Saturday, July 26, 2008

Sunday Scribblings: Solace

“Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
~John Muir

This week's prompt at Sunday Scribblings: solace. Solace for me is synonymous with the mountains. Used to be Buffalo and Unaka back in college in upper East Tennessee; now we are at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The mountains have always held something inexpressible for me. There are days when all I want to do is be in the mountains, to inhale woods, river, and earth. I can breathe here, great gulps of something wild just at the edge of my view.

Solace: Mountain, Wood, River

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
~Psalm 121:1-2

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied - it speaks in silence to the very core of your being”
~Ansel Adams



“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.”
~George Washington Carver


“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”

~Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne)


13 comments:

raymond pert said...

I love your photographs and I especially love Psalms 121 1-2. What a beautifully chosen scripture. I'm going to poke around in your blog for a while. It looks wonderful.

Granny Smith said...

I can really relate to this. My mountains are the Sierra and Cascade Ranges as well as the Coast Range of California.

Rambler said...

Mountains, nature and the silence in them.. always a lethal combination

GreenishLady said...

What a great post - your choice of photos and quotes is wonderful. Yes, mountains remind me that while all things pass, the essentials stay true, in a way.

Tracee said...

Awesome pictures and quotes!

Karen said...

What a thought-provoking response--and such lovely photos to go along with it--nice!

danni said...

beautiful piece that you posted - the pictures and the text are each perfect compliments to the other!!!

MeowGoddess said...

So true!!! Thank you for sharing me.

Montanas, our elders - yes!! Time to come back to the mountains.

Thank you for your reminder.

Wishing you,
Peace & Love, Just Because,
Goddess Diana

ChefDruck said...

I love the awesome power of the mountains. The picture with the sun poking through is amazing. Thank you for such a beautiful and inspiring post.

anno said...

When I was young and still had the stamina for such things, a friend & I used to leave from Ann Arbor for Tennessee late after work some Friday in April, timing our drive so that we'd arrive in the Smoky Mountains just as the sun was rising with all the redbuds in bloom -- such a glory, more of an awakening than strong coffee. This was a lovely reminder of those times -- gorgeous photographs!

Anonymous said...

I'm so behind...but I did want to get over here anyway, even if late, to say how much I enjoyed the photos, and how true it is all that you shared. Thanks.

Tammie Lee said...

ummmm
so very very true!
lovely images too.
I spend as much time as I can in the mountains, looking, wandering and melting in to it all.

Michelle said...

I love this! It's beautiful - mountains have a way of doing that to a person! :)