This small cottontail shows us how something may be present but not be obvious. We have to look with a different set of eyes to see beyond the ordinary in nature and also in our lives.
Beyond the Ordinary
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Predawn Pinks
Predawn pinks this morning Praying
Mary Oliver, from her book Thirst
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. -
I believe he’s right
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people, but it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”
David OrrAt the very core of who I am I believe he’s right. I was talking with a friend who teaches at our local college. Our discussion was along this line. He does want his students to be able to think and reason with ethical and moral values when they finish his class rather than successfully pass the test from memorization.
Side note: I began having body aches, headache, chills and runny nose Friday morning. Tested at Uchealth in the afternoon. Woke Saturday feeling good but fuzzy thinking. Test results were: not detected. Feeling good today.
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Love many things
Prairie Dogs at Pineridge Natural Area But I think the best way to know God is to love many things.
Vincent Van Gogh -
All a Truth
Sunrise at Pineridge Natural Area “What if everything you have been taught is all a lie and everything you feel is all a truth?”
Nikki RoweThere was a time in my youth when the things I was taught did not seem to fit with my feelings. That feeling came from somewhere within, a place I was not that familiar with, yet. Later I came to know it as intuition, a gut feeling, voice of my authentic self, the ground of my very being or whatever we choose to call it. I am now aware that when I was younger I was not taught the whole truth in school and church while expected to believe what I was taught. A controlling society does that whether it be a parent, a church, a government or an educational system.
I’m learning the importance of listening and trusting my intuition. There needs to be a connection between what I think, what I’m told to be truth and what my intuition tells me. With so much access to information it is vital for me to listen to the voice within. Connecting these together has given me much better results in knowing my truth, making decisions while not living to someone else’s truth.
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Happy Sunday
“Creation is not an act but a process.”
Terry Tempest Williams, Erosion -
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!
