Beauty Near - Apple Blossoms, Full Bloom - Missoula, Montana

“Sometimes it is enough to be near something lovely. It doesn't require possession; nothing has to come of it, nothing need be created from it. Let its purpose be to exist solely as a thing of beauty and provide joy.”

-Chi Chi Armandonada in Tony’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani, p. 590 (large type edition)

A Different Angle - Missoula, Montana

"I stand in the hallway and listen to her and Etta laughing and realize that maybe my daughter did miss out on a big family life as an only child, but what she got instead was just as valuable.  
How many girls have an honorary aunt like Iva Lou?

Sometimes what we don't get in life makes way for something even better."

-from Milk Glass Moon, A Big Stone Gap Novel, by Adriana Trigiani, p. 162
(Did I mention previously that her series are delightfully addicting?)

Changing Mystery of Now - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"You just have to live, Ave, and let life unfold. Say what you mean.
You can't always think about what you've lost, or what you don't have, or what you didn't get. Because when you do that, you're missing out on the now...
We shouldn't let a day go by when we don't stop and think about what we are to each other and how the best part of that is the part that changes.
That's the mystery.
And that's the part of people that's divine. Accepting the unknown and trusting it."

 -Jack in  Home To Big Stone Gap, A Big Stone Gap Novel, p 162, by Adriana Trigiani

Moonlight And Mountains - East Missoula, Montana

"...The moon hangs between the mountains like a searchlight, making a path through flimsy clouds. I breathe deeply...The mountains, knit together seamlessly, form a black velvet fortress around me. The dark sky lightens to a shimmer of silver on the mountaintop, like a window shade that can not reach the sash to keep out the light. The details are clean - bare branches with fluttery edges like curls, and strong black veins in the trunks and branches of the mighty pine trees. I am so small here...."

- from Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani, p. 43

 (BTW, seriously losing track of time in this book series - & I love it when I read something precisely perfect for a recent photo!)

Lovely Moment - Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

"Sometimes it is enough to be near something lovely.
It doesn't require possession;
 nothing has to come of it,
 nothing need be created from it.
Let its purpose be
 to exist solely as a thing of beauty
 and provide joy."

- From Tony's Wife by Adriana Trigiani, p. 428