The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.

~ Hans Christian Andersen

Green Jay atop Javelina, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Texas 2007

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

~ Helen Keller

American Coot in Duckweed, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona 2012

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.

~ John Wayne

Rider on the Arizona Trail, Superior, Arizona 2005

There are some things in my life that I do not understand, but I trust they are doing me some good.

~ Chris Larson

Giant Shuttlecock by Claes Oldenburg, Kansas City, Missouri 2010

The key is to keep company only with people who lift you up, whose presence calls forth your best.

~ Epictetus

Prairie Dogs, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota 2010

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

~ Aesop

Roseate Skimmer, Male, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona 2012

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

~ Andre Gide

Prairie Dog, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado 2010

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

~ Henry David Thoreau

River Tower, St. Louis, Missouri 2009

The earth laughs in flowers.

~ R.W. Emerson

Rhododendron, Lincoln City, Oregon May 2018

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? 

~ Mary Oliver

Acorn Woodpecker, Madera Canyon, Arizona 2009