“Creation is not an act but a process.”
Terry Tempest Williams, Erosion
Happy Sunday
-
-
Sloth
Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaFor years I lived in sloth, almost a depressive place. A turn around took place about 20 years ago. I now can find the motivation to crawl out of bed before sunrise to drive out and greet today’s sunrise. If I put it off then I cannot expect an image of yesterday’s sunrise today. Can’t say I have the same motivation about cleaning the bathroom but its improved.
-
…without words.
I posted yesterday about having conversations with nature and then had a short but very important conversation with this rattlesnake on the trail at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area last evening. They initiated the conversation when they started to shake that rattle while I was about four feet away. Thus began our conversation. As soon as I heard them rattle I immediately stopped in my tracks. Without any words I knew exactly what they were saying to me, “That’s close enough! I’m coiled and ready.” I answered them by saying loudly something like, “Holy Crap!!”, then stepped back. I frantically looked for them. Once discovered, I moved off the trail and let them have it. After all, they were there first. I then asked if I could take a photo or two. I understood that rattle perfectly, without words.
-
The New Story
“We are between stories. The old story is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned ‘the new story.’ We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation. By breaking that conversation we have shattered the universe.”
Thomas BerryI talk to birds. I also listen to birds. The above quote made me think about my old story which said I could only talk at birds and they could only talk at me. Having a conversation was impossible. I’m realizing how that story is evolving for me. Although birds and I do not speak one anothers language, I wonder, is there a conversation going on?
Conversation happens between humans without words. Many will attest to having conversations with their pets. So, can there be a conversation with all of creation, without words? When making eye contact with the cottontail, is that a form of conversation? Can there be a conversation going on between the wind and trees as they dance together. Is the sweet scent of honeysuckle a form of conversation with all who will pay attention? And, could it be that just paying attention and observing creation is a form of conversation? I do not have a solid answer to those questions but at this stage of my life, I am experiencing conversations with creation at new levels, a conversation that goes deeper than human words. Maybe, this is the new story!
-
Indigenous
Cumulus clouds in the distance “… becoming Indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding SweetgrassI have places inside and outside of the city that are sacred to me. I do not have civil ownership to them but I visit them because this is where I find quiet, solitude and regeneration. I cannot think of one place I visit where the hand of man has not trashed it in some way with beer cans, whiskey bottles, old tires, mattresses, chairs, cigarette butts, etc. It is a sign of how little we know about caring for our world, and those we share this land with or ourselves. I believe the care for the land must start with me.
-
What if we….
accept the gift of each new day,
ms
letting go of hatred and fears,
intrusive thoughts and entitlement
that separate and divide
then maybe we would….
awaken to the beauty of creation
recalling mother earth loves,
embraces, nurtures all of us
……why can’t we also? -
Predawn Reflections
About a half hour after taking this predawn image a car arrived in the parking area with four young kids in it. Two of them got out and walked towards the lower parking area and stopped to chat with me. The young man, named Tyler, commented on the nice camera I had then asked what camera I would recommend. I told him to use his phone.
There was a meadowlark perched on a bush near us, singing away. While, along the water’s edge was a Great Blue Heron getting in some early morning fishing. When I pointed these two birds out to them the young man told me I reminded him of his grandpa. Now, was that because his grandpa is a bird watcher or because I look old enough to be his grandpa? This is a trick question.
