wild iris

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
--Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) (563-483 BC) spiritual teacher

original logs

The challenge of history is to recover the past and introduce it to the present.
--David Thelen, author and professor

Acuff Chapel, Blountville, TN, the first Methodist meetinghouse west of the Appalachians (1786).

forever young

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
--Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-born American Physicist

These narrow tracks are for a unique miniature locomotive which gives kids a looped tour of Steele Creek Park in Bristol. The train was a fixture from 1964 until 2001 when the train and the tracks fell into disrepair -- both were restored in 2008, and kids can once again ride the Steele Creek Express. Video here.

neighbors

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.
--Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English novelist

Two trees in the morning glow at Steele Creek Park in Bristol, TN.

gone fishin'

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.
--Doug Larson (b. 1926) Newspaper columnist

Of course, there'd be a shortage of hiking sticks as well.

Sullivan County, TN has been blessed with some amazing parks. Check 'em out!
Steele Creek Park, Bristol
Osceola Island & Weir Dam, Bristol
Bays Mountain Park, Kingsport
Warrior's Path State Park, Kingsport

Milligan Art Show

You're invited to come out to Milligan College this Sunday to see photography major Michael Kaal's Senior Art Exhibit entitled "Arizona Summer". Michael's show features stunning landscapes of his home state of Arizona. For those who've followed this blog for a while, you've already been introduced to Michael here, here and here. If you're in the area on Sunday, stop by and check out Mike's work! (To the right are some photos I've taken of him over the last few years. Click to enlarge).

Where: Gregory Center, Milligan College
When: Sunday, April 25th from 2 to 4 p.m.
Cost: Free to the Public
Click here for directions and campus map.
Check out Mike's Gallery and Blog.

spring joy

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.
--William Blake (1757-1827) English poet and painter

small stuff

There are two rules in life:
Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.
Rule #2: Everything is small stuff.
--Finn Taylor (b.1958) American film writer and director

A moth on a white trillium.

pace yourself

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher

Above: Margarette Falls in Greene County, TN ~ click here for information and directions.

just give me that countryside

When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering, I say to myself 'Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!'
--Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) French painter

A beautiful farm just north of Gray, TN. Click photo to enlarge.

serenity now

There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.
--Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author

Above: A lone fisherman on Watauga Lake.

springtime genius

Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.
--Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic

Above: One of my favorite sights of spring...coils of ferns, waiting to unfurl. Brilliant! :)

resolve

Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.
--Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer

James, one of my former students, came for a visit this past weekend and we took it all in: Sill Branch Falls, Ridgewood BBQ, the Blue Hole, Watauga Dam, Buffalo Mountain and the Beauty Spot. Gotta love northeast Tennessee!

sights and sounds of spring

Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.
--Alfred Billings Street (1811-1881) American author

Above: Sill Branch Falls - click here for directions.

life's torch

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright

mountain talk

Society speaks and all men listen, mountains speak and wise men listen.
--John Muir (1838-1914), Naturalist and Conservationist

A view of the mountains from the aptly named "Beauty Spot" on Unaka Mountain, outside of Erwin, TN.

rejuvenate

Nature rejuvenates so quickly, so completely. Though we often view ourselves otherwise, we are nature.
-Jeb Dickerson

unrelenting

You could cover the whole earth with asphalt, but sooner or later green grass would break through.
--Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) Russian author.

The Green Mile, just west of Buffalo Mountain in Washington Co, TN.

time crumbles things

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.
--Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher

The above photo is of Millstone Creek Falls in rural Washington County, TN. Click here for more information, links and directions.

Under the Leaves

Oft have I walked these woodland paths,
Without the blessed foreknowing
That underneath the withered leaves
The fairest buds were growing.

To-day the south-wind sweeps away
The types of autumn's splendor,
And shows the sweet arbutus flowers, -
Spring's children, pure and tender.

O prophet-flowers! - with lips of bloom,
Outvying in your beauty
The pearly tints of ocean shells, -
Ye teach me faith and duty!

Walk life's dark ways, ye seem to say,
With love's divine foreknowing
That where man sees but withered leaves,
God sees sweet flowers growing.
--Albert Laighton (1829-1887)

Happy Easter!

Stay a while.

Let your heart be broken by the unspeakable bad of this Friday we call good. Stay a while in the eclipse of the light, stay a while with the conquered One. This is the axis mundi, the center upon which the cosmos turns. In this killing that some call senseless we are brought to our senses. Here we find out who we most truly are, because here is the One who is what we are called to be. Stay a while. Do not hurry by the cross on the way to Easter joy, for we know the risen Lord only through Christ and him crucified.
--Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Catholic priest and author.

Today's quote is taken from excerpts from Neuhaus' excellent book, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross. Neuhaus was the editor-in-chief of the monthly journal, "First Things."