• bicycle rides,  bicycling,  clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    The Wonders of Life

    July 16, 2026
    Cumulus clouds at sunrise this morning

    Stopping is an essential part of the spiritual life. If we cannot stop, we cannot see our True Nature. When we stop, we begin to see clearly, and we can appreciate the wonders of life. We can see that there is no separation between ourselves and the world, and we can marvel at the oneness of all things. To be fully present in the moment, we need to stop letting our mind race ahead to the future or dwell in the past. We need to let go of our distractions, our worries, and our busyness.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

    One thing about bicycling is the tendency to be more present to the now and not as much time in my head. So this cloud scene required me to stop this morning and take in the beauty and wonder of nature. And, I wasn’t late to the coffee shop.

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  • leaves,  quotes

    What we see…

    June 17, 2026

    “…drink in the beauty and wonder at the meaning of what you see.”

    Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

    Since I began practicing a simple and slower life, which means being awake and present to the moment and spending less time in my head, it seems I experience much more awe and wonder in life. And it’s the simplest things that catch my attention. This morning it was hearing the robins singing outside my bedroom window gently urging me to get up. And a couple weeks ago it was noticing the life giving drops of moisture on a leaf outside the coffee shop. With life getting shorter there is a desire within me to see and experience more of the beauty and wonder of nature. 

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  • Blossoms,  quotes

    Sense of Wonder

    April 10, 2026

    If I had influence with the good angel who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world would be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

    Rachel Carson
    Crabapple Blossoms

    Seems her suggestion for a sense of wonder for children, as well as adults, is relevant today. I do believe this world would be very different if we all turned away from our phones, computers and televisions and took a walk around the block to experience a sense of the wonder of nature.

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  • Plants,  quotes

    Wonders and Realities

    August 30, 2025

    The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.

    Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

    When you first look at this image you will see three mushrooms in the grass. But If you look closely (enlarge the image if you need to) you will see the wonders and realities of this world on many of the blades of grass where a tiny single dew drop clings to its tip. Yes, wonders and realities!

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  • horizons,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    Mystery of This Universe

    August 28, 2025
    Sunrise at 6:26 am this morning

    Just as darkness brings rest and release, so the dawn brings awakening and renewal. In our mediocrity and distraction, we forget that we are privileged to live in a wondrous universe. Each day, the dawn unveils the mystery of this universe. Dawn is the ultimate surprise; it awakens us to the immense “thereness” of nature. The wonderful subtle color of the universe arises to clothe everything.

    John O’Donohue, from Anam Cara

    After prayer and meditation, I drove up to Pineridge Natural Area for sunrise. I found a new and more comfortable rock to sit on and set up my tripod. I loved the scent of the wet grass and sagebrush that surrounded me. I then enjoyed my second period of prayer and meditation this morning. Have a wonderful day!!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    Wonder

    August 27, 2025

    Wonder – that edge state on the rim of understanding, where the mind touches mystery – is our best means of loving the world more deeply.

    Maria Popova

    This is sunrise 3 days ago. This morning we had 61 degrees, 99% humidity and overcast skies so it looks much different today. It made for an invigorating bicycle ride to the coffee shop, but well worth it. Those clouds have burned of slightly, a bit of sunshine is out but rain is expected later today. Yes, the wonder it all!

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  • flowers,  Plants,  poems

    There is this Invitation

    July 22, 2025

    Toward Peace

    Clematis

    Perhaps some part of me still believes
    peace is a destination,
    a place we arrive, ideally together.
     
    I notice how shiny it is, this belief,
    like a flower made of crystal,
    beautiful, but lifeless,
     
    devoid of the dust and scuff
    that come from living a real day.
    Meanwhile, there is this invitation
     
    to grow into peace the way real flowers grow—
    in the dirt. With blight and drought,
    beetles and hail.
     
    Meanwhile this invitation
    to live in the tangle of fear and failure,
    to be humbled by my own inner wars
     
    and wonder how to find a living peace
    right here, the peace that arrives
    when we take just one step through the mess
     
    toward compassion and notice
    as our foot rises our heart also rises
    and in that lifted moment
     
    still scraping along in the dirt,
    there is a peace so real we become light,
    become the momentum that is the change.

    Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Toward Peace
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  • nature,  Plants,  quotes,  trees

    “the little joys”

    June 28, 2025

    This is our modern curse: A century of conspicuous consumption has trained us to be dutiful citizens of the Republic of Not Enough, swearing allegiance to the marketable myth of scarcity, hoarding toilet paper for the apocalypse. Along the way, we have unlearned how to live wide-eyed with wonder at what Hermann Hesse called “the little joys” — those unpurchasable, unstorable emblems of aliveness that abound the moment we look up from our ledger of lack.

    Maria Popova
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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  nature,  quotes

    Refrains of Nature

    June 26, 2025
    Panorama of four images

    Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations and concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature–the reassurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

    Rachel Carson in THE SENSE OF WONDER
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