"therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the woods, and mountains"

i've been away, getting to know better my home (defined broadly). and now i'm back inside and trying to figure out where to put the loveliness and lessons i've been collecting the past month. isn't this always the trick: to wear our education on our souls, to be changed by the faces stories smells ideas love we encounter, to walk away from our past more enlightened, more enabled, more engaged?

here's what's working to rub my insides round: God loves all his creations. all of them. he loves them in their diversity, in their context, and along the spectrum of their potential.

i'm trying to expand my use of "beautiful" to include biting gnats and warthogs, but in the meantime, these i can't deny:

near vernon.

steven's arch.

coyote gulch.

encore.

encore.

zebra.

calf creek.

antelope island.

encore.

encore.

woods creek.

little mountain.

great salt lake.

spiral jetty.

yurt, uintah mountains.

from charles lamb, master of essay, in "new years eve:"

"I care not to be carried with the tide, that smoothly bears human life to eternity; and reluct at the inevitable course of destiny. I am in love with this green earth; the face of town and country; the unspeakable rural solitudes, and the sweet security of streets.
I would set up my tabernacle here."

go outside! fill your hands with rocks and dirt! let's meet there, under the sky!