Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar and sage, closed this week’s daily meditations with this contemplation:

I interpret this as “return to the source.” The source is ecumenical, open and affirming. It is brilliant light, as the visual cliche goes, and humming warmth. It is immortality. How can we not desire to return to the source? Not now, of course. A full, life well-lived provides unlimited opportunities to see manifestations of the source: a coincidence, a moment of peace, deja vu, awareness of a narrowly averted tragedy. There are so many, little pinpricks in our consciousness of something more.

One way I return to the source is I go to nature. It’s hard not to be humbled by mountains. I most frequently visit the Appalachians, the world’s second oldest mountain range. (The Himalayas are the oldest.)

Here’s a mix of the Wyoming Teton Range and Virginia Appalachians. If you look closely, you may see a few pinpricks.

A glacial lake in the Teton Mountain Range, Wyoming

Grand Teton Mountain Range, Wyoming

Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, VA

Mount Rogers Recreation Area, VA

McLean, William and me – Mount Rogers Recreational Area, Virginia