faces up, toward,
simply being in,
basking, receiving,
Light of the world
-CH
“God knows I was due a little Light Shining on me from Above, whether I believed in such things or not. Like most people, denying it never got in the way of relying on it. “
-Woody Nickel in West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, p 75
“But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon.
It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
-G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), from Orthoudoxy
“She looked up. The sky was without cloud, a dome of lightest blue filled with air, great swirls and eddies of it, which you could see — just about — if you stared long enough. She breathed in deeply, and felt the fine dry air fill her with a buoyant optimism.”
-Mma Ramotswe, p. 85 in large type edition, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel by Alexander McCall Smith
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
-Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889),
from Inversnaid
Big thanks to Sister #3 for today’s musings & Big Sky view during her recent Montana meanderings.
Rural mailboxes captured my imagination, reminders that some things in life are worth waiting for.
"I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter."
-Diane Lane in interview with Steve "Frosty" Weintraub, Sept. 26, 2008
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.…”
— Mary Oliver (1935-2019), from “Messenger,” found in Mary Oliver’s collection Thirst
"…Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain…Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go." - May Sarton (1912-1995), from Journal Of A Solitude
(Quote find thanks to Austin Kleon in his thoughtful action-inspiring Keep Going: 10 Ways To Stay Creative…)
“Break-through sunlight
filters through wildfire smoke, and suddenly you see the depth of what you didn’t know existed - there is a canyon and a whole other hill where you thought it was just one big tree-covered mountain. And so it often is under the shining light of truth paired with love - you see what you could not see before, your perception widens.” -Cyndy Hull
“[He] drove the threads of back roads and gravel lanes that knitted the farms and hamlets of Black Earth County together in a loose fabric of commerce and community. “ -The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger , p 103 (Lg Type)
—Click here for more about Tally Lake in Western Montana—-
“He taught me to pay attention ….[to the] beauty of it all. The way the earth smells wet and raw when it's first turned in the spring or after a summer rain.
How the wind bends a field of tall grass into a moving sea. The creak and moan of trees, like they're talking to one another, or to us if we listen.”
-The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, p 456 (Lg Type)
“My mother brought this up in the first week after my father passed away. In a time like that, the past meets you wherever you turn. The days do not use their own hours and minutes, they find ones you have lived through with the person you are missing.” - Jick McCaskill, in English Creek by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 333
"One kind thing is the seed from which a great goodness grows. It is not hope we hold to, Niece. It is belief in the power of that growing goodness. Migwech. Chi migwech."
-Henry Meloux in Windigo Island, Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger, p. 170
“A free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom indeed.” -George MacDonald (1824–1905)
Strolling downtown Butte, Montana allowed new perspective on this Masonic architectural icon, in perfect conjunction with Monday’s devotional cornerstone analogy. (Thank you, Jennie Allen.)
Also stirs grateful rememberings of turning life corners out of darker trails. (Although I do have a penchant for alley meandering…perhaps more pondering to be had on this one!)
“The best way to prepare for what’s ahead is to be present to what is now.”
- Ann Voskamp, in her post “4 Secrets (in Grad Season), At The End of Seasons, When You’re Not Ready for All the Changes”
“It still floors me, how the mountains are not the same any two days in a row. As if hundreds of copies of those mountains exist and each dawn brings in a fresh one, of new color, new prominence of some feature over the others, a different wrapping of cloud or rinse of sun for this day's version.” -Jick McCaskill, in English Creek by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 77
Blushing bouquets blooming everywhere, even as’ I donned my winter hat and gloves against the chill promise (we hope!!!) of snow in the hills.
“…in this old man's vast enjoyment of a simple moment, Stephen felt an easing of the tightness in his chest. He breathed, closed his eyes, and like Meloux lifted his face to the warm sun.
"That is all of life," the old Mide said quietly…”Letting go of the questions. Letting go of the fear that there will be no answers…What we believe we want is like knocking on a closed door.
Better to open ourselves to what we have and what we know. The beauty of this moment." “
-Henry Meloux, in Desolation Mountain, by William Kent Krueger, p. 61
As a whippersnapper, The Best Husband Ever watched the TV show Route 66, admiring the cool cats who travelled the USA in their cool Corvette. A few months back, we stumbled across the series on Prime and watched a couple episodes for nostalgia sake, including Season 2, Episode 1 filmed in Butte, Montana. On our jaunt to Butte last weekend, we found the episode’s iconic boarding house still in good shape and just up the hill from the Mother Lode Theatre. Travellers to Butte can stay there and enjoy the Big Sky hilltop views of Continental Divide mountains and the graduated hues of Butte’s historic open pit copper mine.
Balcony view of the band stage setup for 406 shows off some of the many gorgeous lines and 1923 design details in Butte, Montana’s historic Mother Lode Theatre. (Click here to see ceiling detail at top of photo.)
"Sometimes a man walks into the night and does not understand why he cannot see. He blames himself for the dark he is in.”
- Henry Meloux in Manitou Canyon, p.107, by William Kent Krueger
“He didn't hear anything except flakes settling on pine and hemlock needles, a sound that was almost, but not quite, silence.”
-from Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
“For the world is--allow us the homely figure--the human being turned inside out. All that moves in the mind is symbolized in Nature.” - George MacDonald (1824–1905), in 1867 essay The Imagination: Its Function and its Culture
“I draw, not to annoy people, but to amuse them, or to make them see things that are worth observing and that not everybody knows."
-Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) to brother Theo (1857-1891) in 1882
(Thanks to Ingrid Schaffner for Iincluding this quote in her lovely & instructive book The Essential Vincent van Gogh.)
“The truth about strong emotion is that it's difficult to sustain. Despite how victimized we feel, it's hard work hanging on to anger, even when it's tinged with righteousness. Holding a grudge against someone is (sometimes) more trouble than it's worth.” - Kinsey Millhone in R Is For Ricochet by Sue Grafton (1940-2017), p. 231
“Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious dreams, thrills, fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when gazing into a fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers' reflections of our lives and experiences are endless. “ - Tim Palmer, in Lifelines
"…the really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does … a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being." -John Ruskin (1819–1900), in Modern Painters, Vol. III 1856
“During those long afternoon walks in nature he came to believe that one must shut the mouth and open the eyes and ears, for nature only asked of him to look, listen, and attend.
After the walks: more reading.”
-Young C.S. “Jack” Lewis, in Once Upon. A Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan, LT p. 166
“…"You don't have to
prove anything," my mother said. "Just be ready
for what God sends." I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again. It was all easy…..”
- William Stafford (1914-1993) from his last poem "Are You Mr. William Stafford?"
(Thanks to Maria Popova/the marginalian for her ponder of this bright light.)