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details and vistas

I spent yesterday hiking with a wonderful friend in the mountains near Rollins Pass where we were rewarded with an overflow of beauty and a wellspring of green.
When in nature I am amazed by the juxtaposition of wide vistas and intricate details.  Sometimes, when alone, I stand and stare with a dimwitted half smile, too overcome by the layers of beauty to speak or move or even breathe.  Fortunately, in the company of others I manage to converse and trek along, pausing occasionally to inhale the life all around me.
 It astonishes me that there can be so much beauty in every layer of life.
And when my heart expands, I realize that no matter how habitually I affirm my separateness from the life all around me, I am not.
 Each of us shines with the same life and beauty present in flower and vista.
And no matter how busy our thinking mind is with its continual intent to judge and improve, compare and seek, we already are the full measure of beauty we are seeking.
 If only we had eyes to see it...
 and the perspective to let it be as it is.
 I LOVE summers in Colorado!!!

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