Not Earned - Echinacea / Coneflower - Missoula, Montana

"Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action."

-—Dallas Willard (1935-2013), Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1984, 1993, 1999), 194.

Dreamy Spring Evening Glow - Missoula, Montana

“…in this old man's vast enjoyment of a simple moment, Stephen felt an easing of the tightness in his chest. He breathed, closed his eyes, and like Meloux lifted his face to the warm sun.

"That is all of life," the old Mide said quietly…”Letting go of the questions. Letting go of the fear that there will be no answers…What we believe we want is like knocking on a closed door.

Better to open ourselves to what we have and what we know. The beauty of this moment." “

-Henry Meloux, in Desolation Mountain, by William Kent Krueger,  p. 61

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.)

Glorious Morning- East Missoula, Montana

A wee Montana field weed allegory :

 Even the tiny wild morning glory thrives in opening its weedy little heart to the sun each day, then later wrapping in to its core all that sustaining warmth and life, ready for what’s next to come.

Snowy Spring Day - Kootenai Creek - Near Stevensville, Montana

“…one is inclined to quess that, apart from the acquisition of knowledge and the exhilaration of climbing, more pleasure is to be found at the foot of the mountains than on their tops….” - John Muir (1838-1914)

Sun And Snow Along Kootenai Creek - Near Stevensville, Montana

Watching snowflakes peacefully float past the green backdrop of our juniper tree, I’m mentally basking in last weekend’s perfect snow-sun Sunday along Kootenai Creek near Stevensville, Montana. While our souls (and soles?hah! ) were duly satisfied over a carefully stepped snow-packed mile, other hikers said they were returning from the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness boundary just 3.5 miles from the trailhead. (Investing yet  another 7 miles apparently gets you to a pair of lovely lakes…)

River’s Influence - Yellowstone River, Livingston, Montana

“Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.”  — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Nature

Sheltering Friends - Homeward Mountains, Near Missoula, Montana

“Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”  -Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

92% Totality - Missoula, Montana

92% totality is still pretty bright! 

Looking through our NASA-approved glasses, we could safely see the "banana sun", as predicted for our city. Daylight dimmed a bit, and the temperature dropped noticeably. I remember that it got very dark and quiet during the 1979 eclipse, so general expectation was for more darkness, or at least mysterious gloom. Good to know that a mere 8% of our sun's wattage is rather impressive!

Sunkissed - Missoula, Montana

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” - C.S. Lewis, from Is Theology Poetry? (London: Geoffrey Bless, 1962),164-165.

Read the larger context of this quote (click the hyperlink) from a paper given to The Oxford Socratic Club , in which "Lewis sets out to answer the question, Is the imagination of followers of Jesus so aroused and satisfied by the poetry of the Gospel message that they have mistaken intellectual assent for mere aesthetic enjoyment?"

Meadow, Mountains, Sky - Creston, Montana

No matter where your Montana drive meanders, the view opens your heart and calms the mind. 
Breathe deep; enjoy this vicarious big sky view.

Beauties of Nature, East Missoula, Montana

“Bless the body. Mine has led me into many scrapes, but I’ve led it into far more. If the imagination were obedient, the appetites would give us very little trouble. And but for our body one whole realm of God’s glory - all that we receive through the senses - would go unpraised.…
I fancy the ‘beauties of nature’ are a secret God has shared with us alone. That may be one of the reasons why we were made - and why the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine.”
C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly On Prayer

Blooms of this river bottom wild potato vine definitely fall in the “beauties of nature“ category. Let the beauties treasure hunt continue amidst our everyday.

Verdant Hillside, Missoula, Montana

Sunlight peered from betwixt moody clouds, casting a random eye on rolling grassland north of Missoula.
Up and over the hill to the right, we happened upon Friday’s delightful view of a green sheepherder wagon & fleecy flock, parked in another green valley. 
All around, a good day for green.

Happenstance Sky, Missoula, Montana

“Now some folks call it fickle fate
And some folks call it chance,
While others just accept it
As a pleasant happenstance…”

From “Not By Chance Nor Happenstance” by Helen Steiner Rice
(Read the full poem
here.)

The happenstance (it's fun to say, you must admit) of this photo was the shutter going off as I checked for dust - voila! - a shot I would not have had otherwise, and of one of my favourite subjects, to boot!

Journey, Missoula, Montana

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”
- Samuel Smiles



Complete this sentence for your self:
“A fizzy delight occurs upon _____________.”

Mine reads thusly:
A fizzy delight occurs upon stumbling onto just the right quote to go with the quirky backyard bug picture that was perfect at the shutter snap and was itself a fizzy delight.

Side Road Shadows, I-90, Western Montana

Long afternoon shadows stretch across the winter whiteness, adding gentle drama and contrast.
Sunset this week, in Missoula,Montana, officially occurs successively from 17:23 to 17:29. Which translates to driving home in reflective daylight glow instead of in the dark - hooray! Since the sun is shining bright today, I better get out in it and store up some organic Vitamin D in my winter fat layer. Tarah! Off I go!

Crocus Basking, Hamilton, MT

Coincidentally, you see this last crocus photo as the real blooms in my yard fade, yielding to other spring growth. (Tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel.)