Ref Barn Blue Sky Calm - Near Avon, Montana

“Calm and inner peace…Yes, calm and inner peace were undoubtedly important, but did you need to practise yoga to achieve such things? Or was it enough just to be here….to walk along one of those paths…with the sky above you so wide and so understanding of all it witnessed? …Surely there was enough calm amd peace in this land to bring quiet and healing to every heart that was open to it?? Surely.”

- - The Joy & Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith, p. 57

Experience Calm - Big Arm, Flathead Lake, Montana

“It has become my way to dispense with incessant seeking in favor of stumbling upon answers. In the words of Picasso, "I find, I do not seek.” No longer desperate to know every outcome these days I tend to wait and see, a far more satisfying way of being that lacks specificity and instead favors experience over analysis.”

-Joan Anderson, in A Year By The Sea, p. 163-164

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)

Stopping By Snowy Woods - Rattlesnake Creek, Missoula, Montana

Stopping in the woods on a snowy afternoon....
 not quite the classic Robert Frost poem (and no little horse with me - so sad!), but definitely was a lovely and calming pause along the lines of
 "...The only other sound’s the sweep 
  Of easy wind and downy flake."(from Robert Frost's Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening)

Striped Grain Fields, Almost In Canada - Near Shelby, Montana

Happy Canada Day!

Today's photo was taken on a recent trip north, about a half hour before we crossed into the Motherland (i.e. Canada, at least for me; The Best Husband Ever exploits this for wisecrackery - and still manages to keep his TBHE title!).

Some people seer flat-and-boring when they travel through the farmlands of northern Montana and southern Alberta. (You can imagine the backseat chatter: "Are we there yet?"; "What do you mean, 'there's not another rest stop for an hour-&-a-half'?!") 

But I see miles upon gently rolling miles of serenity - all the way to the far, big-skied horizon - especially later in the summer when the sunlight catches the tops of wind-waved tall grain. It's the same calm I feel looking out in ocean waves, or at a wide stretch of river or lake.  Interestingly, neuroscience supports this effect - read more here. And then get outdoors this weekend to find a serenity scene of your very own! 
(Or even a serenity hammock will do.)

Forgetful Friday, Polson, Montana

Well, since I apparently can't keep tabs on what day it is, I found myself without a post ready for today. So, I've decided to re-post a favourite photo of Flathead Lake, taken last spring.

I've always been calmed and comforted by views of vast water, so was thrilled to read recently that neuroscience has found a beneficial connection between the brain calm and expansive views, such as the ocean or wide grasslands.  So, eat your kelp and go to the beach, for your own good.