Shadow Study - Missoula, Montana

Similarly interesting shadow thoughts to ponder from two beloved authors (because I couldn't decide on just one!): 

"So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you."

 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

"I am quite likely to re-act to the opposite extreme - to feel rapturously that the world is beautiful and mere existence something to thank God for. I suppose our 'blues' are the price we have to pay for our temperament. 'The gods don't allow us to be in their debt.' They give us sensitiveness to beauty in all its forms but the shadow of the gift goes with it."

 - L.M. Montgomery, My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. Macmillan from L.M. Montgomery

Golden Moment - Missoula, Montana

"...but when men count

Those hours of life that were a bursting fount

Sparkling the dusty heart with living springs,

There seems a world, beyond our earthly things,

Gated by golden moments, each bright time

Opening to show the city white like lime,

High-towered and many-peopled. ..."

- from Biography by John Masefield (1878-1967)

Writing On The Wall - Downtown Alley, Missoula, Montana

"I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God."

- Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Everyday Connections - Missoula, Montana

"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected." 

 - William Plomer (1903-1973)

Clouds On Purpose - Missoula, Montana

Rain, glorious rain! - after days and days of cloudy skies and not watering the lawn because it OUGHT to rain...finally the clouds have found their purpose. (Which I know is much more than simultaneously saving our lawn and water bill, but aren't we the fortunate ones?!)

"I am convinced that the jealous, the angry, the bitter and the egotistical are the first to race to the top of mountains. A confident person enjoys the journey, the people they meet along the way and sees life not as a competition. They reach the summit last because they know God isn’t at the top waiting for them. He is down below helping his followers to understand that the view is glorious where ever you stand."

 - Shannon L. Alders

Apple Destiny - The Good Food Store, Missoula, Montana

"It was ideal apple-eating weather; the whitest sunlight descended from the purest sky, and an easterly wind rustled, without ripping loose, the last of the leaves on the Chinese elms."

- From In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Churchill, On Becoming - Missoula, Montana

(Pictured quote from A Far Country by Winston Churchill (1871-1947), American author)

Sitting on our porch last evening, spitting watermelon seeds into the grass, I read the last sentence pictured above and paused in distinct recognition. I have oft and long pondered this unbecoming toward becoming, this onward journey to resting more easily at self-honest, this revealing of anchored deep knowing that I cannot make anyone happy but yet I do inherently bring joy to the Lover of my soul. 

And what is all that but a back-to-the-beginning, a refined return to a much, much younger self's innocent unawareness that there even exist worries of I-am-not-enough or I-am-not-as-good-as? 

I say "refined return" because, while we may have bemoaned the fact that we will never be a naive child again, the truth is that we are actually better off for having been subject to life's intensities - we know what shaken foundations look like but also that there is an infinitely more Sure Foundation worthy of our trust and our building upon. And this is why we can rest easy. Not because life as we know it is "perfect". And certainly not because we are "perfect" - hah! (Yes, those are, indeed, sarcastic finger quotes,) And this is a very good thing.

Should this remind-full resting be further down the becoming path than you have yet seen, please persevere, and pray.  And let me know - I will add prayers to your bucket. 

'50s Farm Truck, Rear View - Missoula, Montana

dieseltip#215 
"some trucks may never be more than a beat up old work truck. 
that doesn't mean that it still won't be your favourite."

Thanks to Thoroughbred Diesel for the just-right quote. 
Read more dieseltips at their tips page here. 
They've posted quite a few doozies!