My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
I have been glancing at Google news and NPR news for the past month thinking I would stay better informed. I made sure not click on any of the links or read articles, I only read the headlines. But that wisdom showed me that some of my best thinking is not always my best thinking. In no time at all I found myself both angry and weeping for the world. So today as I journaled on my porch I wondered when was the last time we saw headlines with news of hope, love, compassion, tolerance, peace, forgiveness, acceptance, and stories of people who are making a positive difference in the world? Maybe that voice must come from each of us. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
This afternoon I needed time away from the city, again, so I drove out to the eastern plains for a bit of physical silence and solitude. I spent several hours out there, actually. My last stop was this old cottonwood. I look up to this Old Soul who has stood guard over this field and the horizon for many years now. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you have seen several images of this Elder, as I check on them often. What made me stop and take this image was some journaling I did an hour earlier. I am aware of the challenge it is to capture images without the sign of man involved. The Old Soul or Romantic in me has often wondered how I would experience this land with its silence, its solitude and the vastness of it 200-300 years ago. So today I listed a few things in my journal that would not have been here then. There would be no roads, no vehicles, no air pollution, no oil well pumps, no fences, no bar ditches where someone has dumped an old couch, no jets overhead and their contrails, no plowed fields, no irrigation systems, no power lines, no cell towers, no wind turbines, no fields of solar panels, no housing developments, no warehouses full of stuff, no dairy farms, no buried gas lines, no water towers, no farms, and the list could go on. And, one more thing that would be missing would be the sound pollution coming from man’s machinery. I guess what I really was aware of today was how invasive man has been in nature, wondering how many people seem unaware, and may even believe it has always been this way. The sun has set and darkness moves in. It is time for me to publish this, fill my bowl with popcorn and read for awhile. May you stay safe and warm and enjoy your weekend.
One of the routes I ride to coffee takes me across campus. But before I move on I want to give you some idea about the campus. The CSU campus (urban forest as they call it) has approximately 9,000 trees distributed over three campuses, comprising 1,886 acres of land. The majority of CSU’s managed urban forest (7,207 trees) is located on the Main Campus within 191 acres of irrigated landscape. This 191 acres, where I ride to the coffee shop, provides a beautiful canvas for those 7,207 trees on campus to put on their fall season show of colors. I consider it a gift to watch these leaves of colors flutter and drift to the ground, swirling and dancing with the wind and forming small communities (piles) of leaves. A community here and one over there. Though these leaves are no longer connected to their branches they are still connected by these small communities (piles) of leaves, happily dancing and singing with the wind. I sometimes wonder where they will be tomorrow or even later today? But this fall show is shortened and the end of the next stage of life for these leaves is altered as the groundskeepers quickly move in to remove the leaves, and I understand the reasoning. We also do it with our parks and lawns. But being the sentimental person I am, I personally like to see the leaves being blown all over the campus into small communities of leaves, living out the rest of their lives in decomposition, rather than seeing the ugly bare asphalt, concrete or the manicured green grass. It’s almost like the leaves have become refugees and are being sent to the landfill. I’ve ranted about this before and probably will again. We had a wonderful fall day here in Colorado and hope you did as well.
When we know ourselves to be connected to all others, acting compassionately is simply the natural thing to do.
Rachel Naomi Remen
Yesterday evening I headed to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area to journal, watch the eerie look to the sky, Maybe find a photo and breathe in the smoke. All tasks were accomplished. And the air quality this morning was very poor due to the smoke and fossil fuel pollutants, red zone in fact. Warnings were out for those with breathing issues. The warnings have come down some but still warning us that it is unhealthy for sensitive groups. If my memory serves me, we did not experience this type of air quality when I was younger.
No people went through an environment faster, and more destructively and wastefully, than Americans have gone through North America.
Donald Worster
I again took the long-cut home from coffee shop, making a loop around Spring Creek Park. Round trip is about 11.5 miles. The bicycle trail runs through Rolland Moore Park where people can picnic, toss frisbees, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts. I loved the clouds this morning and stopped to take a quick snapshot. This looks out over a field of grass and wetland. Behind these trees is the park and some apartment buildings. Behind me are houses that go west for about two miles. Also behind me was a guy on a four-wheeler spraying for weeds. The smell was repulsive! It seems wthin cities we find very little natural environments.
If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.
Pema Chodron
I have come to see that my old thinking served me for a short period of my life. However, there came a time when I needed to unlearn, to let go of old ways of thinking, let go of how I perceived life, and let go of what I was taught, so that I could have a new basis for living. As long as I stay teachable, I will find keys to opening new locks of my heart, soul and thinking. And Pema is right, those who don’t unlearn can be my best teachers.
I took this image on my ride through the CSU Oval for coffee this morning. I have noticed this scene before but this is the first time I stopped to accept the photo. I did enjoy the BBQ yesterday, ate too much, loved time with family and so very grateful for my grandson-in-law’s safe return from his deployment in the Middle East.
Find contentment within. Be aware of how you affect your surroundings. Allow freedom to flourish around you. Do not impose or dominate.
This is what it means to be sustainable.
Tao Te Ching
I am processing my feelings about this country’s actions taken yesterday. Finding many unanswerable questions running through my mind. How much escalation of hatred have we against Americans? How many more casualties of war have we just brought on? Anyway, there seems to be an extreme attachment to power, control, hatred, and inflated egos. We have proven for centuries that violence against someone (a country or nation) will not cause them to succumb to our will but only harden hearts. I’ve said enough. Still processing and thanks for listening to my ramblings! It has been another hot day here.
This beautiful field of sunflowers is now a high school with a huge parking lot, three baseball fields, a half dozen tennis courts, and a massive football stadium. And, directly behind me is over a mile of houses (Starting in the low $400s the signs say). Along with the houses comes buried sewer lines, water lines, gas lines, electrical lines, paved streets, concrete sidewalks, all required infrastructure needing years of constant maintenance against nature’s attempt to reclaim it’s world. And there’s a quick stop place for our gas guzzling cars and to purchase unhealthy foods. For such a large area it would be almost impossible to actually touch the earth as most of it is covered with concrete and asphalt.. The farmer that previously owned this field would alternate the sunflowers with onions yearly. Personally, I preferred the sunflowers over the onions but I will take the onions over what is now there. Saturday morning on my way to meet Eric for coffee I realized how much I miss those sunflowers, even the onions.
“One thing I have felt confident about for a good portion of my life is that it is mainly on the surface that we are different. We are not nearly as separate as we sometimes feel ourselves to be. Underneath our supposed differences we experience many similar emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams. The cosmic dance goes on in each and every one. It is the externals of appearance in behavior that divert our attention from the inner radiance and dynamic goodness within every being.”
Joyce Rupp
I feel sadness, anger, even rage, due to the insanity of political powers who are steeped in their own fears, hatred and insecurities, while continuing to believe the lie that violence will bring peace. Insanity. Man has proved for thousands of years that violence does not bring peace, whether that’s a fist fight on the school playground or dropping bombs on innocent people. It only increases our suffering. Insanity. I believe Joyce Rupp is spot on when she writes, “Underneath our supposed differences we experience many similar emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams.” We are more alike than different.
Our world seems quite insane at the moment. According to this report, in the past seven months an estimated 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza. They are also estimating about 52% of those killed have been women and children. Insanity. And, that my friends, is a lot of emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams that will never be fulfilled. How can we possibly believe there will be peace when that kind of thinking only brings more resentment, hatred and violence? Insanity. Meanwhile over in Ukraine, the death toll of Russian soldiers is estimated higher than 50,000. And, Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers. Insanity. According to the Geneva Academy more than 45 armed conflicts are currently taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Africa has more than 35 armed conflicts taking place. Asia has 19 armed conflicts. Europe has seven armed conflicts at this time. And, six armed conflicts are taking place in Latin America. All of this is Insanity at its highest level. When will it end? And, this insanity is alive and well within our country.
Well, what if we shower them (and all of creation) with kindness, hope and love instead of hatred, fear and bombs. And, what if we embraced a spirit of forgiveness. What if we embrace our innate courage to look at “the inner radiance and dynamic goodness within every being”, including ourselves, rather than outward appearances. What if we enter into an open dialogue with a focus on understanding one another? Are we willing to believe there can be change or are we to continue living with this insanity? I’m willing to believe we can make that change!
“We must, however, reflect on what is happening. It is an urgent matter, especially for those of us who still live in a meaningful, even a numinous, earth community. We have not spoken. Nor even have we seen clearly what is happening. The issue goes far beyond economics, or commerce, or poetics, or an evening of pleasantries as we look out over a scenic view. Something is happening beyond all this. We are losing splendid and intimate modes of divine presence. We are, perhaps, losing ourselves.”
Thomas Berry
As I began to write this post I became aware of how often I talk about going to the natural areas and the spiritual impact they have on me, as if nature is some distant place I must travel to. The reality is I live in nature, it is all around me, our city is built within nature. I too often fail to remember I live in nature, because I can easily get lost in the chaos of the city, overwhelmed by the buildings and noise we create. My thinking, and in many ways society, suggests we are to look elsewhere for those intimate modes of divine presence of nature. This shows a thinking of society’s separation from nature. I feel sadness, as well as anger, knowing that we are taking places of natural beauty, even if that’s a farmer’s land, and making it into a housing development, shopping mall or warehouse. We change the natural area into concrete, asphalt jungle that has almost no resemblance to its previous existence. I see where we are losing splendid and intimate modes of divine presence to the hands of investors for their financial gain rather than setting aside a farmer’s land as a natural sanctuary. I pray we, which also includes me, can change this way of thinking and believing. End of rant. Clouds have moved in and the wind has picked up as we await rain.
