Small Things - Missoula, Montana

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

-Mother Theresa (aka Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, 1910-1997)

Hopeful - Missoula, Montana

"...I can only imagine the pile of requests languishing on some ignored [Congressional] desk...My army is fading before my eyes. I am holding it together by sheer will and God's grace..."

"With all these trials, what keeps the men here?"

He considered this a moment. 
"Hope. 
 Hope is its own army and carries its own weapons.
 Without it we will surely perish."

-The novelized George & Martha Washington,
   in Washington's Lady by Nancy Moser, p. 290

Simply Temporary - Missoula, Montana

"Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature." 
- Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)

Lichen Love - Missoula, Montana

"...lichen (tiny but relentless!)..."
Quote from A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson
 
Another wee nature heart, this one found with a lacey collar.
 
In case you didn't notice, I've got a theme going towards Valentine's Day.  Tune in tomorrow for the next installation!
 

Winter Red - Missoula, Montana

“Incomparable beauty, the snow

If only it could wait until the autumn leaves fall”

-From English translations of Waka Poems by Minosuke Noguchi (1875-1972).

Noguchi immigrated from Japan to the U.S. in 1898; for 42 years, he farmed in northeast Colorado, then moved in 1948 with his wife to upstate New York.

 

Click here to read more of his calm thoughts, plus a bit more about this poetry form.

Miniature Moss Variation - Missoula, Montana

“…Still I wonder, and envy

The lichen, chewing the granite like a cow

Its cud, ruminating so patiently

Over the pageant, as swift glaciers plow

The plains, and oceans flow and ebb between;

They view the epic plot, from beginning

To end spectators of every scene,

Where I glimpse one held pose, knowing nothing

Of the unfolding. I do not envy

The rough pale scales their immortality;

Only their witness of the great story.”

 - From ‘Envying theLichen’ by Mark Sauer

Read the full poem here, and more of Sauer's thoughtful verse at his PoemHunter collection.

Bloom Where Planted, Missoula, Montana

“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. 
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?” -Nhat Hanh

Lichen Moss, Crazy Creek, Missoula, Montana

Yes, yes, it's another moss photo - but all by itself, no 5-day series - promise (envision a teeny, tiny rainbow to add credibility).
Semi-huffing and puffing up the trail at Crazy Creek, I noticed this tufty, Dr.Seuss-ish moss all over the place. I realized that, a week earlier, I hadn’t seen any of this variety just a few miles up the road at Pattee Canyon. On my descent, a fellow hiker and his dog passed me (neither of them remotely huffing or puffing) but then stopped to ask what picture subject required overhead hyper-extension of my arms. This led to a conversation about the hanging moss, and my observant and well-hiked trail companion (the two-legged one) explained that Pattee Canyon used to be rife with even longer versions of the stuff until recent years. He’d encountered people picking the moss into big bags one season, and speculated that collectors had simply over-harvested or perhaps disturbed the balance of the growth cycle. That must have been the year moss crafts were all the rage. Gotta have that faux topiary. Because, when you think about it, nothing says class like indigenous moss hot-glued to a Styrofoam ball and skewered atop a homegrown stick.

Country Still Life, Corvallis, Montana

“Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

BIG thanks to my dear friend, M., for sharing random beautiful quotes. (The Sandurg Hungarian poem was also her splendid contribution.) 
If you have any favourites, please send them to me, & I'll try to match them to a future photo!

Boundary, Hamilton, Montana

The wind was freezing, but the view - gorgeous.