• Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  landscape,  moon,  natural areas,  quotes,  reflections

    The Beat of the Universe

    March 21, 2024
    Full moon reflecting in Beaver Pond at Arapaho Bend Natural Area

    The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.

    Joseph Campbell

    My early goals were often set by parents, church, schools, society and hidden dreams. These goals set me on certain paths. Not everyone’s path is the same so realize I am only speaking about mine. 

    My parents instilled within me the goal to marry and have children. I did that. The church of my youth suggested I be a hellfire and brimstone preacher. Instead, I chose to raise hell. School offered me a couple goals: to be the hero at the football game, which never happened. And the other was to attain an education, build a career, and go into debt on a 30 year home mortgage, which did happen. Then, 20 years later I got a divorce, sold the home, changed careers, and was still unhappy in my career. 

    However, none of these goals nurtured the questions that were being asked within me; “Who am I? What do I have to offer the world? How do I make the world a better place? How do I participate in the world?” Once I entered my early fifties these questions began to shout for acknowledgement. Thus began the journey of discovering who I am, and who I am not. On this path I’ve uncovered a few things I do have to offer the world and believe there are many more yet to uncover. I am reevaluating my goals and their impact on others, nature and the universe. Seems Campbell may have narrowed it down, “to make my heartbeat with the heartbeat of the universe and live as if I am a part of nature.” I can see that as a goal and a prayer. May I live it!!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  storm clouds

    The Spell of Clouds

    March 16, 2024
    Storm clouds from March of 2014

    A cloud is a spell against indifference, an emblem of the water cycle that makes this planet a living world capable of trees and tenderness, a great cosmic gasp at the improbability that such a world exists, that across the cold expanse of spacetime strewn with billions upon billions of other star systems, there is nothing like it as far as we yet know.

    Maria Popova

    What an amazing statement she makes, “there is nothing like it as far as we yet know.” Something to ponder. I’m not sure I was as fascinated with clouds when I was younger as I am today and maybe due to my indifference, lack of interest as a youth. I know photography has changed my view of the world. I also know that as I draw closer to taking my last breath I see this world with eyes of attention, interest, respect, feeling and wonder. Having said that, I must confess all clouds have a spell on me and I’m okay with that.

    Now that the snowstorm has past, today has offered us a cloudless blue sky with sunshine and warmer temperatures. The quickly melting snow has filled the holding ponds outside my condo. The geese and ducks sound excited about that. If tomorrow’s weather is the same as today, the remaining piles of dirty plowed snow will quickly disappear. Hope you are having a good weekend. Enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  snow,  sunrises

    We Are Enough!

    March 9, 2024
    Cold February Sunrise

    There’s so much more to who you are than you know right now. You are, indeed, something mysterious and someone magnificent. You hold within you — secreted for safekeeping in your heart — a great gift for this world. Although you might sometimes feel like a cog in a huge machine, that you don’t really matter in the great scheme of things, the truth is that you are fully eligible for a meaningful life, a mystical life, a life of the greatest fulfillment and service.

    Bill Plotkin

    I’m posting this quote by Bill Plotkin because I also believe we are more than we know or think we know. It raises a couple questions for me, “What would the world look like if I believed that I am something mysterious, someone magnificent, a unique gift of creation?” And also, “What would the world look like if we all saw ourselves that way?” What if these words are considered inclusive, shared equally by us all, and that no one is seen as better than or less than anyone else? Then maybe who and what we may think of ourselves, of others, of creation, the cosmos and beyond, will allow us to live a meaningful, mystical life. We are enough!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes

    With Love, Admiration and Respect

    March 8, 2024

    It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.

    Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

    I have several favorite places where I go to spend an afternoon with nature. In these sacred places I watch silent clouds move across the sky, casting shadows on the farmer’s open field. I watch the clouds reshape themselves with the wind and I hear the blackbirds share their whistles and “chack” calls with me. I wonder, are they glad I’ve come to visit? I give thanks, take a few photos and accept the blessings nature offers with love, admiration and respect.

    I took this image a couple weeks ago in Weld County. Today it looks different as we had snowfall during the night, overcast skies all day and it is cold. Hope you had a good end to your week.

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  • Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes

    A Bowl of Soup

    March 7, 2024

    Perhaps the first step in making the Middle Passage meaningful is to acknowledge the partiality of the lens we were given by family and culture, and through which we have made our choices and suffered their consequences. If we had been born of another time and place, to different parents who held different values, we would have had an entirely different lens. The lens we received generated a conditional life, which represents not who we are but how we were conditioned to see life and make choices… We succumb to the belief that the way we have grown to see the world is the only way to see it, the right way to see it, and we seldom suspect the conditioned nature of our perception.

    James Hollis

    Overcast skies this morning, a light mist falling, and almost no wind. I did not expect to watch the sun crest the horizon with all the cloud cover but needed to include time in the Arapaho Bend Natural Area to start my day. The clouds were showing their better side so I accepted a few images. On the top branch of a barren tree two hawks surveyed their land. I listened to the babbling of hundreds of blackbirds. Not far from where I stood a goose or two were in a heated debate over nesting rights. I watched the graceful slow flying blue herons glide over the water in search of a fishing spot. And in the distance one eagle sat perched on a pole. After giving thanks and a few deep breaths I moved on to enjoy a mocha by Issac and an almond croissant at Starry Night. Rain and snow are predicted later today and into the night. Hope so as we need the moisture. I am grateful for the lens my family and culture gave me, with all of its limits, but I am just as grateful for the lens of maturity I am now seeing the world with. It will be a good day to enjoy a bowl of vegetable soup with andouille sausage added for a kick. Enjoy your day!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    No asphalt here…

    March 1, 2024
    Predawn panorama at Pineridge Natural Area

    “The soil under the grass is dreaming of a young forest, and under the pavement the soil is dreaming of grass.”

    Wendell Berry

    I am grateful for the natural areas and the city of Fort Collins for setting aside these areas. They protect nature from those who want to profit from them and destroy the dreams of the soil. Because it was a beautiful day of blue sky and sunshine, I spent some time at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area this afternoon and journaled. I thought about people who know nothing but the asphalt, concrete and noise of big cities. For them to be present to the silence of the sunrise above or to look out over a vast horizon, could be startling if not frightening to them. So, this evening I’m aware of how lucky, blessed, and grateful I am to have these sanctuaries to experience. I will end with words written in my journal today: No asphalt here…

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  • clouds,  landscape,  mountains,  quotes

    A wonderful opportunity!

    February 29, 2024
    Afternoon clouds along the Colorado Front Range

    God is the internal voice calling me to give myself to the fullness of life.

    Joan Chittister

    It makes no difference what we chose to call that internal voice. What matters is being silent enough to listen then giving myself to the task of living the fullness of life. It has been a learning process for me and a wonderful opportunity! Happy birthday to those celebrating their birthday on this leap year!

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