Don’t Let It Go

After sunset in Southern Illinois. © 2016 1inawesomewonder.

Holding the light.

Never gets old.

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Sunset in the Land of Lincoln

Ice in the air

A couple of days ago, I went in search of nearby winter weather. I found ice. Everywhere.

Every blade, every twig, encased in ice.

Spruce needles bulk up with ice.

There was ice in the fog, and on everything I could see.

Branches are pretty cool, but these branches take that to a new level.

If any surface was exposed, it had ice on it or ice hanging from it.

Passing Through

Sometimes I travel just to pass through an area, but many times I travel to a spot just to let it pass through me.

Wooded area along the Magalloway River (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Looking north towards the homestead and Uncle Lloyd’s farm (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Abrams Pond (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Remote brook in northern NH (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

St. John River Valley (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

The top of Dixville Notch (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

The area around Mt. Katahdin (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

The first miles of the Connecticut River (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

The spaces where I learned to be free (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Anywhere I can see the canvas that is the sky (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Many a dream have I pondered lost in the glow of the tree (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

TSO shows (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

One such place where I can go and let the sounds of yesteryear fill the silence that envelopes me (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

My views of the Northern Lights (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Open places, animals, snow and the sky, weather nearby (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Along the Androscoggin (photo by 1inawesomewonder) ©

Where Words Take Me

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. – John Muir quoted by Samuel Hall Young in Alaska Days with John Muir (1915) chapter 7
“God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.” ~ John Muir
John Muir is on my list of people I would like to have spent time with. Perhaps the only thing more beautiful than his energetic, artistically descriptive words were the scenes he gazed upon. I long for the times I can wander the hills, mountains, and streams to “wash my spirit clean”, and I do.

A view of Eldorado National Forest from Route 50

Going Home?

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”
― John Muir, Our National Parks

Mountains and more mountains

Too Much Here For One To See

I look to the sky and the blazing sun

Feeling like I’ve arrived, the only one

 

This place before me feels like home?

Should I never leave here, no longer roam?

 

God must have painted here, these very tones

Man has not touched this place nary a stone

 

Sitting, I gaze upon this beautiful place

Content, I wish to stay, leave the race

 

How is it that a site can affect me so?

I couldn’t retreat now if I wanted to go

 

I wonder aloud, here am I intended to be?

Perfect; sky, water, rock, quiet and me?

 

Feeling privileged as if near the Creator

My senses are whet like never before

 

There’s an urgency I feel but it’s odd

Like I can wait here looking, to see God

 

Wait I do, frozen really on this grassy lea

In time, I notice all, He is revealed to me

 

With sweeping glance again and again

I see there’s more than when I began

 

How could this be here, in its entirety?

Bigger, better, more efficient than any city

 

Hours seem to cram themselves into seconds

Astutely aware I long for time at this expanse

 

I came in by myself but do not feel alone

Arising, I wish to visit with each stone

 

All at once I wish to share this place

While wanting here, to witness just my face

 

I work to move among the vast scenery

Noting that maybe mans not meant entry

 

Time nor distance measure my rate

Only light or the lack of it track my fate

 

Once upon the floor of this earthly dimple

Closer inspect confirms my race, so simple

 

The beauty is all at once overwhelming

But still, nothing I’ve known more calming

 

Wandering among the divine, peace is mine

Hoping this space is the same for all time

 

The symmetry of societal plans exists away,

Away from this pastoral valley further today

 

Time is still, so am I, as it should be

For there’s too much here for one to see

 

Only the land prevents me from deliberating

Tranquil, I visit, the sound of my heart pulsating

 

Looking up I see water falling freely down

I feel no sound; don’t know where I’m bound

 

The flow disappears on the distant horizon

I move to the spot I keep my eyes on

 

Asking I wonder what I came here to see

It seems in this freedom I am finding me

 

The air is cooler the water again I spy

Calm at the base after the traverse so high

 

This cool spot wasn’t visible a while back

How long I enjoy it, I’ve simply lost track

 

Were there limits on the time I should spend?

It’s been night once since and I see no end

 

Then I wonder what pieces of this site

Will witness the sun setting tonight

 

I can’t guess the distance, or the time

Any checks vanish amid this nature sublime

 

Only the natural around including all sound

This freedom is true, the definition I’ve found

 

Waves of orange and red light another day’s end

In awe, man’s place I figure as God would intend

 

I close my eyes this time in hopes of a dream

Recounting this heavenly place aside a stream

 

This man, in awesome wonder, stops by free

Wishing all could encounter such majesty