Simple Christmas - Missoula, Montana

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”

― Bob Hope (1919-1997)

Wishing you a simple Christmas.... 
 

Big Sky With Clouds - Flying Into Missoula, Montana

20 degree F overnight upsurge put us about back at temps in late September when this photo was taken - there's a happy thought!

“And I urge you to please notice
 when you are happy, and exclaim
 or murmur
 or think at some point,
 ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”
― Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country

Clinging Stubbornly - Missoula, Montana

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” 
― James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

Reflections On Change - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

“We talk about “circumstances over which we have no control.”

None of us have control over our circumstances, but we are responsible for the way we pilot ourselves in the midst of things as they are.Two boats can sail in opposite directions in the same wind, according to the skill of the pilot. The pilot who conducts his vessel on to the rocks says he could not help it, the wind was in that direction; the one who took his vessel into the harbour had the same wind, but he knew how to trim his sails so that the wind conducted him in the direction he wanted. The power of the peace of God will enable you to steer your course in the mix-up of ordinary life.” 

-OswaldChambers (1874-1917), from “The Moral Foundation of Life” and “Knocking at God’s Door” (via Discovery House Publishers' “Peace” devotion plan in You Version app or www.utmost.org)

On Becoming Less - North-Central Montana

"He walked out slowly, past the bookcase...[of] books he had read and reread...plenty of poetry...that stayed in your heart [including a] well used [Dante's] Inferno. It was so appropriate. If a man could only learn that you are punished not for the sin, but by it, and you thus become less than you could have been, how much that would change you." 
-Lucas Standish musing in Death in Focus by Anne Perry , p.36

Slow Autumn - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

....odd to see an abundance of green leaves AFTER we've had our first snow! But the inevitable change is underway... 

 

September Snow - Missoula, Montana

After some pseudo-snow-spit last night, the forecast downfall materialized for real (shocker!) this morning in Missoula town proper. But I'm thankful it's not the 2-feet-&-counting in Browning & other Montana towns further north.

(And still my summer petunias bloom fiercely on...)