities, the highways – and re-enter the woods. For only there can a man encounter the silence and the darkness of his own absence. Only in this silence and darkness can he recover the sense of the world’s longevity, of its ability to thrive without him, of his inferiority to it and his dependence on it. Perhaps then, having heard that silence and seen that darkness, he will grow humble before the place and begin to take it in – to learn from it what it is.
Wendell Berry
Twenty years ago in May of 2004 I made a motorcycle trip to the Badlands for a few days of tent camping and photography. It was my first trip there and I loved it. The vistas, the rugged landscape (they call it Badlands for a good reason), the silence, the sheer beauty, all left a permanent imprint on me. I distinctly remember the experience of silence! Every once in a while I feel the pull to return and experience its presence one more time. But I also want to return because I need time away from the chaos of what Berry calls the “the regions of our conquest.” I can also say this about other places of nature I’ve experienced, including the local natural areas. I wonder if that pull is because of our one-on-one encounter with nature, the silence and the darkness? And who knows, maybe the whisper I hear is nature calling me. What will I learn when I return?
“Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.”
Shunryu Suzuki
Light rain moved into the area yesterday afternoon and is hanging out along the front range. Snow is falling in the high country. We need it all. I have friends living in a Class A RV who arrived in Estes Park earlier in the week. They could see as much as a foot of snow up there. The rain has been gentle and refreshing, the best kind to recieve. Just before the rain began I spent some time journaling at Reservoir Ridge. Before I left the clouds began to build up produce lightning and thunder then rain. The rain has been steady every since.
A dark bank of clouds looking like they were full of rain sat on the eastern horizon on my drive to meet Eric for coffee and conversation this morning. It was another reason to stop the car and stand in the rain for a few minutes. Our forecast is to see this all day. So it’s a day to stay inside sit back in a comfy chair, read, journal and binge on some unhealthy snacks (chips, cookies, chocolates).