Light-Seeking Effort - Missoula, Montana

“Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.”

-Simone Weil (1909 – 1943)

The Road To Town - Missoula, Montana

“Some of the changes in my life were imposed, and some were chosen - if by "chosen ” I may mean that I chose what I seemed already to have been chosen by, desire having obscured the alternatives. And each change has been a birth, each having taken me to a new life from which I could not go back. 

And I have asked myself, "Would I have known such births if, from Pigeonville or Lexington, I had taken one of the paths by which people get somewhere and make something of themselves? " But of course I have no answer.”

-from Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, p.299

River’s Influence - Yellowstone River, Livingston, Montana

“Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.”  — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Nature

Still Wintery Sky - Near Wilsall, Montana

I’ve been hoarding this evocative quote, but the timing is now quite perfect, both to honour an inspiring author AND because it is still snowing fiercely in Montana…!

"I wiped my hands on my apron and went to the window. Outside, the prairie reached out and touched the places where the sky came down. Though the winter was nearly over, there were patches of snow and ice everywhere. 

I looked at the long dirt road that crawled across the plains, remembering the morning that Mama had died, cruel and sunny. They had come for her in a wagon and taken her away to be buried. And then the cousins and aunts and uncles had come and tried to fill up the house. 

But they couldn’t." 

-Anna Witting, in Sarah, Plain And Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Full Spring Ahead - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

“…but if you never do, don't be discontented about it. We make our own lives wherever we are, after all . . . They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them, not what we get out. Life is rich and full here . . . everywhere . . . if we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fulness." “

-Mrs. Allan to Anne, Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 15 by L.M. Montgomery 

Spring Breakup - Ice on the Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

“It is with rivers as it is with people: The greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.” — (Henry van Dyke, (1852-1933), Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness

Sheltering Friends - Homeward Mountains, Near Missoula, Montana

“Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”  -Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Hometown Landmarks - Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

“Rivers know this: There is no hurry, we shall get there some day.” — A.A. Milne (1882-1956), Winnie the Pooh