• clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  quotes,  sunrises,  trees

    It’s a way of life…

    January 6, 2022

    Inner peace is more
    than a state of mind!
    It is a way of life.

    Native American

    It’s Wednesday evening. I am scheduling this post for just after midnight. It has been snowing all afternoon, a nice silent snowfall that makes it all seem even quieter. I plan on sleeping in late. Have no desire to get up early and drive somewhere so looked in the archives for this image taken last year. If it’s cheating then I’m guilty. At my age I can break the rules.

    Had a doctors appointment yesterday because of increased back pain and some loss of feeling in my buttocks. My scoliosis I’ve had for decades is degenerating. X-rays showed bone spurs and the disks are in very poor shape. We will try some anti-inflammatory medicine first and continue my stretching and strengthening exercises. If these do not help then maybe an injection in his office. I’ve lived with it for many years and probably live with it until I die. Could be one of the driving factors where I look for inner peace as a way of life.

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  • landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Sunrise on Weld County Rd 13

    November 4, 2021

    “For me landscape seems to be important for contemplation; anyway I have no scruples about it.”

    Thomas Merton

    I could easily change the word landscape to nature in the above quote simply because it resonates with me better. Anyway, I have no scruples about it.

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  • natural areas,  Photography,  Plants,  quotes,  reflections,  trees

    My Companion

    October 25, 2021
    Morning moon over Prospect Ponds Natural Area

    The camera became my companion.

    Edward Weston

    There are times when I can be calm much like the water of this pond and at other times, well not so much. The challenges of living life can act like a fierce wind that creates internal waves. I’ve discovered tools to return to the calm and one of them is time in the silence of nature with a camera, taking deep breaths.

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

    Predawn Mystery

    March 25, 2021

    in stillness and silence
    colors begin to appear
    predawn mystery

    ms

    I sit in the upper parking lot at Pineridge Natural Area for this morning’s sunrise. Below me the city slowly stirs awake. Here, in this natural area, nature has already begun stirring as chattering magpies sit atop cottonwood tree branches. The geese and ducks make small waves across the reservoir. The wind is still. In the cold I listen to the silence and experience a calming that I will carry into my day. This is becoming an integral part of my morning prayer and meditation. A few years ago I couldn’t imagine spending mornings like this. Now, living in the present is how I choose to begin my day. For each new dawn offers the mystery of this day’s events that only we can live and experience in the present moment.

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  • Avian,  John O'Donohue,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    A Quiet Predawn

    January 31, 2021

    All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul.

    John O’Donohue

    What a beautiful Sunday morning. Orange glow on the eastern horizon. A cloudless sky. A silence coming from the Canada Geese still sleeping on the open water. There are no Magpies chattering. The only sound being my breaths. I wish, and you can even call it a prayer, that more people would seek out and cherish these predawn moments in nature to experience and hear the voice within our souls. Possibly find more peace in the world.

    May you all have an Awesome Sunday! Yes, it’s a blue theme again. 😊

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  • coffee life,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  quotes,  sunrises,  trees

    Laugh at Ourselves

    November 29, 2020

    “As soon as we think we know what’s going to happen, life shows us that we don’t.” Adyashanti

    It’s good to laugh at ourselves, especially at start of the day. After an enjoyable quiet time I decided to grab my camera and tripod with the anticipation of capturing the morning sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area. Before I left the house I ordered a mocha from the nearest Starbucks using my phone app. I was surprised to arrive and find the store was closed. Dang! I was afraid I was going to miss out on the predawn colors. About a mile away was another Starbucks with a drive through so I decided to try them since I’d already purchased the mocha online. But, they were not opening for another hour. So headed to the Human Bean and their drive through and now had my mocha. You don’t suppose I have a problem and need to find another 12 Step program? 😁

    Anyway, the sun was up by the time I arrived at the natural area but all was good. Clear blue skies and a bright sun shining on me. Magpies loudly greeted me while silence was heard between their squawking. I journaled, sipped on my mocha and enjoyed the quiet. I also laughed several times at how my morning turned out. Happy Sunday! 😍

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  • Cityscapes/Urban,  lifestyles,  poems,  sunrises

    Presence of Still Waters

    March 24, 2020
    Sunrise at the bus stop last week

           The Peace of Wild Things
    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

    Wendell Berry
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