Focus Further - Kootenai Creek, Stevensville, Montana

“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story, fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.” - L. M. Montgomery (1874-1942), Rainbow Valley, chapter 13

River Stories, Cottonwood Leaves - Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

I do wonder what travel stories this cottonwood leaf duo could tell (if, of course, they could manage to stop for a chat or interview …).  

“The face of the river, in time, became a wonderful book . . . which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.” — (Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) aka Mark Twain , Life on the Mississippi)

Morning Calm - Flathead Lake, Big Arm, Montana

“Now that your worry has proved 

such an unlucrative business
Why not find a better job?”
― Hafiz (1315-1390)

Perspective (Zoomed Out) - Missoula, Montana

“Life is about perspective and how you look at something... ultimately, you have to zoom out.”

-Whitney Wolfe Herd

Roaming Rocks or River Bank Ice Scape - Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

“It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.

There are two other possibilities: 

   one is paperwork, 

     and the other is nostalgia.”

-Frank Zappa

Pebbles To Trod - Stevensville, Montana

"My life is full of mistakes. 
They're like pebbles that make a good road."

- Beatrice Wood (1893-1998)

Freelance Feather - Missoula, Montana

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul 
And sings the tune without the words 
And never stops at all..."

- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 
from “Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)

(Part of the reason I adore this poem is because my dear Sis #2 shared it with me as encouragement many, many moons ago.Thanks, sissy, for a melodic and enduring reminder of truth.)

Sunlit Green - Missoula, Montana

"I saw the sunlight in a leafy place,

Bathing itself in liquid green and amber..."

- Ernest Rhys (1859-1946), from "April Romance", The Leaf Burners and Other Poems

Shinin' In The Sun - Missoula, Montana

"...Sprouts all growin',
comin' up glowin',

Fruit of jewels all 
shinin' in the sun..." 
- from The Garden by Shel Silverstein

Directed River - Missoula, Montana

"What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else. – Hal Boyle (1911-1974)

Shaping Water - Missoula, Montana

"When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, exactly like water. Its color is silver. And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it. The sound is soft, like flute notes rising up, like the words of glass speaking. Then there comes a point when you must shatter the blindness of its words, the blindness of its light." - Anne Spollen, The Shape of Water

Soft, Wild - Missoula, Montana

"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."-Iain Thomas

The travelers are home (viva Las Vegas!) at last! Take a browse of their thoughts of the beautiful place of Sri Lanka at JourneysWithGod.com .

Life's Work Sampler - Missoula, Montana

"Sometimes I think life would be simpler if I'd been born a man."

"Oh rubbish. Life is what it is. 

Your life's work, on the other hand - that you might exercise some control over."
 - from Painted Horses by Malcom Brooks 

The Sri Lankan sojourners are homeward bound. See the latest updates at JourneysWithGod.com .)

Purling Creek - Missoula, Montana

"The sky was delft blue, the sun strong. Now and then a breeze teased the branches overhead, tapping them gently against one another. To my right the creek purled softly as it coursed over rocks abandoned by glaciers long ago." - Kathy Reichs, "Deadly Decisions", p. 68

Check in on the latest meanderings of the Sri Lanka travelers at JourneysWithGod.com .

Small Twig,Rushing River - Missoula,Montana

"I want to cultivate the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown." - Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Like Moments Of Time - Vaughn,Montana

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away." - Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)

And so, we pause to savour small beauties while in their sphere, whether they be of time or of what surrounds us.

Green Grass Yet At Largent Bend - Vaughn, Montana

“We trample grass and prize the flowers of May, 
Yet grass is green when flowers do fade away.” 
- Robert Southwell, from "Scorn Not the Least"