Nature as a Reflection of the Divine

All finite things reveal infinitude:
The mountain with its singular bright shade
Like the blue shine on freshly frozen snow,
The after-light upon ice-burdened pines;
Odor of basswood upon a mountain slope,
A scene beloved of bees;
Silence of water above a sunken tree:
The pure serene of memory of one man,--
A ripple widening from a single stone
Winding around the waters of the world.
- Theodore Roethke

Life, Love, Compassion, Wisdom, Imagination and Creativity flow from the limitless and timeless wellspring of the Universe. All of us are the channels, the clear glass, the recipients of the life force of God and the Universe – one and the same. We are the connection and the reflection.

We feel the heart of the Creative Spirit of God most tangibly in nature. All the lessons we need learn are there if we know how to be still and watch the mysteries unfold. The lessons can sometimes be brutal as reflected in natural disasters and destruction and what we perceive as the cruelty of nature. All of the cycles and patterns of birth and death fill every second of every day. We must stop the buzzing in our brains and look around us at the real world - the natural world - as it reflects the spiritual world. It is the purest mirror, the clearest sight into ourselves and into our lessons from the Divine. It is the world where we must first empty ourselves before we can be filled again with wonder. We must be silent in order to hear.

All life flows from and back to the same source - the source of the light and love of God. All of us are connected to this power. The more we share it, the more it comes back to us. It is a simple truth, bared of all but the essence of the Divine.

Homer and I find peace, awe and companionship in the wild. I hope that the creative spirit of the universe is reflected, if only a little, in our photographs and on this web site.

We hope that you carry with you the realization of joy in the everyday sights and sounds that surround us. Stop, be still and watch. Creation is there waiting.

Tibby Dozier Steedly

I go now to the wilderness to be a part of it; to accept my place
in the world and its place in me; to grow into reality as a tree grows
into the rain, to conform to the Earth as a stream conforms
to the stones of its bed. To live. To aspire. To be.

William Ashworth

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 away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

John Muir

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