"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
–J. Lubbock
“The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he were singing from a limb and not falling, accelerating thirty-two feet per second per second, through empty air. Just a breath before he would have been dashed to the ground, he unfurled his wings with exact, deliberate care, revealing the broad bars of white, spread his elegant, white-banded tail, and so floated onto the grass.
I had just rounded a corner when his incouciant step caught my eye; there was no one else in sight. The fact of his free fall was like the old philosophical conundrum about the tree that falls in the forest. The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." -John Muir
“It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.”
― Annie Dillard
― Annie Dillard
Something about mountains-- the vistas, the crisp pine air, the pervasive silence-- always captures me. Even with threats of bear activity, storm clouds rolling through the valley, and downright cold camping nights the mountains manage to refresh and inspire. I hope to be so lucky as to hold these images and memories deep in my heart and mind, so as to be able to call upon them for renewal when graduate school on the frozen tundra grates on me. As a side note, if you've never visited the Canadian Rockies, get there!
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