Wildflower Seedhead - Bluebird Preserve Trail, Missoula, Montana

"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

Springing Hope - Missoula, Montana

Just when I’d given up on any chance of seed starts in my windowsill, hope springs anew! (I’d ‘bean’ hoping - hah!) This humble garden bean reminds us to persevere, even when 2 weeks of dutiful watering seems a bust. In the broader sphere (no broad bean puns, you garden people!), we often are not privileged to see in this life the deep work begun in other’s heart-soil by our seemingly simple daily kindnesses. Just keep planting or watering or whatever you’re supposed to be doing, and trust God to honour your faithfulness to painting in your little part of the big picture.

Wind-tossed Sky - Missoula, Montana

Friday evening's clouds were particularly inspiring, with lofty winds re-shaping, hence our multiple pauses - literally in the middle of the (deserted) street - to gaup & point , “Look at that one over there…!”

I figured Gerard Manley Hopkins had some lovely cloud thoughts, and he did not disappoint:

“Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows  flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-

Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers…”

Please read the rest of the poem here – but be forewarned that his lovely language plummets to earth on the wind as steeply as a hunting bird of prey.

The trajectory rackets on through man’s darkness – but still arrives at hope, via the avenue of redemption, to “immortal diamond”.It’s a lovely pondering read on many angles

Quotes from “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of theComfort of the Resurrection” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89)

Spring Flowers Bring...More Snow - MIssoula, Montana

Last week certainly blew through Montana with varied change - our first work-at-home Monday under statewide directive, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake next door in Idaho, sunny days followed by  widespread snowstorms  (with bonus deer bedded down in our townie yard!), a power outage that had us snuggling in for hours ...

And still it was spring, with grape hyacinths and other whatnot blooming and tulip leaves starting up through the snow. Even in the tiniest shred of earth in a crack in a cracked, dingy sidewalk, new life insists its message of hope be seen in brilliant quack-grass green. 
And amidst our global anxious wondering at what happens next, we hold on to hope, share wishes for a blessed Easter, and will say tomorrow, "Christ is risen!" - "He is risen, indeed!".

Big Sky With Clouds - Flying Into Missoula, Montana

20 degree F overnight upsurge put us about back at temps in late September when this photo was taken - there's a happy thought!

“And I urge you to please notice
 when you are happy, and exclaim
 or murmur
 or think at some point,
 ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”
― Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country

Fleeting Iced Shadows - Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

“The present is the ever moving shadow 

     that divides yesterday from tomorrow. 

  In that lies hope.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)