• landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    Another Quote on Growth

    January 22, 2024
    This mornings cold predawn sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area

    The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out — a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires.

    Parker J. Palmer

    All these challenges, obstacles, and bumps that we encounter in life provide opportunities to learn, grow and alter directions in our life. What a gift it is to have people in our lives who accept us where we are and help us grow. My belief in this unconditional love is the hope and inspiration I grasp to continue on rather than wanting to run away. It is also my desire to love unconditionally. Hoping you all have a wonderful day and week!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    The bumps are less dramatic…

    January 21, 2024

    If we lived close to nature in an agricultural society, the seasons as metaphor and fact would continually frame our lives. But the master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture – it comes from manufacturing. We do not believe that we ‘grow’ our lives – we believe that we ‘make’ them. Just listen to how we use the word in everyday speech: we make time, make friends, make meaning, make money, make a living, make love.

    Parker J. Palmer

    On my way to the coffee shop I just had to stop at campus and accept this image of the morning’s sunrise. It was a deep red minutes prior to taking this image. It is a much warmer day for us here in Colorado. The kind of day to be expected because it is the season of winter.

    I’ve read this quote before and agree that many in our culture no longer see themselves as growing into our lives but think we make our lives. I’m one of those. I tried to make my life happy but discovered the daily struggle to control my life and those around me wasn’t working. I’m finding it much more enjoyable to face life for what it is, gradually gaining in wisdom what I can change and what I can’t. My prayer is to continually grow in the discovery of who I am becoming. Part of growing in life is growing older, which includes all the positive stuff and the negative stuff. And, it seems when I stop trying to make my life into my wishes, I have more choices in growing into my life. The bumps are less dramatic and chaotic. Stay warm and dry!

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  • quotes

    Fitting into me…

    January 19, 2024

    Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life – it has given me me . It has provided time and experience and failures and triumphs and time-tested friends who have helped me step into the shape that was waiting for me. I fit into me now. I have an organic life, finally, not necessarily the one people imagined for me, or tried to get me to have. I have the life I longed for. I have become the woman I hardly dared imagine I would be.

    Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

    Yesterday afternoon we reached a lovely 46 degrees, were basking in warm sunshine and blue skies. Then within about four hours we were at 18 degrees, inundated with cloudy skies and a wind blowing at 11 mph. This morning isn’t much warmer. We don’t have the wind, but we have clear skies, sunshine but single digits. As I write this post I see we reached 22 degrees. Woo-hoo!!

    I like her idea of stepping into the shape that’s waiting for me. I have used the phrase “becoming who I was created to be” but I like this “fitting in to me” metaphor. So fair warning, I’ll probably be using both. I also like her use of organic as a way of life.

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    Dare to be Ourselves

    January 11, 2024

    “We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”

    May Sarton

    Same place, different day, different canvas, different colors and clouds than yesterday. Makes me smile when I think about the constant of change and variety of scenes within nature. As I stepped out of the car this morning at Pineridge Natural Area, I noticed two young women wrapped in blankets getting ready to sit on the bench and watch the sunrise. One of them said good morning Monte. Surprised, I asked how they knew me. They said I met them last winter up here and they still had my card. When they saw me get out of the car they figured it was me. So, I find it interesting that within many of us is a desire to be known by others. While at the same time we can be known by people and never be aware of it. Which leads me to ask myself this morning why I need to worry about it. Seems Mary Sarton is correct, we just need to dare to be ourselves and let life be what it is.

    Cold weather is heading this way so it will be frigid the next four days. For sure two blankets sleeping weather. Excited to meet with my oldest daughter, Christine, for lunch today. Stay warm and be yourself!

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

    Exciting Possibilities

    December 31, 2023

    Often when something is ending we discover within it the spore of new beginning, and a whole new train of possibility is in motion before we even realize it. When the heart is ready for a fresh beginning, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this is exactly what a beginning does. It is an opening for surprises. Surrounding the intention and the act of beginning, there are always exciting possibilities.

    John O’Donohue

    I’m not going to offer a list of my favorite images for 2023 because they’re all my favorites. That is not arrogance but an acknowledgement of a love I have for this craft of photography that even the ones you don’t see are teachers for me. This will be my final post of 2023. It is time to say goodbye to the year and look to the possibilities in 2024. Last year began with a lot of unknowns with my health and this year I have other unknown health issues. Seems to come with this age thing. Yet, I am looking to this coming year with exciting possibilities in all areas of my life. I’m not sure where this year will lead me, what spirit of adventure awaits, whether those are good or bad, what adjustments to my sails I will need to make, what will I need to learn, and what new ground will I walk? Exciting possibilities.

    I started this last day of 2023 at Pineridge Natural Area to take in the cold, in the silence and the amazing colors of predawn. Nothing more energizing for me than beginning the day and ending the year with time in nature. And, I also enjoy witnessing creations ever changing works of art. I then made my way to Starry NIght for an Americano and a croissant. I end this post with a prayer and wish for all your new possibilities in the coming year.

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

    Just Beyond Our Understanding

    December 28, 2023

    The God of our understanding is just that: the God of our understanding. What we need is the God just beyond our understanding.

    Rami Shapiro

    As I set up my tripod this morning, the full moon was setting behind me and the sun had not yet risen. Predawn or twilight are the names we call this time of day. It is a favorite time for me. An orange glow sat along the horizon, a color I have come to know as the gift offering of the day’s mysteries. And today I think I will call those mysteries: adventures. As I returned home and walked to my front door the sky above me became filled with the sight and sounds of hundreds of Canada Geese. I just stood there with a bag of groceries in one hand and 12 roll package of toilet paper under the other arm. I watched them zig and zag in their attempt to keep perfect formation. And, as always there are those one or two or three that wander off course, then hustle to get back in formation or join another formation. I watched the rising sun begin lighting them with its glow against the clear blue sky. I accepted another of the day’s offerings!

    When younger I did not use the name God in any form or shape of reverence or awe, but usually out of anger or frustration with life. I’ll just say it was profanity. I could not understand a God that would cause or allow the pain and suffering I saw in life. However, I reached a point in life where, as Rami Shapiro suggests, I began to seek a God just beyond my understanding. As I experience moments of reverence or awe like this morning, I have a sense this is what God is all about. Yes, it is just beyond my understanding. Hoping you have a wonderful day!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    A Sacred Bond

    December 17, 2023
    Predawn at Arapaho Bend Natural Area – 10/6/2023

    “Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    I have been blessed in my life with more than one experience of feeling unconditionally loved. Some were for short periods of time and others are still blooming. When we feel loved we will return for more and also return the love. The idea of the earth loving us is a stretch for many. But I believe nature is loving me when she creates predawn and sunset shows, or a field of yellow dandelions, or the meadowlark sings to me, or a chickadee responding to my whistle or that mule deer that turns and makes eye contact with me. And, I call that a sacred bond.

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