Cottonwood Alley - Missoula, Montana

What a week - Sunday was shorts and t-shirt sunshine, Monday saw enough snow in the Bitterroot Valley that Corvallis, MT, called a snow day and canceled school! 

Springtime in Montana reminds us that change is part of life and there are no regrets when we choose to be fully present.

Spring Football Field - Missoula, Montana

I never really thought about it before, but: Where else in the world can you watch football surrounded by views like this?!  You can check out game day pics and stats here from Montana Grizzly fans, who must be among the most grateful sport enthusiasts...

Morning Walk (aka Adventure) - Missoula, Montana

All of 25 degrees Fahrenheit on this brisk Missoula, Montana, morning - and there are people out running IN SHORTS!!! Guessing (since I have no desire to know from experience) that running provides a whole different personal climate (although that one girl’s legs were pret-ty bright red....).  

Call me a wuss, but for me it’s the  classic toque-gloves-scarf combo until temps are waaayyy above freezing! One less thing to distract from the same goal as when we were kids kicked outdoors to amuse ourselves - stay balanced (on whatever was available) or the (imaginary) alligators will get you!  

(Warning: Walks that turn into flights of fancy may also occur among adults!)

Snow In The Hills - Missoula, Montana

Thankful today (on the incidentals side) that the  little snowflake forecast stayed up in the hills, with just rain in the valley....

Biking Weather - Missoula, Montana

Beautiful Easter Day to be out under God’s great heaven...and tomorrow’s forecast on my phone app shows a little snowflake with 70% chance of snow - I kid you not!  We’ll wait and see....

Freshness Deep - near Drummond, Montana

“And for all this, nature is never spent;

   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things...” - from God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Spring Snowcaps - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

“... it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”
—from Praying by Mary Oliver (1935-2019)

Musical Time - Near Helena, Montana

“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.”  -Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

May your “decorating” on this second spring day be inspired by the Grand Creator of all things bright and beautiful, brave and small.