Becky Spiker's photostream  

“To make myself understood and diminish the distance between us, I called out: 'I am an evening cloud too.' They stopped still, evidently taking a good look at me. Then they stretched towards me their fine, transparent, rosy wings. That is how evening clouds greet each other. They had recognized me.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Rocky Peak in Olympic National Park's Heart of the Hills. (aka... the road to Hurricane Ridge)

Here's wishing all a bright new year full of inspiration and beauty.

From a recent local Pow-wow.

The blast zone of Mount St. Helens. Millions of wildflowers now dance in the place where a dense forest once stood.

I found it humbling to consider the lifetime of this once-massive tree; how it grew tall and strong for hundreds of years while "Louwala-Clough" (smoking mountain), some 5-miles away, belched and rumbled in her slumber; how season after season the tree's branches gently swayed in the breeze and provided shelter for countless animals; how, on May 18th, 1980, it stood witness to the beginning of yet another beautiful spring day. Then, at 8:32 a.m., just as the sun was beginning to warm the forest, the mountain violently awoke. The explosion sent a torrent of 660° F pumice and ash racing northward at a speed of 300 miles per hour. The extreme heat and sheer velocity destroyed all life in a 230-square mile area; in an instant it had toppled entire forests, snapping huge trees as if they were mere twigs. Within ten minutes, a plume of ash had reached 10 miles high above the mountain. This eruption lasted nine hours.

I was living in Portland, Oregon at the time, and the events of that day deeply affected me; I'd avoided visiting this area in all the years since. Now, in seeing first-hand how life is returning, I'm so thankful that I finally made the trip. This area is testament that even in the wake of such utter destruction, Nature has a grand way of healing herself. In witnessing it, she also heals me.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's so amazing and truly inspirational to see all the incredible color emerging in this area that experienced such devastation by the blast of Mount St. Helens 31 years ago. Laughing she is!