• Plants,  quotes,  trees

    Stillness and Quiet

    October 4, 2024

    Time and again, we miss out on the great treasures in our lives because we are so restless. In our minds we are always elsewhere. We are seldom in a place where we stand and in the time that is now.

    John O’Donohue

    We can discover in the latter years of our life that moments of stillness and quiet can be great friends. If we embrace these friends we can experience less restlessness and spend less time caught up in our heads, a sometimes formidable neighborhood. The less time in our heads the less likely we are to miss out on some part of the journey through life. When I can stand in the now, I can receive the great treasure of a starburst.

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  • bicycling,  Cityscapes/Urban,  quotes,  sunrises

    Start of the Day

    October 2, 2024

    Hello, sun in my face.
    Hello you who made the morning
    and spread it over the fields…

    Watch, now, how I start the day
    in happiness, in kindness.

    Mary Oliver

    I would add to her start of the day, a bicycle ride to a favorite coffee shop and an image of the sunrise along the way. Weather app suggests the possibility of 90 degrees today. Toasty!

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  • nature,  quotes

    The Cosmic Dance

    September 29, 2024

    When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash – at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, all these provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

    Thomas Merton

    And today is National Coffee Day.

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  • animals,  nature,  quotes

    Those Brown Eyes

    September 25, 2024

    I want not only to observe but to know living beings, and this implies a dimension of primordial familiarity which is simple and primitive and religious and poor.

    Thomas Merton, The Trees Say Nothing

    I would add that this familiarity needs to be in their natural environment; the city park, the mountains, prairie, desert, yards, and gardens. All living beings share this world with me so spending time with them is the gift.

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  • bicycle rides,  nature,  quotes

    A gift to others

    September 24, 2024

    … to be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others…

    David Whyte

    It was a 2.2 mile ride to coffee this morning but I decided to take the long-cut home and added 9.3 miles. It was wonderful! We had another beautiful day here in Colorado. I spent time at Reservoir Ridge this afternoon for some much needed reading and journaling. It was one of those days. Nature is a gift!

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  • bicycle rides,  quotes

    Bring it on…

    September 23, 2024
    CSU Oval

    “I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.”

    Terry Pratchett

    Snow fell in the high country over the weekend which probably elevated the heart rate on a few snow skiers. As predicated this morning was the coldest morning this season. So, I bundled up and enjoyed my bicycle ride to coffee and conversation. I am grateful that this last two hundred yards of my ride are through this CSU Oval which leads me directly to Mugs at CSU. We are expecting beautiful weather the rest of this week!

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