One of my favorite memories of time spent together is from that unforgettable--at least for me--Sevey family reunion up in the Uintas when I had my "little adventure." (but that's another story)...and now, whenever I happen to be outside on a clear night, I stop, look up, and remember star gazing...and marveling at life, with Jon.
One evening, Jon and I found ourselves walking together back to the cabin. It was too beautiful a night to go back indoors just yet, so we took some folding chairs outside, and placed them where there was a wide gap in the canopy of pines, revealing a sky filled with stars. We both slumped down into the chairs so we could lean our heads back comfortably and gaze at the sky. As our eyes adjusted to the night, we marveled at the dazzling scene above us...and we talked, and laughed, and marveled at the stars, and laughed and talked, and marveled at the universe and people and, well...all the marvelous little things that came to mind. Jon and I always had lots to talk about.
One of Jon's best qualities, in my estimation, was the way he noticed--and treasured--the precious beauties and little (let alone big) wonders of this earth, life and people. It's why talking with him at times like that was always fun--and so often enlightening. And it's why, now, my heart leaps into my throat and I must focus my camera through tears whenever I behold a marvelous sky...as when I took this photograph from the top of our little hill a few days before Thanksgiving.
If you click on the photo, a larger version will open in a separate window
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."
Gerard Manley Hopkins
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