Beauty Perspective - Missoula, Montana

May you recapture “perspective for these riches“ for today.

 “And so it is that most people have no idea how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is revealed in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. The grown-ups, going about their business and worries, and tormenting themselves with all kinds of details, gradually lose the perspective for these riches that children, when they are attentive and good, soon notice and love with their whole heart…“ - Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), letter to Helmut Westhoff, Nov. 12, 1901 in: Briefe, p. 31  

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)

Shadow Study - Missoula, Montana

Similarly interesting shadow thoughts to ponder from two beloved authors (because I couldn't decide on just one!): 

"So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you."

 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

"I am quite likely to re-act to the opposite extreme - to feel rapturously that the world is beautiful and mere existence something to thank God for. I suppose our 'blues' are the price we have to pay for our temperament. 'The gods don't allow us to be in their debt.' They give us sensitiveness to beauty in all its forms but the shadow of the gift goes with it."

 - L.M. Montgomery, My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. Macmillan from L.M. Montgomery

Current Flow - Clark Fork River, Montana

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.”  - Rainer Maria Rilke, published in Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God