Monthly Archives: August 2013

The Atheist and little girl

Posted on August 8, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

This is a great story. Recently, a priest in his sermon said the next time someone says they do not believe in God to pose the following: “Describe this God you do not believe in.” He said once the description is complete it is likely we can say: “That is not the God I believe in either.” I find it difficult to describe God, because God is not within my realm of understanding or explanation. It does not mean God does not exist. It just means I am not very expert in some things.

Bright, shiny objects!

An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, “What would you want to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.

“Okay,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?”

The atheist, visibly surprised by the…

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Glacier Park Mountains, Glaciers, and Logan’s Pass

Posted on August 8, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy took most of these pictures driving through Logan’s Pass. Glacier National Park is appropriately named. Most of the white spots in the pictures are glaciers or snow pack. There are about 37 glaciers left in the park and most of them are receding or shrinking in size.

We came through the park a later in the summer, but there we saw some of the wildflowers in bloom on the way up Looking Glass Hill overlooking Two Medicine Lake. The mountains and lake serve as a spectacular backdrop. We walked around the lake later.

This is looking downstream from Running Eagle Falls or Trick Falls. The glacier on the mountain would likely be considered one of the 25 active glaciers in the park. An active glacier is one that is 25 acres or more. Over 90% of the park is wilderness.

This is Jackson Glacier. Although it does not look very high, it is deceptive. The roads climb well up into the pass and travelers end up closer to the mountain tops.

This is the tourist stop in Logan’s Pass with the mountains in the background. Parking is at a premium here so we did not get to stop.

Most of the pictures we took going through the pass were from the car without stopping. Again, the peaks are not much above the road level.

Waterfalls ribbon the mountainsides as they are constantly fed by the glaciers.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see about 3/4 of the way up the road on the left side. It is a slight darkening. The middle of the picture, below the background peak, is basically where the road reaches the summit of Logan’s Pass .

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Reverence for Life

Posted on August 7, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

One of the beautiful aspects of visiting mountain parks is I feel the energetic vibrations both positive and negative. The positive ones are the beauty and majesty of the world and Kathy driving. The negative is when I struggle with my fear of heights. Those energies are all part of me.

Wildflower Women

The good news is that the future is yours to form, and you are responsible for yourself and how you feel in relationship with others and the world. We are called to be our best selves and to define our existence by being mindful. The journey is one toward light, toward grace. There are many paths on this journey, but the signs are all the same – peace, passion, love and above all a reverence for life.

There are energetic vibrations that permeate all of life, positive and negative. Our thoughts create these energetic vibrations and often times we are not even aware that we are sending out negative vibrations into the world. It is important to establish an intention with our thoughts to send out positive energy. With positive energy we benefit not only ourselves, but also the world. We can do this simply by giving thanks for a…

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Little Flower, You Ring My Bell

Posted on August 6, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

This is an image of patience which finds the small within the larger context and backdrop.

Becoming is Superior to Being

Aspen Loop July 2013 “Little Flower, You Ring My Bell” — Image by kenne

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Glacier Waterfalls

Posted on August 5, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I am fascinated by waterfalls. It could be they offer paradox in their fury and the stillness found in their sources or in the pools that lay at the base of the falls. Glacier National Park offered opportunities to see waterfalls up close and from a distance

We saw this one from the car as we drove through Logan’s Pass. We saw several waterfalls that fell either right on the highway or right beside it. Literally, we shot pictures from the car as we drove. Parking is at a premium throughout the pass.

I want to give perspective on driving through the pass. This is common with even more pronounced switchbacks in places. I can look out of the car window when there is vegetation along the side of the road, but my fear of heights is paralyzing. I don’t drive these roads. Kathy was a mountain goat in an earlier life and is far more comfortable with this driving.

We walked in to Running Eagle Falls or Trick Falls. Earlier in the summer and spring, there are two waterfalls caused by spring run off from the snow melt. I copied a picture, which shows the second waterfall above the one in our picture. The link I used rated these falls among the top in the Pacific Northwest.

We hiked into Avalanche Lake. We took pictures from both ends of the lake. The first picture shows a series of waterfalls coming down from the mountain side. The snow on the mountains is actually in the form of glaciers.

We hiked around the lake and were able to take a few more pictures. Another hiker told us he tried to get closer, but once he was a few feet into the trees he said it was impassable. You can see in this picture that it does not look far but the underbrush is heavy. The link to Avalanche Lake has some pictures taken by someone who was able to get closer to the base of at least one of the waterfalls. As we got closer, the waterfalls look quite different with more ribbons appearing.

We were furthest from this waterfall, but the ribbons were clearer as we got closer.

I took two pictures in Logan’s Pass. This was one. Once we got to the top of the pass, it was less open and I was able to manage a camera shot. It was right beside the highway. I rolled the window down, as there was no parking and took this picture.

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A Quotation About Your Sacred Space From Joseph Campbell

Posted on August 5, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Joseph Campbell has short and meaningful quotes to help me understand my life. I find myself back in the places I enjoy the most as if a magnet were pulling me back there.

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Glacier Wildlife

Posted on August 3, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy and I went through Glacier National Park in Montana on our way home. Kathy traveled the route on her way to Spokane. Americans seem to build mountain national parks around the geography which means we saw little wildlife, but we did see some we don’t in Canadian mountain parks. This was clear on the Going to the Sun Road where we saw mountain goats. When we travel through Canadian mountain parks, we see mountain sheep which come down into the valleys during the summer. Goats stay high up where it is cooler. Unless a person hikes the back country, Waterton Lakes National Park, which borders on Glacier, does not have the goats for people to see easily.

This one was on the patch of glacier on the side of the road where it was able to stay cool.

This one posed. You can see they are somewhat comfortable with humans being around, but I still think of them as wildlife. It almost looked a statue.

As we hiked, I came around a corner and this spring’s fawn was separated from its mother and twin. I don’t know who was more surprised: him/her or me. Initially, we were 4 or 5 feet apart. Kathy had her camera and got great pictures. The background is part of an amphitheater and the deer were grazing around it.

The doe and another fawn were across the amphitheater, but I had inadvertently blocked the path for the first fawn to rejoin them. They made a kind of whistling sound to each other and the doe never appeared overly concerned. She actually grazed on the trees and waited patiently.

The separated fawn took off along a path that was across the clearing.

The fawn re-appeared across the amphitheater and they went off. It seemed like it was all in day’s work for them.

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Let’s fill our Soul…

Posted on August 3, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

This is a beautiful sentiment at any time.

PROPEL STEPS

Let’s be ready

Keep our soul filled
-With Love
-With Compassion
-With Strength
-With Rejoice

Let’s be ready
Always be ready

Because
We do not know
When our soul’s door be knocked?
For
One Act of Kindness

Lets make a difference from within.
Let’s be ready

– Words by Din

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The Seven of Pentacles

Posted on August 3, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Marge Piercy wrote of the time it takes to create what is good in life. In a fast-paced, hectic world, it is nice to view life as an ecosystem. Good things in life, those things I cherish, were nurtured and took time to appear. They depend upon many things to grow.

In the rich ecosystem, there is mystery and wonder. I ask, “What happened” and expect no definitive answers. I grow to accept it is good and healthy there are no answers and questions lead me forward, slowly and gently into the newness of each moment.

I took the picture at the farm earlier this spring. The tree in the centre is a woodpecker’s roost and, when I look, I see holes in the tree. A trail wanders through the underbrush. I ask who or what else uses the path? Who or what else lives close by? What are the connections? The lifeless tree sustains the ecosystem. Everything is important. I only have to let it be so. When I slow down, questions emerge and sometimes answers, but only occasionally.

Under a sky the color of pea soup

she is looking at her work growing away there

actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans

as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.

If you tend to them properly, if you mulch, if you water,

if you provide birds that eat the insects a home and winter food,

if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,

if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and bees,

then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly. sometimes they grow underground.

You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.

More than a half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.

Penetrate quietly as the earthworms that blows no trumpet.

Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.

Spread like squash plant that overruns the garden.

Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.

Live a life you can endure: make love that is loving.

Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,

a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us

interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:

reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.

This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,

for every gardener knows that after the digging, after

the planting,

after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

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Heaven and earth

Posted on August 2, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

We only need to be present to witness the extraordinary in the ordinary. This beautiful poem is a reminder of the need for presence in the world so we can be closer to heaven.

Rosalie Squires

In special places,
So they say,
The veil,
Is very thin
That separates
Our world
From heaven.
Maybe so,
I cannot say,
But this is
What I see:
That veil
Is like a cloudy sky
Ever shifting
Over me.
Sometimes
A gap
The sun
Breaks through.
Then heaven
Is very close
To me.