"Thoughts on Nature as experienced in wartime..."

Take a look at what I found this morning on my first day back at blogging--something Chris Highland wrote here:

"Particularly drawn to her thoughts on Nature as experienced in wartime, I was immediately impressed by her description of a friend, Jackie, who was, not surprisingly in the context of WWII, anxious and fearful. Jackie grew calm looking at “the things of nature” according to Anne. With the wind in the trees and the gathering of mountainous storm-clouds, she discovers within herself a happiness “that no one can take away.” Anne concludes this simple sketch of her troubled friend with her own wisdom gained in hiding: “Anyone who looks at nature, which is the same as looking into oneself, long and deeply enough, will, like Jackie, be cured of all despair.” This could not have been written better by John Muir or Henry Thoreau."(am's italics)

It's been a good blog break. Was able to put this slide show retrospective together, able to do the first drawings I've done in a long time, able to take a few more walks, and spend time with old friends and relatives near and far (email and otherwise!)

It was an old friend who now lives in Santa Margarita, California, who gave me a copy of Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple, by Chris Highland, first published in July 2001. Reading the beginning of that book again this morning and finding Chris Highland's blogs were the inspiration for this post today. I've got that book on the table where I blog and paint.

Beginning this evening, will be reading my favorite blogs and doing my blogging in the evening after I finish work. Mornings are the best time for drawing and walking and yoga before starting work at noon. The morning is passing quickly. It's difficult to get up from my laptop once I sit down here.

This is my 1000th (or 1001st--I'm not sure now) post since December 8, 2006.

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
(Thomas Merton)