Out From The Old - Missoula, Montana

"...Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years...

Practice resurrection."

 - from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

Marcescent Maple - Missoula, Montana

Hurrah! A perfect new word for this recent snow walk photo: 

marcescent 

(adjective; of a plant part) : 

withering without falling off

(Big thanks to Sister #3 for the sweet word share , via Grant Snider’s charming illustration. 

Looking Through To Beyond - Missoula, Montana

“The sun filtered down through the canopy… Above its delicate, spreading branches was the sky, which went on forever, it seemed, into a thin, singing blue.”

-Mma Ramotswe in To the Land of Long Lost Friends, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, by Alexander McCall Smith, p. 90 (lg type)

May your new year be blessed with eyes to see through and beyond and more than just what seems in plain view, and to what the Holy Spirit is saying. 

Light Shine From Above - Autumn - Missoula, Montana

“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 

Red Leaf, Intensely Small - Missoula, Montana

“… and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a mighty mountain or a splendid palace. What is small is not small in itself, just as that which is great is not—great.” 

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Nice and Quiet - Missoula, Montana

“Silence is a good friend, I repeat, as if saying a mantra. It allows for the natural progression of things. 

Still, I remain nervous, anxious to fill the void as I used to with interesting questions, chit chat, sweet nothings that nice girls like me were taught to utter. ...Now what takes the place of nice, I wonder?”

-Joan Anderson, in A Year By The Sea, p. 73

Clinging Stubbornly - Missoula, Montana

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” 
― James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

Shadowy Clarity - Missoula, Montana

For a spot of pondering (& the full article is quite worth reading to consider the full context of this statement.):

"We humans do not do well when someone whose intentions are unclear tells us where we stand, how good we “really” are, and what we must do to fix ourselves. 
We excel only when people who know us and care about us tell us what they experience and what they feel, and in particular when they see something within us that really works."
-From  The Feedback Fallacy by Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall, March-April 2019 Issue of Harvard Business Review

Prospective Perspective - Missoula, Montana

“Happiness and joy are not the same thing. 

 Happiness is based on our current circumstances

   but joy is a product of our perspective.”

-Jason Tonn, on November 11, 2018

Open Leaf - Missoula, Montana

"Matisse draws what I call 
 the essence of the plants. 
He leaves a shape open. 
He'll do a leaf 
 and not close it. 
Everybody used to say,
 oh, I got it all from Matisse,
 and I said,
 'Not really.'"

-Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015)

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ellsworth_kelly_605885

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ellsworth_kelly_605885

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ellsworth_kelly_605885

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ellsworth_kelly_605885