Looking Upward - Lolo, Montana

"I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward."

- Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

Striped Grain Fields, Almost In Canada - Near Shelby, Montana

Happy Canada Day!

Today's photo was taken on a recent trip north, about a half hour before we crossed into the Motherland (i.e. Canada, at least for me; The Best Husband Ever exploits this for wisecrackery - and still manages to keep his TBHE title!).

Some people seer flat-and-boring when they travel through the farmlands of northern Montana and southern Alberta. (You can imagine the backseat chatter: "Are we there yet?"; "What do you mean, 'there's not another rest stop for an hour-&-a-half'?!") 

But I see miles upon gently rolling miles of serenity - all the way to the far, big-skied horizon - especially later in the summer when the sunlight catches the tops of wind-waved tall grain. It's the same calm I feel looking out in ocean waves, or at a wide stretch of river or lake.  Interestingly, neuroscience supports this effect - read more here. And then get outdoors this weekend to find a serenity scene of your very own! 
(Or even a serenity hammock will do.)

Indomitable Dandelions - Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Yellowstone NationalPark

"The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world."

- Unknown Source (which drives me a little bit nuts to have to say...so, please, if you know the source of this lovely observation, help me out with some intel!)

Time's Long Shadows - Yellowstone National Park

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

(Note: If you didn't read the earlier Yellowstone posts, please read disclaimer here.)

Alive And Needed - Lolo, Montana

"Don’t ask what the world needs. 
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. 
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman (1899-1981)

Hi-Line Freight Trains - Shelby, Montana

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."
 - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

Paint-the-World Pots - Yellowstone National Park

"Dream delivers us to dream, 
and there is no end to illusion. 
Life is a train of moods 
like a string of beads, 
and, as we pass through them, 
they prove to be many-colored lenses 
which paint the world their own hue, and 
each shows only what lies in its focus. " 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Essay ll, Experience