Riverside Tall Grass - Hamilton, Montana

“He taught me to pay attention ….[to the] beauty of it all. The way the earth smells wet and raw when it's first turned in the spring or after a summer rain.

How the wind bends a field of tall grass into a moving sea. The creak and moan of trees, like they're talking to one another, or to us if we listen.”

-The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, p 456 (Lg Type)

Winter Sun and Frost - East Missoula, Montana

“…"You don't have to

prove anything," my mother said. "Just be ready

for what God sends." I listened and put my hand

out in the sun again. It was all easy…..”

 - William Stafford (1914-1993) from his last poem "Are You Mr. William Stafford?"

(Thanks to Maria Popova/the marginalian for her ponder of  this bright light.)

Smokey Sunset Grasses - Missoula, Montana

 ‘Tis the season - for blazing sunsets and hazy skies. 

Wildfire smoke rings our valley, drifting in along the five mountain ranges that converge at Missoula, Montana. 

I am a sleepy bee...buzz buzz-zzzzz.

One Daisy - Teller Trail at Teller Wildlife Refuge, Corvallis, Montana

"...the infinite wealth of Christ’s infinite heart is thine today as though the sun should shine to light one firefly, or the Amazon flow to water the roots of one daisy."   - F.B. Meyer (1847-1929) from The Love Of Christ, Which Passeth Knowledge

 

 

Happy Anyways - Missoula, Montana

"Dear life,

  You've been very difficult lately.

  But I'm gonna be happy anyways.

  Because I can be difficult too."

  -Pig, from 07/31/2020 Pearls Before Swine comic strip

  (& you should totally click here to see the last image.)

Tall Grasses Streamside Missoula, Montana

“We have walked among the tall grasses,
through wildflowers we were lead,
They stood like noble kings and queens,
with crowns upon their heads…”

From Amoroso, by Aubrey Keith Wilhoite

The entire poem, accesible via the text link in the title, is beautifully tender.
 If anyone finds information on this poem's author, please let me know in a comment on this post. The only potentially relevant item I found was in a geneology listing, which referenced "AUBREY KEITH WILHOITE was born on April 28, 1956. "

S M R Ducks at Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge, Stevensville, Montana

It's amazing how the words of a well-spoken teacher can stick with you for life, altering your perception of certain situations. I'll never forget an illustration of one of my Bible school teachers, who also happened to be a veterinarian who shared his skinny guy struggle with reducing his cholesterol. He wrote on the board, "M R Ducks. No M R not ducks. S M R Ducks - C M wangs?... "  - this is what runs through my head upon viewing such a beautiful scene of nature.  While I'm hazy on the point he was making, I think it had to do with how you tend to see things, simple or complicated unnecessarily.