All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small.
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
All creatures great and small
Journey
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”
And most definitely, it is realizing and living the transformed life that God gives us through Jesus, in whom “we are a new creation.”
Oregon’s McKenzie River ripples
Walking between two beautiful waterfalls on the McKenzie River, Sahalie Falls andKoosah Falls, provided these wonderful images of joyful delight.
Quiet seeking
“What I know of the divine sciences and holy scriptures I learned in woods and fields. I have had no other masters than the beeches and oaks.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Sometimes we need to rediscover the basics that the shepherds of the Psalms knew long ago.
Living in joyful expectation
“We can work for the kingdom to come on earth as in heaven as we live with joyful expectation and genuine acts of kindness and compassion.”
Backpacking Eagle Creek in the Eagle Cap Wilderness
Bob Carter and I enjoyed a three day backpack trip up the Eagle Creek drainage on the south side of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Bob and I have been hiking together since 2003, and we are grateful our legs still let us enjoy these trips.
We left Monday afternoon and found very few others on the trail. The flowers were at their peak, blooming in green expansive meadows beneath formidable peaks and cliffs.
” The mountains are calling and I must answer.” John Muir
Eagle Cao Wilderness
Mindfulness
It is easy to find joy and God’s breath of life in the mountains. However, when I return to the heat of the valley, I must remind myself that nothing is ordinary in God’s sight. All ground is holy. I need to walk upon it “with gentleness and mindfulness. God is in every particle.”
Outside the Painted Hills
The iconic view of Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is off limits to exploring. However, there a couple “mini” colorful ash areas outside the unit where you can hike and explore and let your mind wander in the stillness that is uninterrupted by vehicles and viewers. Here are a few pictures from May. I hope to hang out there more in the future.
The goal of life is God
“The goal of life is God! The source of life is God! That out of which life comes is that into which life goes. . . . God is the guarantor of all [our] values, the ultimate meaning—the timeless frame of reference. That which sustains the flower of the field, the circling series of stars in the heavens, the structure of dependability in the world of nature everywhere, the stirring of the will of man to action, the dream of humanity, developed and free, for which myriad men, sometimes in solitariness in lonely places or in great throngs milling in crowded squares—all this and infinitely more in richness and variety and value is God. Men may be thrown from their courses—they may wander for a million years in desert and waste land, through sin and degradation, war and pestilence, hate and love—at last they must find their rest in Him. . .” Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman
BSA Troop 514 backpack into Minam Meadows
Six Scouts and another adult and myself from Troop 514 in La Grande made a mid July backpack into Minam Meadows/Red’s Horse ranch, an eight and a half mile hike from Moss Springs above Cove, Oregon. We stayed at a cabin constructed in the mid thirties by the father of a member of the Presbyterian Church. The boys, ages 11 to 17. collaborated and cooperated, living the Scout Oath and Law to the fullest I have ever experienced. It was a deep joy to listen to them laugh and share. They repaired a small bridge, hiked, fished, cooked, cleaned Mup, and played a variety of games. This trip created distinct memories of happiness for all of us.
Red’s Horse Ranch 
Minam River 
Moss Springs Trail