• clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises

    The New Story

    July 13, 2022

    “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 Berry

    I 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!

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  reflections,  sunrises

    Predawn Reflections

    July 7, 2022

    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.

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  • Avian,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes

    Happy to see me…

    July 5, 2022

    The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    Magpies do not sing as a robin or meadowlark, they chatter. Constantly. As soon as I arrive they will land on the fence in front of me while still in my car and jabber away, and sometimes making good eye contact. I’m going with the assumption they are happy to see me. Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    Morning Kayaking

    June 30, 2022

    If you haven’t notice I spend many of my early mornings at Pineridge Natural Area which implies I post a lot of images from this area. I took this image in mid June. I am sure the kayaker is enjoying their morning on Dixon Reservoir. The color is interesting to me. I took several images and they all have this almost dirty gold look. We have no fires burning, thank goodness, so I’m assuming it is a smog/haze mix.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  Mary Oliver,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  poems,  poetry,  sunrises

    It’s about…

    June 27, 2022

    The Journey
    One day you finally knew
    what you had to do, and began,
    though the voices around you
    kept shouting
    their bad advice –
    though the whole house
    began to tremble
    and you felt the old tug
    at your ankles.
    “Mend my life!”
    each voice cried.
    But you didn’t stop.
    You knew what you had to do,
    though the wind pried
    with its stiff fingers
    at the very foundations,
    though their melancholy
    was terrible.
    It was already late
    enough, and a wild night,
    and the road full of fallen
    branches and stones.
    But little by little,
    as you left their voices behind,
    the stars began to burn
    through the sheets of clouds,
    and there was a new voice
    which you slowly
    recognized as your own,
    that kept you company
    as you strode deeper and deeper
    into the world,
    determined to do
    the only thing you could do –
    determined to save
    the only life you could save.

    Mary Oliver, from Dream Work

    I usually read one or two of Mary Oliver’s poems when I go to bed. This poem called The Journey, kept me awake the other night so maybe I need to rethink that routine. Anyway, the poem rocked me because it’s asking questions that I’m still asking myself at 72 years of age. It’s about transformation of an inner journey. So, it is asking if I’m willing to take all the risks involved, if I dare listen to the voice within, to face a death of some kind, to let go to something I’ve outgrown and the birth of a new self. It’s about learning to trust myself, about leaving the bad advice and demands of other people behind and even the voice of my own insecure egoic self, and to follow my own instincts, my own path in life. What does it say to you?

    Today is my 72 birthday. I will most likely spend some time with my feathered friends at one of the natural areas, have a mocha or chai, get in some reading and journaling time. Basically, I’ll continue to spoil myself, even at this age.

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