Good Friday Lily - Missoula, Montana

"...Beyond the pain, beyond the broken clay,

A glimmering country lies

Where life is being wise,

All of the beauty seen by truthful eyes

Are lilies there, growing beside the way...

- from Good Friday, A Dramatic Poem, by John Masefield (1878-1967), published in Good Friday and Other Poems 

If you're looking for a Good Friday service, click here for River of Life's online Good Friday gathering - right now, right where you are!

Mission Mountain Layers - St. Ignatius, Montana

"He unrolled the Bartram and held it to the yellow light and riffled through the pages until his eyes fell on a passage that caught his attention. It was this: 

    The mountainous wilderness which I had lately traversed appeared regularly undulated as the great ocean aftee a tempest; the undulations gradually depressing, yet perfectly regular, as the squama of fish, or imbrications of tile on a roof: the nearest ground to me of a perfect full green; next more glaucous; and lastly almost blue as the ether with which the most distant curve of the horizon seemed to be blended. My imagination thus wholly engaged in the contemplation of this magnificent landscape, infinitely varied, and without bound, I was almost insensible or regardless of the charming objects more within my reach.

A picture of the land Bartram detailed leapt dimensional into Inman's mind. Mountains and valleys on and on forever."  

- From Cold Mountain, P 276, by Charles Frazier

April Snow - East Missoula, Montana

April showers on the valley floor brought a dusting of snow on the mountain tops.

Of Muskeg And Cattails - Near Hot Springs, Montana

"...between thick forest of bog laurel and

common juniper in the humid,

subdued slopes of considerable steepness.

Seek muskeg to the west like the Queen, or

Hecate, or Alexander. Find the continuous

Tangle, diverse and mixing with Indian

Hellebore and partridgefoot...."

 - From muskeg by Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor

Tap into Rebecca's redaction poetry processs and read the full poem text here.

Bridge of Sanders County - Plains, Montana

"There aren't too many principles
 of proper business conduct 
with which just about everybody will agree. 

Two come to mind: 

1. Unless you're a professional athlete, don't offer co-workers encouragement by patting them on the butt, and 

2. Don't burn bridges."

- Dale Dauten

Reflection - Rainbow Lake, Montana

"The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image."

- Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932)

Treetop Silhouettes- South of Hot Springs, Montana

"Blue sky, golden cloud ...
What a feeling of forever!
The languid tree-tops
lithely remain mysterious.
A sign, you would think..."

-  Alberto Blanco, from "First Star", page 83 of 

Dawn of the Senses: Selected Poems of Alberto Blanco

Mountain Days - South of Hot Springs, Montana

"Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God."

- John Muir (1838–1914)