High-Flying Imaginings - Missoula, Montana

"We all face daily choices of what TV shows and movies to watch, where to surf on the web, and what pictures to settle our gaze on….So choose your images with the long view of building a righteous imagination."

- from Imagination Redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind by Gene Veith and Matthew Ristuccia

Everything Is Awesome! - Missoula, Montana

"The instructions to fit in, have everybody like you, and always be happy! 

Step one; breathe....

Step two; greet today’s smile and say…Good morning, city!"

-Emmet Brickowoski in The Lego Movie

Haystack - Missoula, Montana

"...The word agriculture, after all ... means "cultivation of land." And cultivation is at the root of the sense both of culture and of cult. The ideas of tillage and worship are thus joined in culture. And these words all come from an Indo-European root meaning both "to revolve" and "to dwell." To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. " (pg. 285, The Use of Energy)

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

Construction Zone - Missoula, Montana

"Every human being is under construction from conception to death."

- Billy Graham

Autumn Vibrancy - Missoula, Montana

"Life is a sea of vibrant color. Jump in."

- A.D. Posey

Corner Perspective - Missoula, Montana

"...Not by appointment do we meet Delight 

And Joy; they heed not our expectancy; But round some corner in the streets of life,

They, on a sudden, clasp us with a smile..."

- from The Bridegroom of Beauty by Gerald Massey (1828-1907)

Game Day Sparkle - Missoula, Montana

It's Homecoming at the University of Montana - the downtown streets were packed this morning, and all the parade route storefronts are decked out with a little something extra. Nothing says "Go Griz!" quite like a little extra sparkle in your game day coiffure.  Stop in at Bathing Beauties Beads on the Hip Strip to add a little quirk in your day.

Lavender-ish Canopy - Missoula, Montana

Mid-walk through our neighborhood, I stopped and looked straight up into a magically-lighted canopy. All along the block, this one particular type of tree displayed leaves shaded red on the topside and gold on the underside. As the sun filtered through the gently shifting layers, it cast a glow almost lavender. 

The Best Husband Ever gets a gold star for patience, since I stopped multiple times to gaze upward. Times like these, it works well that I'm a speedwalker and he's a stroller - he continues on, and I just catch up!

(Note to self: It behooves one to keep one's mouth shut when under-tree ambling to prevent the inadvertent sampling of electric blue noseeums, and to avoid the subsequent and very inelegant expectoration upon a public thoroughfare. Ick and double-ick.)