General Store Post Office - Garnet Ghost Town, Montana

Who knew there were so many delightful quotes about old-fashioned correspondence? Thanks to the varied and lovely 'bouquet' at The Quote Garden, I couldn't pick just one to go with today's gold-hued view of the poignantly empty mail slots in Garnet's general store.

Enjoy!

"To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart." 

- Phyllis Theroux

"Or don't you like to write letters?  I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something."

- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

"Without 'tis autumn, the wind beats on the pane
With heavy drops, the leaves high upwards sweep.
You take old letters from a crumpled heap,
And in one hour have lived your life again."
- Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), translated from Romanian by Corneliu M. Popescue

Dreamscape - Garnet Ghost Town, Montana

"These hushed woods once echoed with the rumble of wagons chock full of gold ore. Teamsters urged horses down muddy streets. Mine hoists clanged. Whistles blew. Children raced to school..."

Monday - delightfully, a holiday - dawned bright and dry, with a precocious wind wafting lazy clouds across the wide Montana sky: a perfect day to meander about Garnet Ghost Town, an hour northeast of Missoula, Montana. 

Garnet's historical landscape proved appropriately thought-provoking for a day set aside to remember hard-won freedom, including the freedom to create and benefit from our own opportunity. Each building whispered its own stories of hopeful small-town families who worked diligently toward making their own big strike.

To continue the earlier quote, from an on-site interpretive kiosk and Garnet's website: "...In January of 1898, some 1,000 people knew Garnet as home...There were four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school with 41 students, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor's office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons...  By 1905, only 150 [people] remained..." 

Despite all the sweat equity and optimism invested, the wealth to be mined from Garnet's surrounding hills was finite, and the town's residents moved on to the next season of their history. 

Truth be told, the freedom we live under does not promise that our best efforts will yield wealth and success, that giving our hearts will lead to true love and happily-ever-after, that eating right and exercising enough will ensure a long and healthy life; need I go on? 

But the self-evident truth still exists that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that include those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So I choose to be fully present in this now, knowing my future is ultimately held in the faithful hands of One far stronger and wiser than I am. And somewhere in that Pollyanna-ish simplicity resides a lot of peaceful liberty, and an honestly happy life.

You just never know what you'll come away with when you visit a Montana ghost town, especially on the Fourth of July.

Flags And Flowers - Missoula, Montana

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first."

- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

On this Independence Day, it's good to remember and to be thankful for the countless many who contribute(d) to freedom.

Small World Garden - Missoula, Montana

"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden." 

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

Looking Upward - Lolo, Montana

"I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward."

- Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

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.)

Indomitable Dandelions - Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Yellowstone NationalPark

"The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world."

- Unknown Source (which drives me a little bit nuts to have to say...so, please, if you know the source of this lovely observation, help me out with some intel!)

Time's Long Shadows - Yellowstone National Park

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

(Note: If you didn't read the earlier Yellowstone posts, please read disclaimer here.)