Thistle Be Gorgeous and Moody - Missoula, Montana

"Josie is a Pye," said Marilla sharply, "so she can't help being disagreeable. I suppose people of that kind serve some useful purpose in society, but I must say I don't know what it is any more than I know the use of thistles...."
- from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, Ch. 37

Ascending, Missoula, Montana

“The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.” - Jonathan Edwards

A part of me reads this quote and thinks of it as a negative thing, a hard thing, a religious thing with which free spirits should not be encumbered. But literal ascending is the opposite of staying at the same altitude, the easy mediocre status quo levell. When I think of it like that, it puts me more in mind of doing a bit of hard work toward rising above boring, or even above my most average self, toward the best me God has in mind. That knocks the religious right out, and simultaneously reinforces the dreams and hopes and imaginings that ran rampant in the mind and heart of a younger me.
Which is very fitting for Easter, since Jesus challenges what is religious in each of us, and offers something much better than our finiteness would ask or envision.
Happy day, happy Easter.

Courage, Ray Froehlich Trail, Missoula, Montana

“But courage does not consist of a lack of fear. Only a fool has no fear. Courage is the ability to get the job done in spite of fear. He got the job done.” - Thomas Sowell, of Chuck Stone (1924-2014) intervening in a hostage situation

Walking - or simply being - amidst Montana’s vast wide-openness recalibrates situational perspectives, and engenders hope to displace worry. 
I highly recommend it when courage needs replenishing.