Graceful Change - Non-climbing Clematis, Missoula, Montana

 “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful.” -Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), from The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Still Water Lily Pads - Placid Lake, Montana

"....I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water...."

-from The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

(Listen here - even repeatedly, as I did! - to the author read this dose of utter loveliness and calm. I try not to gush, but Wendell Berry is SO gush-worthy...)

Water Lilies - Placid Lake, Montana

"....Fair beds they seem’d of water-lily flakes

Clustering entrancingly in beryl lakes...."

-Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), from "A Vision of the Mermaids"

Happy Anyways - Missoula, Montana

"Dear life,

  You've been very difficult lately.

  But I'm gonna be happy anyways.

  Because I can be difficult too."

  -Pig, from 07/31/2020 Pearls Before Swine comic strip

  (& you should totally click here to see the last image.)

Leave Room For The Unknown -

"We don't really actually have that kind of control... our utter impatience with the unknown is, I think, a real liability for having the stamina to deal with this extraordinarily difficult time. I mean, I don't begrudge anybody, their terror of the unknown...remarking as a historian, I think there's a kind of shift... nobody has any idea what's going to happen next, you know, from the weather to anything else." - Jill Lepore, in CBC's The Current 6/9/2020 interview

Reflecting Experience Mission Mountains Near St. Ignatius, Montana

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” -

Coneflower Close Up - Missoula, Montana

“At first, he talked about the flowers in the garden behind his country house in Surrey. His voice still had its Midlands accent but was soft now and barely audible. He knew the plants by name and took a few minutes with each of them: ageratum, coreopsis, echinacea, rudbeckia…”  -from Teller: A Novel, by Frederick Weisel