Yosemite Falls, California - “Be Not Conformed to this World”

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 12:2

Yosemite Falls - Rivers of Living Water

 

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as scriptures has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

John 7:37-38

Olmsted Point Yosemite

 

God doesn’t look at things like humans do.  Humans see only what is visible to the eyes; but the Lord sees into the heart .

1 Samuel 16:7 CEB

Yosemite - “ I am the Door”

 I am the Door.

If anyone enters by me,

He will be saved.

And will go in and out

And find pasture.

John 10:9

For He Shall Give His angels Charge Over You...

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.

In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,

The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

Psalms 91:9-13

Secret Place of the Most High

 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

Psalms 91:1

Deep Rivers and Trackless Forests

"Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad, deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine - no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.”

 
― Washington Irving, The Sketch Book    

Song of the Open Road

 

Song of the Open Road

by Walt Whitman


A FOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

The earth—that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are;
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return)

Yosemite Thru a Photographer's Eye

 

Bridalveil Fall

  

Bridalveil Fall is located in Yosemite National Park.  Ansel Adams is my favorite nature photographer.  He took a picture of Bridalveil Fall in 1927 when there was no drought that California has been experiencing in the last few years and no tourist.  Now days, water levels are low and many rivers and lakes are dried.  Here is a link to his gallery http://anseladams.com

Tenaya Lake

The Lake

In spring of youth it was my lot
       To haunt of the wide world a spot
       The which I could not love the less-
       So lovely was the loneliness
       Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
       And the tall pines that towered around.

       But when the Night had thrown her pall
       Upon that spot, as upon all,
       And the mystic wind went by
       Murmuring in melody-
       Then- ah then I would awake
       To the terror of the lone lake.

       Yet that terror was not fright,
       But a tremulous delight-
       A feeling not the jewelled mine
       Could teach or bribe me to define-
       Nor Love- although the Love were thine.

       Death was in that poisonous wave,
       And in its gulf a fitting grave
       For him who thence could solace bring
       To his lone imagining-
       Whose solitary soul could make
       An Eden of that dim lake.

By Edgar Allen Poe

"My Soul Is In the Sky"

 

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike. "
       

John Muir - The Yosemite (1912), page 256.

The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls

 

The Splendor Falls

Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1809 - 1892

The splendor falls on castle walls
    And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
    And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
    And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
    The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
Blow, bugles; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,
    They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
    And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.