My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.
William James
When I live my day with a positive attitude the day does go much better. Seems I have a better attitude when I start every day with quiet time, prayer and meditation. And, I must also add that I enjoy hanging around people who have a positive attitude rather than a negative attitude. When our attitude is selfish and self-centered then we’re not going to be a lovely person to be around. One of many reason I don’t hang around politicians.
Had to stop and take this photo because those rows are almost perfect. Shows the differences between natures idea of perfection and man’s idea of perfection. We are expecting snow today. I can already see it snowing in the higher foothills. Stay warm!
After quiet time I usually check my weather app. This morning it told me it was 55 degrees with cloudy skies and possible rain. It is very easy for me to tell myself there is no need to go to the natural area because the cloudy skies will not offer a good image and believe that lie. Glad I did not listen to what I think I think I know but ventured out anyway. I was given these lovely clouds for going. I also was able to experience the soft gentle call of an owl from the ridge behind me, listen to mallards squawking on the reservoir as they made gentle v-shaped waves on the water and saw a couple of bats darting above me. I knew I’d made a good choice.
I’ve been going up there for the past 18 months on a regular basis. It has become a part of my morning ritual. About six months ago I began to see a young lady who would come up maybe 4-5 times a week. She grabs a yoga mat then walks up Overlook Trail to greet the morning sunrise. We now wave to each other as we have become part of the natural area. This morning before she headed up the Overlook Trail I said good morning and let her know I could hear the owl somewhere on the ridge. Said she saw them yesterday morning and “who-hoo, who’d” back and forth with them. Yep, glad I didn’t listen to my thinking this morning.
“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else’s mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one’s own place and economy.
In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers…
Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else’s legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth – that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community – and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
Thomas Berry
Each morning our skies on the eastern horizon are filled with smoke. Air quality is poor and the color is repulsive. We do have a short period of time, 3-5 minutes when the sun is a bright orange orb through the smoke, but other than that it is disheartening. This was yesterday morning’s sunrise.
While driving along Weld County Road 13 this evening I encountered hundreds of Canada Geese in this massive cut corn field. As I crested this small hill many of them took to the air. I stopped and got off four shots before it was all over. I missed the best part. When you enlarge the image you can see hundreds more of the geese still on the ground. There are also three goose blinds made of bales of hay. So, I figure the farmer is making a few dollars from the hunters. It was also quite noisy when they lifted off.
Today was a lovely day, blue skies and sunshine. The wind began to blow this afternoon and you can see the clouds building up over the mountains. Always a good indication that something is in the air; snow tomorrow night. Have a great weekend!
“I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people’s politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true…”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It is Wednesday evening. We have had overcast skies throughout the day, metaphor for the feel of our country’s woundedness. The wind has picked up and will blow into Friday with gusts up to 70 mph. Another metaphor for our troubling times. Sometimes we live in our heads more than in the world and therefore what we think we think we know, just ain’t so. Time for all of us to stay planted in our shoes. It’s the only place we can live.
“Only the blindness of habit convinces us that we continue to live in the same place, that we see the same landscape.”
John O’Donohue
Had an early meeting at Pineridge Natural Area with God, a few magpies, low clouds on the eastern horizon, silence and a cup of coffee to keep my hands warm. I watched nature put on a beautiful show of colors that helped keep me warm in the 15 degree cold. As O’Donohue suggests as long as I do not stay in a place of the blindness of my habits the landscape will provide something new for me to experience, and that is a gift. I stayed until the sun rose above the clouds and my hands and feet were cold. Have a great day and stay warm.
