Sun Up, Shore Bright - Peterson Lake, near Big Fork, Montana

“ …Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me 

keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be 
astonished.…”

— Mary Oliver (1935-2019), from “Messenger,” found in Mary Oliver’s collection Thirst

Sunrise Reflection - Big Arm, Flathead Lake, Montana

Big thanks to early rising Sissie #3 for this glorious shot - a purrrfect pairing to a quote I’d been saving for just such a day!

“Why do men lie prone in their beds,” she murmured, “and the great glory of God washin’ the hills with holy fire?”

- From the 1953 short story “She Went By Gently” by Paul Vincent Carroll (1900-1968)

Smoky Sunrise Bloom - Big Arm, Montana

“But I believe if you tell a story, it's like sending a nightingale into the air with the hope that its song will never be forgotten .”

-from This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, page 443

Glorious Display - Sunrise, Corvallis, Montana

Awakened by 

 the stirring of the day
Dawn calls to my 

 heart, or so I thought 
Overwhelmed by

  splendor, Your glory on display

I join with all 

 creation singing 

our God‘s 

 praise

- 5 July 2021 Pat Richards.  

    (Thanks for the early-bird share, sis!)

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)

Balanced Camping - Big Arm, Montana

The rightness of grasses not mowed to conformity, shrubs and willows allowed to spread within mostly natural inclination ...there’s something about the ...mmmm...I hate to say ‘balance’ but maybe more at ‘compromise’ of this cheek-to-jowl coexistence between accessible wildness and the minimal human constraints in the best kind of campground.

It feeds something in me. Perhaps it mirrors my own inner seeking - like water seeks its level - to be simultaneously unfettered yet at rest within this life season’s constraints. 

Looking Through - Big Arm, Montana

“As if being me

were a problem, I sometimes 

crave a solution.”

- haiku by Richard Bauckham

First Light - Missoula, Montana

“After all the false dawns,

who is this who unerringly paints
the first rays in their true colours?
.... the trees tremble.
Is it with a kind of reckless joy
at the gentle light
lapping their leaves
like the very first turn of a tide?
Timid creatures creep out of burrows
sensing kindness
and the old crow on the cattle-shed roof
folds his wings and dreams.“

- from First Light by Richard Bauckham

Back To Work View - Missoula, Montana

A perspective pointer toward gratitude for added benefits of getting out of bed on chilly winter mornings to go to work (besides the glorious sunrise bonus!):

“My grandmother used to say, “As the hands toil, so the spirit is raised above the troubled motions of the mind.” 

 -Joan Anderson, in A Year By The Sea, p. 69

Morning Silence - Corvallis, Montana

"I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand, shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence..."
- From Autumn by Thomas Hood (1798-1845)
(Many thanks to Big Brother #3  for this sweeping Bitterroot Valley sunrise!)

Aerial View - Near Missoula, Montana

 Aerial views again, at last! Despite a slightly smudgy window, the smoke-filtered sunrise delineating Missoula’s mountain ranges was balm to my sleep-fogged brain. We are off to a long-awaited (& COVID-safe) week of volunteering at the Dream Centre. It’s gonna be an extra- great week!

Coffee’s On! - Flathead Lake, Montana