The two days I spent camped in solitude this past weekend on Skinny Fish Lake really helped reinvigorate my meditation practice. The spaciousness of the lake spreading out directly in front of my camp became like a STAGE upon which various waterfowl, jumping fish, rippling breezes, and mountain reflections - like the sunset alpenglow pictured here on Saturday night - were able to appear and then dissipate. This process offered a direct mirror of my mind during meditation, when the spaciousness of awareness provides an INNER stage upon which all of the various thoughts, perceptions and emotions are able to appear like echoes out of nowhere and then dissipate once more. Just as it is incredibly fascinating to marvel at the number of different creatures that might appear upon the lake-surface, so meditation enables us to stand in awe and wonder at the great variety of thoughts that arise, not knowing precisely WHAT thought or perception will decide to appear next! Photo: Alpenglow on Skinny Fish Lake, Flattops Wilderness, CO, June 18, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Yesterday as I summited a ridge, I could hardly believe what I saw in the distance - a new forest fire! It is burning in Colorado about three miles south of the Wyoming border, and the high winds we are experiencing in the high country have caused the fire to explode in size. When I got down into internet range yesterday evening, I saw that the fire (the Beaver Creek Fire) was at about 850 acres in size. When I researched it just now, I saw that it had grown to 3800 acres! I am somewhat concerned, because it is burning just north of one of my favorite backpacking destinations in the Park Range - the Seven Lakes area. However, that region is FULL of beetle-killed Lodgepole Pine and Engelmann Spruce trees. Subalpine Fir is just about the only species that is thriving. What amazes me is the fact that we went from having a surplus of snow in the mountains (where the fire is burning, it was 140% of the normal snowpack) to now having HIGH fire danger on account of the high temps (it was 96 degrees in Fort Collins yesterday - a record for June 21st) - and fires like this! www.denverpost.com/2016/06/21/wildfire-walden-grows-to-500-acres/ "Earth and heaven are the same, one and inseparable." John Muir Photo: Glacier Lilies, Flattops Wilderness, CO, June 19, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "[Here is] one of the plant saints that all must love and be made so much the purer by it every time it is seen. It puts the roughest mountaineer on his good behavior. With this plant the whole world would seem rich though none other existed. It is not easy to keep on [moving] with the camp cloud [of sheep] while such plant people are standing preaching by the wayside." John Muir Photo: Marsh-marigolds growing of the shore of Lake McGinnis, Flattops Wilderness, CO, June 18, 2016. This quote was written when Muir worked in his early years in California as a sheep herder. For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "Upon suffering beyond suffering, the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things, and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at the center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one." Chief Crazy Horse Tasunke Witko Oglala Lakota c. 1840-1877 Several weeks ago, a client sent me a beaded Lakota belt bag as a gift! I brought it on my backpacking trip last weekend, and found it both inspiring and useful. A loop on the back of the bag attaches to my belt. Then I fill it with things to which I need ready access. Here, I have a topographic map (which gets folded once more before being placed in the bag), a packet of mosquito repellant wipes, my Swiss army knife (which has many functions, but which I use especially for snipping extraneous greenery in closeup plant photography), and a tube of sunscreen. To me, the design brings a centered feel, and the intense blue of the background reminds me to maintain a spacious, meditative mindset. There appear to be four lightning streaks beaded into the bag as well, which call me to stay with the energizing force of my soul-passion. The fringe, on the other hand, reminds me of the vivaceous energy of the sacred feminine and calls me to embody feminine flow in my own life. What a gift this bag is! Photo: Lakota belt bag and Trapper's Peak at Trapper's Lake, Flattops Wilderness, CO, June 19, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ #lakota #crazyhorse #nativeamericanwisdom #stephenhatch#wildernessmysticism #contemplative life #unrulymystic |
AuthorStephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based. Archives
June 2016
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